Ascending on a line?

[Easdem]

Every Scuba Diver from any agency can perform a “free ascent” the question being, can every diver control his or her ascent without a visual reference (or gauges/computer). Don’t get me wrong, every diver SHOULD be able to do it, but reality is a different story. It takes a lot of practice to get ascents nailed perfectly… at 30 per minute or less, while maintaining neutral buoyancy with surge, current, bad vis, etc…I think the OP was concerned about doing that very thing.

Your average OW class doesn’t put enough emphasis and time practicing good form ascents, so I can see where a new diver would be concerned if the OW instructor didn’t spend enough time going over the proper techniques and the students death gripped the line on the way up.

The way to remedy that, it to go out and dive…and practice…
When I go out to the quarry on a practice/training dive, I make an effort to practice horizontal free ascents while focused on my computers (and buddy)… On a “not training/practice” fun dive, if there is an ascent line nearby, I will use it, that’s what it’s there for. I ascend to around 15fsw move away from the line where do my safety stop (conditions allowing). From there I free ascend as I have practiced…

I have never personally used an SMB, someone else always was the one to deploy it...For some reason, whenever one is deployed I am compeled to scream into my reg: auuuuuga,auuuuuga,auuuuuga. I would like to learn how to use one though…

 

[muddiver]

Everyone on the dive boats I tend to frequent here in SoCal have SMBs...

Ok, which boat is that?

 

[kanonfodr]

Like many others have stated, the use of an upline or SMB is very dependent on conditions. And while I find it super helpful to have the line there as a visual reference (or something to hang onto in heavy currents, if the boat is moored/anchored) it's not super necessary if conditions are pristine enough and your buddies are solid.

I can name a few instances where shooting the SMB has been very helpful to me:

on a drift dive where we became seperated from the main group and wanted the boat to know where we were

Got blown off the wreck and while we were kicking into the current on our ascent, the boat still knew where we were.

Got lost on the site and we were surfacing WAY away from the boat, they knew where we were.

Supporting a dive on a 180' deep wreck, did a drifting deco so we shot the bag to let the boat know where we were.

Are we noticing a common theme here??

BTW, that drifting deco from 180' featured 70+ visibility and we couldn't see the bottom where we met the bottom team at 70 to escort them up. Pretty cool, where everything is an amazing shade of blue and it looks like the entire team is floating through space. If I didn't reference myself to my teammates (and the line) I started getting a bit of vertigo. I certainly wouldn't try something like that in less than 40' viz without a line.

Peace,
Greg

 

[Rainer]

Ok, which boat is that?

Sea Bass, Yellow Boat, Marissa, Lois Ann, Island Diver, Spectre, Peace, etc.

Now, it *could* be a function of who shows up, but even on the open boats I jump on, most divers today seem to have a SMB.

 

[muddiver]

Sea Bass, Yellow Boat, Marissa, Lois Ann, Island Diver, Spectre, Peace, etc.

Now, it *could* be a function of who shows up, but even on the open boats I jump on, most divers today seem to have a SMB.

wait, are you refering to a Surface Marker Buoy or a safety sossage?

 

[Rainer]

wait, are you refering to a Surface Marker Buoy or a safety sossage?

What is a sossage?

 

[Blackwood]

What is a sossage?

One who is well versed in the use of SOS.

 

[muddiver]

Sausage

Surface Signal Device

Sorry for the misspelling, SB spellcheck will not work on an enterprise server.

 

[Blackwood]

Use a wreck reel to find the anchor line. I would not want to be a mile away from the boat when i surface. My priory in bad currents or bad vizs, is to always know how to find that anchor line.

It is a priority of mine too... when the boat is anchored or there are mooring lines, shotline, etc. - which is most of the time.

There are however situations where that is impractical or impossible. Diving oil rigs in 700+ feet of water, for example.

If you surface a mile away, someone made a huge mistake.

 

[xjeslesx]

You're not serious? Please tell me you're not serious!

String

You seem to be an intelligent person that is obviously smarter than everyone on here, so please enlighten us.

If you began your dive from an anchored boat, came into bad viz, are 70' deep, cannot locate the anchor line, and need to complete a safety stop how would you do it?

Free ascent and let the current take you a mile away? Possibly blow off your safety stop and risk getting bent. You are a really smart person so I'm sure you will have some great advise for everyone here.

Thanks in advance for all your brilliant knowledge you non-retarded person.