Why do I need RGBM?
If you have ever felt tired or fatigued after a long dive? This is a common complaint from divers using a traditional “dissolved gas” model. This is typically the result of an incorrect decompression.
Traditional models only deal with dissolved gas in your tissues. But there are two types of gas in your body: dissolved gas and free gas. Free gas, or micro bubbles, can grow and multiply on ascent and if not managed and accounted for can cause DCS problems. In simple cases this is the fatigue you feel after a dive; in more serious cases actual DCS.
RGBM manages both dissolved gas and free gas in the tissues and blood of a diver. It uses a balanced approach to create an ascent plan using deep stops to control bubble formation and growth by using pressure to “squeeze” gas out of bubbles while also managing the build up and elimination of dissolved gas. The result is a decompression schedule that starts deco deeper and gets you out of the water faster leaving you feeling better after your dive.
For recreational divers RGBM requires deep stops even on “no stop” dives and applies additional levels of conservatism to your no stop limits when you are diving multiple time per day, diving with short surface intervals, diving over multiple days, diving reverse profiles, working hard, diving in cold water, or ascending/descending more rapidly than recommended.
RGBM applies a dual-phase approach to decompressing divers and is well suited for:
- Multi-day, multi-level diving
- No-stop diving
- Decompression diving
- Mixed gas diving
- Saturation diving
- Altitude diving
RGBM more accurately predicts what is happening in a diver’s body and as a result creates a more effective decompression schedule.
Does RGBM work?
Yes it does! Developed by Dr. Bruce Wienke at Los Alamos National Laboratories, RGBM is the result of years of development and refinement. Recreational and technical divers from multiple agencies have tested it extensively over the past 14 years including NAUI, ANDI, and others.
The RGBM Data Bank at Los Alamos contains the results of thousands of dives under a variety of conditions that illustrate the safety of RGBM. NAUI Technical Diving has been using RGBM since 1998 logging some estimated 25,000 dives on mixed gases down to 300 feet.