page_title: Technical diving
section_title: Decompression stops
hierarchical_section_title: Technical diving / Hazards and risk / Inability to ascend directly / Decompression stops
caption_attribution_description: with technical diving you have to do decompression stops to allow nitrogen in blood to disolve or else. this dive required four: 24, 14, 6, and 4.5 meters
context_page_description: Technical diving is scuba diving that exceeds the agency-specified limits of recreational diving for non-professional purposes. Technical diving may expose the diver to hazards beyond those normally associated with recreational diving, and to greater risk of serious injury or death. The risk may be reduced by appropriate skills, knowledge and experience, and by using suitable equipment and procedures. The skills may be developed through appropriate specialised training and experience. The equipment often involves breathing gases other than air or standard nitrox mixtures, and multiple gas sources.
  The term technical diving has been credited to Michael Menduno, who was editor of the diving magazine aquaCorps Journal. The concept and term, technical diving, are both relatively recent advents, although divers have been engaging in what is now commonly referred to as technical diving for decades.
context_section_description: A diver at the end of a long or deep dive may need to do decompression stops to avoid decompression sickness, also known as "the bends". Metabolically inert gases in the diver's breathing gas, such as nitrogen and helium, are absorbed into body tissues when breathed under high pressure, mainly during the deep phase of the dive. These dissolved gases must be released slowly from body tissues by controlling the ascent rate to restrict formation and growth of bubbles. This is usually done by pausing or "doing stops" at various depths during the ascent to the surface. Most technical divers breathe oxygen enriched breathing gas mixtures such as nitrox and pure oxygen during long duration decompression, as this increases the rate of inert gas elimination. Elimination of inert gases continues during the surface intervals (time spent on the surface between dives), which must be considered when planning subsequent dives. A decompression obligation is also referred to as a "soft", or "physiological" ceiling.
caption: Free floating decompression stop
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