Ascent rate monitoring using air bubbles?

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Not sure it has "worked for years". Where does the most decompression take place? The last 15 feet. Where is the bubbles ascent rate the fastest? The last 15 feet. :(

It has worked (and still does), they key is to remain slower than the smallest bubbles.

The problem is that many recreational divers did not (do not) pay close enough attention, and ascend faster than recommended "safe" rates.

Admission time: I still uses bubbles as a reference on almost every dive, along with suspended particles in the water, along with other visual references, along with my computer, along with my dive watch.... they are all just references.

Just go slow :D
 
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...I'm a solo diver. Always have been, always will be, and the only thing I fear under water is another diver. I am my own best redundancy. No gadget, nor ill-trained amateur buddy is going to be my insurance for a safe return.. Neither is the dive tender who may or may not be paying attention (was that three pulls or four??) It's all up to me and me alone. Dive safe. It's your life.

The phrase in red above is so true! :eek:k:
 
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Your question is at best hypothetical. If you really plan a dive at night, under ice, by yourself this way, God be with you! I have been a professional diver and gone to places some people would not dangle their feet in, let alone dive in (like sewer outfalls) zero vis, even with lights - and let me tell you, your plan of going down solo, at night, in an overhead environment only with a rope tied around your waist is asking for trouble. At least they'll be able to retrieve your body easily. First of all, you would have a stationary down line (weighted, with a strobe attached) to help you ascend safely, if your computer failed. (I'd even insist on a spare tank and regs attached to the downline, with yet another strobe). Secondly, You'd put fresh batteries in your computer no matter what, and carry a set of analog (mechanical) gages, just in case - I don't trust anything with batteries. Thirdly, in my line of work we were required to have a stand-by diver, fully dressed-in on deck if we dove in an overhead enviornment alone. I'm a solo diver. Always have been, always will be, and the only thing I fear under water is another diver. I am my own best redundancy. No gadget, nor ill-trained amateur buddy is going to be my insurance for a safe return. Neither is the dive tender who may or may not be paying attention (was that three pulls or four??) It's all up to me and me alone. Dive safe. It's your life.

I agree 100%. The more you have to depend on your equipment the more you open yourself up to greater risk. The dive shop peoples solution to inserting yourself in riskier situations is to sell you more and more equipment. The people teaching you to do these things are also the ones selling you the equipment. Your instructor makes FAR more money as a commissioned sales person then a teacher. I never make any kind of penetration dive on scuba. For the most part I do not even use scuba below 60 feet. As for solo diving in 40 years, 10 of those as a commercial diver, I have only dove with 5 people and 3 of them I only dove with once. Rule one as far as I am concerned is "If you panic you die". Rule two "If you panic in pairs you die in pairs".
 
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I started diving without a computer for 8 years and always used bubbles for assent. I will admit that sometimes it was to fast. In the stated situation I would make myself negative which would make the rope attached to me negative as well and then do a hand over hand assent nice and slow. Assuming which you should not do but assuming that I could communicate my intentions with my surface support.
 
Would anyone want to comment on the use of an analog gauge. Some of the new compact gauges have makings that are very close together at the shallower depths. Doesn't that make it much harder for a new diver to judge their ascent rate?
 
Maybe I missed it but there was no mention of the size of the bubbles you are following. I was told if you use this method to ascend at the rate of the smallest bubbles and break them up as they expand creating smaller bubbles as you go up.
 
Some comments on bubble shape would be welcome too. Droplets? Spheres? Mushroom cloud?

I have to ask a rather a point blank quesiton......... why would anyone be diving at night under ice and by yourself?

Seems very odd to me and I for one would not be doing it!!

I really think you might have a death wish !!!!
 
It is the smallest visible bubble. I was taught to go slower than that, but was corrected eight years ago while taking a NOAA course, that the bubble in question rises faster than the maximum rate of 60 feet per minute, with the recommended rate being 30 feet per minute. I would hazard to say that if you were not diving to the extremes of a repetitive dive planner, taking cold and arduous into factor, you could probably survive. Obviously this raises the risk significantly of dcs and should never be a best practice, but in your scenario you have removed all other possibilities leaving bubbles as your only alternative.
 

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