Searched the archives, couldn’t find the answer…
Scuba diving on Friday, Day off on Saturday, sprint triathlon on Sunday?
Scuba dive would be recreational-caliber. Triathlete is Clyldesdale over 40, pretty good fitness.
Thanks for the help
Why would it not be safe, I mean unless you’re planning on wearing the tanks for the race or something… I have never heard of the caveats like there is with flying being applicable to sports.
Cerveloguy, who’s an Divemaster or instructor would be a good person to ask.
They don’t recommend physical exertion after you dive, but how soon that interval is I’m unsure. Personally, I’d be more comfortable with another 24 hours.
I’d contact Divers Alert Network…they’d have the best information.
Generally, you should be alright as long as you follow the proper dive schedules. DCS is an issue, but usually most prevalent within the first 24hrs after a dive. It’s always a good idea to err on the side of caution if in doubt when it comes to issues of health. I can attest from first-hand experience that DCS is no joke and can present from unusual circumstances. Know the signs/symptoms of DCS and get seen soon if they present.
You’ll be fine with the day of rest in between. Even with flying, 24 hrs is considered adequate rest time.
Without going into the physiology, the potential problem with exercise immediately after a dive, although rare, is that if you have nitrogen saturation it could actually trigger “the bends”. A lot would depend on the length/depth of the dive and if you had done multiple dives.
Enjoy the dive and the tri. You’ll be fine.
My two favourite hobbies.
US Navy Diving Medical Tech here. You will be just fine, unless of course you are pushing limits on your dive schedules and doing repets. I dive and run, bike and or swim after a dive. No problems yet. My wife may say other wise…
On your rest day, suck some green gas (O2), it will help!
this question came up in one of the summer issues of Triathlete and they said its not safe. here is a short explanation, its in the August issue…
The potential health risks stems from the extent to which your tissues become supersaturated with notrogen during a dive and whether this induces notrogen bubbles to form either as a resutl of pre-dive exercise or through exercise immmediately after a dive. When the body is exposed to decreased pressures, such a during a scuba diving acsent, the nitrogen dissolved in the body outgases(that is the nitrogen is filtered out by the lungs and exhaled). If nitrogen is forced to come out of sloution too quickly(as a result of rapid ascent or failure to make prescribed decompression stops), however, bubbles form in parts of the body, causing itching, rashes, joint pain, sensory system failure, paralysis and even death as the bubbles move into the left side of the heart and cause decompression sickness…You shouldnt dive within four hours of exercise to allow your body to cool down and rest before exposing your tissues to increased nitrogen levels. its unclear whether diving prior to an endurance event could affect race day performance.
After diving, when body tissues have taken up nitrogen, activities such as running, weight lifting or any other heavy exercise workload may exacerbate bubble formation. These bubbles, which may persist for between 2 and 5 hrs can grow loarge enough to block blood flow which in turn can cause localized oxygen starvation and trigger an immune system like response to attack the blockage…thats why the 4 hrs in between a dive and exercise.
P. 142 of the August issue.
They are recommending waiting four hours between diving and training. It’s actually pretty hard to violate that rule by the time that you deal with all of your gear and EAT 
I juggled trying to dive seriously and train/race for a year or so. The only problems that I ran into were with having the time and energy for both. Overall, I think that being fitter was a good thing from a deco perspective. Generally, I tried not to do hard workouts before a big dive and to run reasonably conservative profiles and take it easy on the O2 exposure the day before a race.
Single well executed rec dive … I would not worry at all. Nice slow ascent, play with the critters in the shallows for a bit … Probably the biggest thing is how much gear humping you are doing and whether that’s going to impact your race.
Cheers,
Miranda