Kevin R
Guest
When I recently completed a dive course, one of the skills that we needed to master was the 70' ascent. You don't need to be that deep to practice that skill but trying to master ascents and stops in 30' or less is difficult. I managed to get some time in with another diver completing a different course and he was having the same issues with the ascent & bottle rotation. Add to that the boating traffic at most shore sites in the Toronto-Barrie area, it was difficult to practice these skills without going back out to Kingston or Brockville. I agree that trim, buoyancy, technique, etc are best done in shallow water but there are times that deeper sites would be helpful.
You guys are looking at this all backwards. If you can master a 6 min ascent from 20' and hit your times perfectly every time then you can ascend from anything. You don't have to do 10' stops, do 3' stops instead and perform a skill at each stop to force your mind to monitor depth while task loaded. Break up your routines so you aren't becoming complacent. Ever tried to do a 3' depth change and take an entire minute to move the 3' without losing control of your buoyancy? It hard as hell, but if you can do it, you can do a 10' move without any problems. The second ata is the hardest place to maintain buoyancy so thats where you want to practice skills. Once you are past 60' buoyancy is easier and you lose training value. If you come out of the water after a training session and you think "that was easy, I'm good to go", then you didn't challenge yourself and you wasted a training dive. If you come out tired, frustrated and sweating, then you likely accomplished more than you think and the next time you attempt those skills you'll have an easier time because you are improving. It's no different than going to the gym.
Train hard, dive safer. End of hijack.