If your first dive is to 60 ft for 50 minutes and you spend 1 hour and 40 minutes on the surface, what is your adjusted maximum dive time at 60 ft?

To determine the adjusted maximum dive time at 60 feet after spending time on the surface, it is essential to consider the principles of dive tables and no-decompression limits. After completing a dive, the duration spent on the surface influences your no-decompression limits for subsequent dives due to nitrogen accumulation in your body.

In this scenario, the first dive lasted 50 minutes at 60 feet, which may have contributed to nitrogen absorption. The surface interval is crucial in allowing your body to off-gas the absorbed nitrogen. For a surface interval of 1 hour and 40 minutes, this time is clearly sufficient for the body to eliminate a significant amount of the nitrogen accumulated during the first dive.

When calculating the adjusted maximum dive time, divers typically refer to dive tables or computer programs that outline how surface intervals affect nitrogen saturation. In this case, the surface interval is likely to require a conservative approach due to the previous nitrogen loading at that depth and duration. Therefore, for a second dive to 60 feet, the adjusted maximum dive time would significantly decrease based on the nitrogen levels before the dive.

In this case, estimating with dive tables typically shows that after a 50-minute dive at 60 feet, and a considerable surface interval, the recommended adjustment leads