Best techniques for Open Water Descent & Ascent

[AfterDark]

I like to start desending feet 1st. for the 1st 10' then go horz. for the rest of the way.
I start equlizing my ears while I'm still vert and continue so as to stay ahead of the need.
Ascent I do vert a little negitve so I can slow down if I start to pick up speed and fin my way up doing occansional 360's looking up.

 

[*dave*]

Dave, what you say makes a great deal of sense for some, maybe many, situations, but where I work, I want even novice divers horizontal as soon as I can show them how. We have a lot of coral here, and I find that novice divers tend to break it on feet-first descents precisely because their situational awareness is still developing. They don't realize just how long their bodies are with fins added to the length, and they don't remember to look down enough to see if there's a big fan below them. On the other hand, we have great viz, mostly, so losing a buddy due to limited viz is unlikely (I imagine that this happens more in places where the water is murky, which are also places mainly devoid of coral). The upshot is that I teach divers to descend horizontally as soon as possible. Getting their weighting right for that is critical. This is just one more example of how our teaching has to mesh with the specific demands of the dive environment.

This is all great and I agree with all you are posting. I'm sure we feel much the same on the topic. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to teach trim via the internet.

I've described a method which is workable for a new diver. A new diver, who may be over weighted, diving positively or negatively buoyant fins, is likely diving a rig that is not optimized for horizontal trim, may or may not have a rear dump on their BCD and whose body positioning has not developed can manage a safe ascent, with a stop, using this method.

I teach and model horizontal trim in all my classes, but I don't see it working out so well on the internet. Weighting is a specific issue and was effectively addressed in previous posts. Horizontal ascents/descents can be impacted by a variety of issues, so telling a new diver (0-24 dives) to "descend like a skydiver" isn't very helpful if we aren't there to provide feedback when things don't work out. For all we know, he may have a BCD that traps air when horizontal and doesn't a have a bottom dump, which would complicate ascents.

As for the coral, stop taking divers that can't control their fins and buoyancy to places where they can do harm. They aren't making them(divers) any better these days.