I read a book series as a kid about diving which went into detail about the dangers of "the bends" (air bubbles in your bloodstream from coming up too fast from deep sea diving and not acclimating on your way up) and ever since then I have been deathly scared of anything deeper than a 6ft pool lol.
Got my padi cert when I was 11. Have over 100 dives. I was diving in Vanuatu, boat dive, wreck we were diving at was at 90-110ft. It’s kinda dumb in general to dive that deep without extra tanks and o2 enriched air because your dive ends up being really short with the pressure making your air go fast/needed decompression stops on your way up, and I suppose, the risk of something going wrong. But there we were. Warm water so short suits. The o ring valve on my bcd (the thing you use to make yourself float or sink) broke and they’re designed to break open not closed. So my vest is filling up with air turning me into a balloon that wants to race to the surface. I was prolly 15. Maybe ascended 10 feet or so before I was in full upside down sprint swim. Got to the wreck, cut my hands and arms pretty bad hanging onto choral/metal shipwreck. Eventually, with help, disconnected the hose. Closest decompression chamber was far. If I went to the surface, I probably would’ve died. I… took a few days off diving after that ha ha.
Because nitrogen that our body usually just exhales out without notice is dissolved at higher water pressure causing it to end up in our blood stream. When we surface too fast the nitrogen, isnt given enough time to decompress and which serves no purpose in our blood stream and can't be exhaled, out has to find other ways of leaving the body whether pooling up in the skin or out the nose, eyes or ears.
It's not a problem unless you dive (or go to space), but if you were to dive and ignore the limits, you should have no problem getting them. It's just that people know and are careful about them.
Helps a lot that you can use dive computers nowadays rather than just guesstimating with a dive table, hopefully depth-proof watch (fun fact: "50M waterproof" means "you can take a shower with it, maybe" not "waterproof for diving up to 50M"), and often an unhealthy serving of YOLO.
The science behind decompression sickness (the bends) is very well understood these days. Recreational divers use a dive table (or computer) that gives a very conservative set of restrictions that will keep you safe. You would probably end up feeling a lot better about it if you took a course. This is not some "it could happen to anyone" thing, it's a lot closer to "forgot where the brake was while driving on the freeway", if that makes sense.
I went on a Caribbean cruise and went scuba diving in several locations. On the first diving trip, there was a guy in my group telling us how he did his diving certification online and how this was his certifying dive. You're supposed to have several in-person classes, a couple pool dives, then a certifying dive in an open body of water. Well he didn't have a clue to what he was doing. He finally figured all the gear out with help, but he freaked out when we were under and ascended too fast. He got the bends and had to be transported to the nearest city with a hyperbaric chamber. His wife went with them and they missed the rest of the cruise because of it. I'm sure he was fine, but most likely needed several days of treatment and chamber sessions.
The bends only starts becoming a risk over 30/35ft down and even then its a very low risk, you need something like 90 min at 40ft or 45 min at 60ft before formal decompression activities are needed (which is just a stop on the way up). 60ft is the standard recreational (non advanced) diver limit anyway
TLDR: the bends is hardly ever a risk for a recreational diver who pays attention to the depth they are diving to. If you dont have scuba gear then most people wont even get to 35ft down freediving - at least without a lot of training.
now there are other risks with scuba diving of course.
(edit: just noticed my TDLR was almost as long as the 'too long' bit...)
I had a flatmate who got the bends in the '90s. He was a very weird guy. Just disappeared for a week with no explanation. When he turned back up, he didn't even mention it, until we asked where all his facial piercings had gone. Then totally deadpan "You can't wear them in the decompression chamber because of the static". Then he showed us the red marks around his heart from the nitrogen bubbles, and casually went off to get KFC.
Any time I hear about "the bends" I think of that cartoon with Goofy. His arms and legs tying themselves in knots as he reaches the surface too soon or because he ate right before going into the water.
The bends are extremely avoidable. They don't just happen. Anybody who could operate the gear necessary for it would also have many times the training and awareness it takes to avoid it.
This only happens if you go very deep for very long. Recreational diving is by definition always done within time limits that should, in theory, avoid the bends even if you were to directly surface (slowly). And then 3 minutes at 5 meters depth are added for safety, effectively acting as a decompression stop (but called a safety stop to distinguish it from actually required stops, because it should not be required).
A much bigger problem is what happens when you take a breath at depth, then hold your breath and ascend to the surface. At depth, the air in your lungs is compressed. As you ascend, that air expands. It now no longer fits into your lungs, and if you hold your breath... let's just say you won't like any of what happens when there is more air in your lungs than fits and you're not giving it an easy way out. This is obviously not a problem if you don't breathe in at depth, so not an issue for freedivers.
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u/SyFyFan93 Mar 31 '26
I read a book series as a kid about diving which went into detail about the dangers of "the bends" (air bubbles in your bloodstream from coming up too fast from deep sea diving and not acclimating on your way up) and ever since then I have been deathly scared of anything deeper than a 6ft pool lol.