Decompression tables
Dive Tables, Decompression Tables or Tables are printed cards or booklets that allow divers to determine for a particular dive profile and breathing gas, the Decompression stops required for that dive in order to avoid decompression sickness.
With tables, it is assumed that the dive profile is a square dive, meaning that the diver descends to full depth immediately and stays at the same depth until resurfacing (approximating a rectangular line when drawn in a coordinate system where one axis is depth and the other is duration).
More complex tables can take into account staged dives, dives performed at altitude, and decompression dives.
Common decompression tables are:
Alternatives to traditional decompression tables are:
- the Dive computer - has the advantages of monitoring the actual dive, as opposed to the planned dive, and does not work on a "square profile" - it dynamically calculates the real profile.
- bespoke tables generated by decompression software - represent a diver's specific dive plan and breathing gas mixtures.
