To ensure safety, deep dives should always be planned within what limits?

Planning deep dives within no-decompression limits is essential for ensuring diver safety. No-decompression limits (NDLs) are the depths and durations that divers can safely explore without needing mandatory decompression stops during ascent. Exceeding these limits increases the risk of decompression sickness, commonly known as "the bends," which can occur when a diver ascends too quickly after spending time at certain depths.

Diving within NDLs allows for a more straightforward ascent procedure, reducing the complexities that accompany deeper diving scenarios. It provides divers with a clear guideline to help minimize exposure to pressure-related risks and ensures that they can safely return to the surface without the need for extended decompression periods, which are required when divers exceed these limits and need to off-gas nitrogen absorbed during the dive.

While safety stop limits, maximum depth limits, and air supply limits are also crucial for planning dives, they do not directly address the cumulative nitrogen absorption that no-decompression limits do. Safety stops enhance safety during ascent but do not prevent the risk associated with exceeding decompression rules; maximum depth limits establish a ceiling on how deep one can go, and air supply limits focus on the amount of breathable gas available but do not dictate how long or deep a dive can occur without the