Any Tips or Advice on Ascending??....

[Ari]

The ascent rate which is considered by the US navy to be safe, and thus recommended, in normal diving conditions is 30ft/min or around 9-10m/min.

If you have a computer it will help you by letting you know that you're going to fast. If not, just follow the small bubbles coming out of you second stage as you exhale. This should be safe enough.

Ari

 

[Uncle Pug]

Ari once bubbled...
If you have a computer it will help you by letting you know that you're going to fast.

If you use a computer it will tell you when you've already started ascending too fast..

and then you can sink back down and then ascend back up fast and then sink back down... and the up and down and up and down...

computers are not aids to proper ascent... the are yo-yo machines...

and of course {all together now}
Computers Rot Your Brain.

 

[The Iceni]

devilfish once bubbled...
scuba_junkie
Take your inflator, hold it as low as the hose will allow in a position that the open end points downward. Depress the the button. Of course in this low position air will not escape from the bc. While keeping the button depressed raise the inflator little at a time to the point where some bubbles will begin to escape.

I am getting there slowly but would appreciate if uncle pug could confirm if this is the way experienced divers such as he do it.

I was indeed originally taught to do it this way but found it just doesn't work for horizontal ascents, so I now simply vent a little on the way up from my pull dump if the ascent starts accellerating. In fact, as my dump in on my right shoulder, I now seldom touch the inflator hose at all during the ascent (unless of course I inadvertently dump too much and start to descend - much less often now!). This leaves my left hand quite free.

As for cuff dumps, my suit's autodump sorts out that part of the equasion for me.

Yes, I now consider monitoring the stuff six inches in front of my nose is the way to go. It tells me what I am doing, not like my computer which tells me what I have already done, and very rapidly leads to overcorrection. Even if they are only the smallest bubbles I believe there is always something small floating relatively motionless in the water right in front of your nose!

I am certtainly not brave enough or confident enough to close my eyes - that was a joke wasn't it uncle pug?

I would not want to develop bad habits, so comments please.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Dr Paul Thomas once bubbled...
I am getting there slowly but would appreciate if uncle pug could confirm if this is the way


I am certtainly not brave enough or confident enough to close my eyes - that was a joke wasn't it uncle pug?

Paul this is not the way I do it. I use my breathing to control my buoyancy shift on ascent... I breath off of rather full lungs on starting the ascent to the next stop and by the time I arrive at the stop I am breathing off of the bottom half of my lung capacity. At that point I have a few moments to adjust by suit and wing gas to get back to where I am breathing off of full lungs again. If this doesn't make sense ask and I will try to explain it better. The point is, I adjust my wing and suit at the stop not while enroute to the stop... at least this is the plan And yes I use the inflator dump so I can let out just a little at a time... but I do not hold on to it during ascent. You need both hands to wind up a spool.

And no... I was not joking... I do practice holding stops with my eyes closed but only in shallow water (the hardest) and when it really doesn' matter if I blow it (NDL dives.) The reason I do this is to be tuned in for that time when it really does count and I am holding a deco stop and get my mask kicked off. I want to be able to calmly hold the stop whilst I get out, don and clear my back-up mask. Makes good sense to me to practice this... and I have been able to hold +/- one foot for a minute.

 

[The Iceni]

Uncle Pug once bubbled...

Paul this is not the way I do it. I use my breathing to control my buoyancy shift on ascent... I breath off of rather full lungs on starting the ascent to the next stop and by the time I arrive at the stop I am breathing off of the bottom half of my lung capacity. At that point I have a few moments to adjust by suit and wing gas to get back to where I am breathing off of full lungs again. If this doesn't make sense ask and I will try to explain it better.

Yes, that makes sense. You must be really cool! I have trouble enough controlling my breathing rate, let alone lung volume but I am working on it.

but I do not hold on to it during ascent. You need both hands to wind up a spool.

Bit difficult to control a spool, reel or whatever (and to even glance at you depth guage) with one hand constantly on the inflator hose!

And no... I was not joking...

Wow!

 

[Uncle Pug]

Dr Paul Thomas once bubbled...
I have trouble enough controlling my breathing rate, let alone lung volume but I am working on it.

Paul this is not as difficult as it may sound...

You can actually practice this at home while typing on the computer

Take a large breath and instead of letting it all out just let a little out and breath in and out a small tidal volume leaving your lungs still somewhat inflated at all points during the beathing cycle.

Now let out all of the air in your lungs and take only a very small breath... with the same tidal exchange as above you are now breathing with your lungs only partially inflated.

These are the two extremes... in the water it is more subtle... it really doesn't take much to make up for a 10' ascent especially at deep depths... it will take a little more effort and attention at the shallower depths.

 

[The Iceni]

Uncle Pug once bubbled...
Paul this is not as difficult as it may sound...

I was gilding the lilly, uncle pug!

It seems we now have two schools of thought.

I guesstimate that I have a litre - or less - of air in my wing at the end of a dive where I have not used all the gas in my twinset; - neutral bouyancy being accurately calculated for about 50 bar and half full ponies.

From, say 40 metres to a first stop at 9 metres there is a pressure change form 5 bar to 1.9 bar. Thus the wing gas volume increases during that ascent by a factor of 5/1.9 =2.6. Thus there is 2.6 - 1 or 1.6 more litres in it, or a 1.6 Kg increase in bouyancy. So, yes, I entirely agree it is quite possible to compensate for this by effective reduction of the end expiratory volume during that part of the ascent - with practice! I will practice, practice and may even practice some more and promise I will continue to leave the vent alone until I reach stop depth!ut:

We now arrive at the stop and I need to readjust wing bouyancy for a comfortably full lung. As I said earlier, I find it quite a fiddle to release the inflator hose from its clip to use as my primary dump, open the valve, lift it to vent (above the shoulder in the horizontal attitude), and then replace it on its clip. More often than not I end up leaving it waving in the breeze with those annoying bits dangling on the end.:upset:

As I have said above, unlike many wings mine does not have a cord-controlled dump in the inflator hose on the left shoulder. The cord controlled vent is located on the right shoulder, the toggle for which is very conveniently located adjacent to the right shoulder clip on my harness.

So for the last ten or so dives, instead of fiddling with that annoying inflator hose release, I have used my left hand to actuate the right sided toggle with care to slowly dump a little of the air from my wing until I regain neutral bouyancy with my lungs at a comfortable resting end-expiratory volume (The physiological Functional Residual Capacity).

This means at neutral bouyancy my wing once more contains 1 litre of gas at an ambient pressure of 1.9 bar and even if I do not vent any more from it at subsequent stops, the doubling of its bouyancy from 1.9 metres all the way from 9 mtres to the surface (1.9/1) is only 1 Kg, which I agree can easily be controlled by further conscious adjustment of end-expiratory volume.

I suppose this all comes down to the fact that my Buddy wing has a quick release clip for the inflator hose to keep it in the golden triangle for easy access, regardless of attitude. (Quick release it may be but it is often a two-handed job to put it back!). And it has that dump valve sitting there very temptingly on the right.

I suspect you would suggest that I have now developed bad habits since there is less fine control of a pull dump than when using the hose vent, with a tendency to dump too much but it does seem to work very well and is much quicker.

Maybe this time next year I will be able to do it with my eyes closed and can think about extending the range of my diving a little more.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Dr Paul Thomas once bubbled...
Maybe this time next year I will be able to do it with my eyes closed and can think about extending the range of my diving a little more.

Paul, I don't do ascents with my eyes closed... I practice staying put with them closed... however Shane and I do practice one buddy maskless ascents... where the other buddy has to control both of your stops, ascents and gas switch.

BTW... for what it is worth... the Halcyon wing has a short inflator hose that is held down with a bungee loop... nothing to undo... you just raise it a little (while still in a horizontal position) and dump a little. Perhaps your hose could be arrainge this way too... or maybe even changed out for a shorter one.

 

[The Iceni]

Must be really great to have a regular reliable buddy.

Is it stressful like a marriage or a business partnership?
:boxing: :1st:

Thanks for the tips!