While reading different scuba forums I see tons of emphasis on ascending, ascent rates and safety stops. I fully know the importance of all of these things, the points being made on them almost make it sound like the type of diving I do is rare.
Do most people do some form of "square" profile dive where they descend to XX depth then return on a similar path or do most do a "contour" profile? By contour I mean descend in reasonably shallow water to XX depth and then work your way back up slowly back up while following the bottom.
While I understand I am just one type of diver, in my just over 200 dives I have only free ascended from any kind of depth a few times. On most of my dives I am still exploring things at 15' the only thing to do make sure not to go higher. Even from the safety stop I usually don't "surface" until I can stand up and keep my head out of water. My last dive lasted 85 minutes, 45 min was below 20' and the last 40 min was all above 20'.
Do most people do some form of "square" profile dive where they descend to XX depth then return on a similar path or do most do a "contour" profile? By contour I mean descend in reasonably shallow water to XX depth and then work your way back up slowly back up while following the bottom.
While I understand I am just one type of diver, in my just over 200 dives I have only free ascended from any kind of depth a few times. On most of my dives I am still exploring things at 15' the only thing to do make sure not to go higher. Even from the safety stop I usually don't "surface" until I can stand up and keep my head out of water. My last dive lasted 85 minutes, 45 min was below 20' and the last 40 min was all above 20'.