[Observations on the diving tables used by athletes]

Only ten years ago, divers from the Fédération française d'études et de sport sous-marins followed the GERS (French Navy) tables. Today this technique, designed for military purposes, mainly observation dives, has been discarded spontaneously by many sports divers. They prefer using professional divers' tables, as described in a french ordinance of 1974. These tables permit physical activities at the bottom. In cave diving, it now often happens that divers use respiratory gas mixtures based on helium. During surfacing, oxygen is added according to a modified U.S. Navy method. Consequently, the physician has sometimes difficulty in making out the true cause of a diving incident or accident. Moreover, certain divers do successive dives following two different table procedures. Others undertake rapid surfacing according to the now obsolete procedure of half-depth. Hence, time is now pressing that we think about this problem, in order to specify more clearly the safety standards.