CESA Training

[boulderjohn]

You might like to review this video of the US Navy training.

 

[Blackcrusader]

I got trained to deep diving but my personnality makes that I always prefer to wear both a belt and suspenders when doing risky activities . Diving to 40 m is my limit but I can carefully plan it and I haven't discerned the effects of narcosis ( never stayed more than 3 minutes) even if it is there. 30 meters is pretty much reached in all my dives, not for the hubris or the love of the deep but because I will do a liveaboard in Thailand in March and I need to have at least 10 dives below 30 meters.

Would be better if you are Nitrox certified as well. Dody there are concerns one should have with going on a liveabord during a pandemic. So you think Quarantine in the Maldives is nice? Think again!

Also there are other ways to do an emergency ascent in an OOA situation that is not CESA. It was taught to me by my instructor who was also in charge of commercial diving on oil rigs. It's it something to understand and not taught. Then again I don't see many instructors teaching students how to deal with vomiting underwater which can happen.

Some of the people on this forum will know what I am talking about when it comes to using another option to survive an extreme emergency for OOA with no buddy nearby to assist or so you can get to that buddy. I keep my BCD bladder clean and would rather risk a lung infection which can be cured than drowning when I could self rescue.

 

[Dusty123]

I dont think learning to CESA from 20m or 30m is good logic for a backup plan to save your butt especially when you plan to dive to 40m. If you want redundancy get a pony or get on a path to doubles. Dont worry what people on the boat think. I took a rebreather and two AL 80’s out on a 50ft reef drift with a group of single tank divers for practice. Ended up handing one off to a newly certified diver that was close to out of air, no more jokes after that...

 

[Blackcrusader]

I don't think learning to CESA from 20m or 30m is good logic for a backup plan to save your butt especially when you plan to dive to 40m. If you want redundancy get a pony or get on a path to doubles. Don't worry what people on the boat think. I took a rebreather and two AL 80’s out on a 50ft reef drift with a group of single tank divers for practice. Ended up handing one off to a newly certified diver that was close to out of air, no more jokes after that...

I've shared air to newly certified divers and they wonder why one of the largest persons on the boat uses far less air. A lot of people who have never dived with me crack jokes about not wanting to buddy up in case I have a very short dive time. Little do they know.

Dody wants to understand about CESA being practical or not and when to use it. That's fine. So is him deciding on to bring a pony bottle on some dives as a reserve. Always a good thing even though I do not do it on recreational dives.

 

[TMHeimer]

I am in the camp that if you have experience and are comfortable in the water I see no reason not to practice a CESA under controlled circumstances if you choose to do so. It is a skill that is worth having and attempting it under ideal conditions is a much better alternative to doing it for the first time when the unexpected happens.

If I were to do this I would start shallow, do it at the beginning of a dive or at least when far from my NDL and make sure my buddy is on board with the plan. And no more dives that day. So it would pretty much be a dive day just to practice skills.

Agree. As well when you think about it, what are the differences between a CESA and normal ascent? You exhale all the way up instead of normally breathing from the reg. You make the "ah..." sound to be sure your airway is open (we know that is really unnecessary, but a good thing to be sure it's open). In both situations you make sure you don't exceed a safe ascent rate.
One wouldn't suggest never practicing a normal ascent......

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

@Dody

I'm not going OT here, but I think of priorities. First, are you properly weighted? Second, if yes, how do you define being properly weighted? Not being pedantic here. Where I am going here is that I'd rather have a diver focusing on getting properly weighted before working on a CESA. The reason being is that additional change in buoyancy from the extra gas required to keep you neutrally buoyant.

 

[shoredivr]

I agree. I will most probably never dive with a closed or half closed valve. Gas management is my middle name watching my instruments probably too often. I don't exceed 40 m. I never dive solo and abort dives when my buddy tends not to stay close but... Equipment failures happen. I have read that no equipment has ever caused a rec diver death, that it is always a training issue but I am not convinced. I have also read that a reg will always fail open and will free flow but I am not convinced either. And when I tell more experienced diver that I want to buy a pony with an independant reg, they laugh at me and say that I am not a tech diver. My Instructor told me that in other 10 000 dives, he never had any OOA ... but his life line equipment is 4 times more expensive than mine

Buy the redundant tank, reg and SPG. I dive in the cold Great Lakes, and having a redundant supply of gas is a good thing. Cold water free flows can happen. Lots of recreational cold water divers here use a redundant tank. Who cares what others think.

Having a redundant tank that is side slung is good, you can see the reg and SPG easily. Practice depolying the reg and breathing from it, so it’s comfortable to use.

 

[Neilwood]

Quite a number of instructors over here have ponies (normally about 3l) attached to their main tanks with a bracket as per link.

I personally would rather not have to do a CESA despite having been trained by PADI to do so - they are inherently dangerous but better than the alternative - as per the oft quoted statement "you can fix a bend but you can't fix dead".

If you feel you want or need the spare gas available then take a pony (even a small one such as 3l will give you a better chance than no pony) - even breathing hard on a 30m dive it will get you a hell of a lot closer to the surface than you otherwise would have been).

 

[Julius SCHMIDT]

I would love to hear a real answer one day as to why this cesa thing even exists and it would be such a relief if this thread didn't

 

[Dody]

@Dody

I'm not going OT here, but I think of priorities. First, are you properly weighted? Second, if yes, how do you define being properly weighted? Not being pedantic here. Where I am going here is that I'd rather have a diver focusing on getting properly weighted before working on a CESA. The reason being is that additional change in buoyancy from the extra gas required to keep you neutrally buoyant.

I think that I am. I always do weight check at the surface. I dive with 4kg. Sometimes, I even feel that I should take 5 because I can't go down very fast without exhaling but I'd rather be slightly underweighted than slightly overweighted. It is better for my buoyancy control.