scottsax wrote:Are there books or manuals or software programs that I can look at to give me a better understanding of deco theory? I'm not where I want to be, skills-wise, to pursue that kind of diving, but it seems to me that understanding deco better can only help me with the diving I'm doing now, right?
Anybody doing serious amounts of diving -technical or otherwise - should read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Bennett-Elliotts- ... 0702025712 It's "Bennett and Elliott", for short, or, in other words, the basic textbook if you're headed down the path to a specialty certification as a hyperbaric physician.
Deep reading, lots of math, a little history, and definitely geared more toward the commercial diving spectrum, but absolutely incredible as to the detail and depth of what's contained. It's not a light read, and you will definitely have to work out things with pencil and paper over many long hours. It is dense - having at least some college level biology, biochem, physiology, and anatomy classes would be highly advantageous in getting through it, too.
Frankly, after reading that, I've been so abysmally (pun intended) disappointed with most of the "tec" agency books on 'mix, deco theory, etc. They're so watered down in comparison that it's a shame. Sure, they'll keep you alive and "safe," but you don't really come away from them with any real idea of what's happening in your body, like you will from the textbook.
The other outstanding one is Bove and Davis, "Diving Medicine" (
http://www.amazon.com/Diving-Medicine-A ... 0721694241). Same league as Bennett and Elliott, and a good bit of duplication, although Bove is more about treatment and the clinical side of hyperbaric medicine than the theory that's in Bennett.
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