Ascents while practicing shooting bags

[dsteding]

I am diving a shallow (<35 feet) dive site this afternoon with a longish (100 yards) surface swim to get to 15 feet of water. Usually, we surface swim out a ways, drop down, dive the site down to about 30-35 feet, then turn and work our way back up slope, and surface in the shallows to avoid the end of dive surface swim.

Here is the question:

I want to practice shooting my SMB this afternoon, the best place to do so is out in the middle of the dive at about 35 feet. I'd like to work on ascents as well, so I'd want to do a nice, slow ascent with appropriate stops.

Given the dive site, I see a few options, what I'm interested in is whether any one of them would be preferable in terms of dive profiles:

1) Modify the dive plan to shoot the bag out in 35 feet of water at the end of the dive, surface, then do a long surface swim.

2) Shoot the bag at what would be the middle of the dive, then drop back down and finish the dive.

3) Surface swim further out, drop down, do our skills regarding the bag work then finish the dive.

For what it is worth, the total dive time will probably be an hour or so on EAN 32 . . . average depth is, shallow, usually 20-25 feet.

Any thoughts on which of the above would be the prefered approach, and, more importantly, the reasoning behind your choice? My concern is doing a yo-yo profile, I'd do slow ascents regardless, and my thoughts are that this isn't that big of a deal because of the shallow nature of the dive, but I wanted feedback on that.

-Doug

 

[Ben_ca]

If you are using the 3 ft DSMB just shoot if whenever you want and then just pull if down... provided that's all you wanted (bag shoot practice)

 

[fire_diver]

You could shoot the bag at the end of the dive, then tow it and reel in the line as you swim back up the slope.

But I like the idea (since this is practice) of only putting a little air in, then pulling it back down. You could practice deployments over and over in a single dive.

FD

 

[dsteding]

You could shoot the bag at the end of the dive, then tow it and reel in the line as you swim back up the slope.

But I like the idea (since this is practice) of only putting a little air in, then pulling it back down. You could practice deployments over and over in a single dive.

FD

Yeah, both good ideas. I'll work on putting just a little air in the bag and pulling it back down.

 

[lundysd]

Doug,

I've been shooting my bag in 35 feet and just reeling it in with me as I go. This also gives practice with handling the line and the spool, since you're taking up line as you go.

 

[Ben_ca]

Believe me you can pull it down quite easily... even with it half full (Remember your ATA's) especially if you are in doubles

 

[fire_diver]

I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't done something similar myself. I found myself without my dive flag/float on a trip, so I rented one from the scuba shop. It was smaller than my own, but I didn't think about that. I deployed the float, then vented my bc. when I reached my desired depth of 25 feet, I locked off the reel. Before I got myself nuetral, I felt the thermocline passing. I looked up, and there was my flag, straight above me and about 10 feet underwater. That's what I get for trying to use the float to aid my bouyancy. Yes, I was a little bit over wieghted. I still wonder what the watching boaters thought.... diver goes down, flag goes out, FLAG GOES DOWN? flag comes back up, flag goes farther out.

Ahhh, the good times of being an inexperienced diver.

FD

 

[TSandM]

I've dealt with this two ways: One, dedicate the dive to skills, stay shallow, and accept that, just like in pool work, you're going to have some up and down.

Two, don't shoot bags at Edmonds It's really not the best skills practice site. Cove 2 is much better because the topography lends itself to doing ascent drills without committing you to much surface swimming.

And when do you want to go practice this stuff?

 

[lundysd]

I'll practice it whenever you want to Lynne -- I need lotsa work

 

[ShakaZulu]

The first time I tried this, my octo got caught in the triangle below the SMB. Luckily
I had two buddies with me. I would practise this at 5ft, if you can do it without being pulled to the surface, I will personally deliver my ex-wife, her dog and my grandma to your doorstep.