All throughout history, man has been diving. The history of scuba diving tables comes with the invention of the ability to breathe off of a dive bell using compressed air. Along with this invention came the knowledge that compressed air has an impact on our human bodies. These effects on our bodies were very much overlooked until the United States needed to find a way to keep Navy Divers safer after surfacing from a dive.

The Scuba Diving tables were formed by a lengthy trial and error process. When a diver would stay at depth for too long, then they knew that a shorter time was needed. With the invention of Doppler Radar, the same type of radar that forecasts your weather, they found that after diving, your body carries with you tiny micro bubbles that were unable to be off-gassed from simple respiration. With all of these factors in mind, the 3-tabled US Navy Dive Tables were born.

Even to this day, the US Navy Dive Tables are an imperfect science due to so many outlying conditions, both environmental and personal. Age, weight, smoking, alcohol consumption, and caffine intake are just some of those factors that will increase your risk of decompression sickness.

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