Deco Terminology - call for discussion

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Wed, 2014-02-12 at 18:29 +0000, Pedro Neves wrote:
> Hi all:
> 
> While on the process of helping Willem (and all the others) with the
> Subsurface manual, I keep wondering if we should change the
> terminology that refers to "no-deco" dives (and NDL, etc.).
> 
> I Personally hate the fact that people (and books) refer to some dives
> as “no decompressions dives” when in reality they should be called
> “minimum decompression dives”. 
> Technically speaking, decompression is a reduction in ambient
> pression, which occurs at the end of every single dive. 
> 
> To me, the difference between dives is that some dictate that only a
> “minimum deco” (ascent rate in the region of 3 to 10 m/min and a
> “safety stop”) and others dictate one or more “decompression stops”.
> Reffering to minimum deco dives as no-deco dives helps, in my
> oppinion, to perpetuate the notion that decompression is a somewhat
> "obscure" and "esoteric" thing that matters only to experienced or
> "technical" divers and that it's relevant only on some of out dives.

Well, the industry appears to move to "no-stop" instead of "no-deco" as
terminology for dives that don't require deco stops (as others have
pointed out) and I am fine with adjusting our language towards that.

NDL (which could stand for "no-stop dive limit" :-) ) appears to be a
reasonably common term - I'll be willing to move to a better term if
someone comes up with one, but until then I think we should stick with
NDL.

/D