Question CESA - Have You Ever Done It?

[dmaziuk]

What does it mean without a baseline, though?

In my couple of hundred Caribbean dives in and out of groups I have not been in an emergency that would require CESA. That's probably not the same as not needing to do CESA in 2,000+ dives.

 

[lowflyer]

Has anyone ever needed to do the CESA accent? I understand the importance of knowing how to do a CESA as an emergency maneuver but I have never witnessed it being done outside of Open Water (I have never seen the O2 masks fall from an airplane’s ceiling either, but in an emergency… )

Accent or ascent?

 

[happy-diver]

A most interesting piece I've read you should make a thread on it have you made a thread on it

Not a CESA, because I had no air to exhale on the way to the surface.
Negative entry, giant stride off a boat. Unknown to me, the tanks were shut off. On the way down, instead of turning the valve on, I loosened the yoke adapter.
When I hit sand, I unbuckled the harness and left BC and tanks there. Gave two kicks toward the surface, and waited. Dive buddy brought my gear to the boat, and I was ready to go again in a few minutes.

I would certainly like to hear more about such a busy occurrence

 

[happy-diver]

Type into your engine what you're after

who has done CESA scubaboard - Google Suche

and some alternatives

CESA scubaboard - Google Suche

cesa scuba diving scubaboard - Google Suche

Yes, please do make this question into a poll...great thread from 2008, it did not pop in our search last night for CESA question.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Well, I looked through the referenced link, and couldn’t find my post, so I must have missed that thread on CESA. Yes, I have done a CESA, when I was working for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on subtidal clam bed research. It was the second dive of the day, on my steel 2475 psi 80 cubic foot tank. So I began that dive with only about half a tank full of air. I was working on the dredge, and then some of the other divers were there to take over, so I backed off to take photos. I had already pulled my J-valve (this was 1975, before I routinely used a pressure gauge). Well, I still had film in my Nikonos II when I ran out of air. Rather than swimming to the surface, I swam over to the other divers, indicated I was out-of-air, and buddy breathed from one of them. I then backed off, and took a few more shots with the camera. I then returned, and buddy breathed one more time (three breaths), and again backed off and used up the rest of the roll of film. With that, I waved “Goodbye” to the divers, and commenced a CESA to the boat, some 35 feet above. I didn’t think of it as an emergency though, as the surface was only 35 feet away.

SeaRat

 

[Rilelen]

Not proud of it but we have a very shallow spring (Fanning) that’s five feet on average and twenty feet at the deepest part. I took a very low tank in (~ 500psi) just to check it out and went OOA at about 15’. Buddy was right there but it’s so shallow I opted to CESA instead, buddy followed me to the surface.

Not my smartest moment.

 

[Nemrod]

Yes. Many years ago, circa 1982 my wife and I were diving with a then well known outfit in Fort Lauderdale. The DM told me I had to carry the flag for my wife and I and then insisted we also acquire a new buddy and she was completely fresh. Whatever. So off we go, Dive, Dive, Dive. My wife and I get on the bottom, about 80 feet and commence drifting and our new buddy starts water walking with vigor up current. And the current was relatively strong. This meant I was constantly holding myself and the buoy against the current. I tried multiple time to get her attention and she just would not respond or stay with us or even make eye contact. After a while of this I noted I was at 1000 psi and again saw our new buddy no where near us and way up current so in preparation for surfacing together my wife and I began trying to close our distance with her. Then I took a breath and nothing was there. Tried again and nothing, hmmm. I was OOA!

So, now, let me explain further, we had no long hose, no octopus or secondaries as these things were not in universal use at the time, there was buddy breathing. I gave my wife the OOA signal and she came in a flash and handed me her regulator. We were at around 80 feet. I took a breath, handed it back, she cleared and took a few breaths. She signaled up and I agreed! She gave me her second stage and again I took a breath or two and handed it back. We were now at around 60 feet and yes, we were well within deco limits. I took her second again, took a few breaths and handed it back and signaled I was heading up. I casually went upward, exhaling as needed, even paused at 10 feet for a few seconds (recall that safety stops were another invention that was not yet universal). The DM was trying to give me some attitude once on the boat and that we could not do the next dive and I bluntly told him his new diver was not a diver and never should have been certified and she was henceforth his responsibility and that we would be doing the next dive without her. The captain kinda looked at us and him and went back to his duties.

 

[Bob DBF]

Way back when started diving, it was a usual occurrence when using a k valve, no spg, and I hadn't learned to time my air consumption, or learned to notice the change in breathing of my reg. It was no big deal as the ascent rate was 60'/min, so only 2 min from 120', and because the unbalanced reg gave a lot more air on the way up than a balanced. Even if the reg puked, a rare occurrence, within a minute of starting the ascent Boyles law is your friend. If you can't go a minute without air, I would start on that first.

I have had to do them rarely since, other than practice, without incident. As I normally dive solo, and somehow managed to get old, I now carry a pony on deep dives and when I'm going to do something particularly stupid.

A CESA is a Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent, the only thing that makes it an emergency is that one is out of air, otherwise it should be a normal ascent. Another handy fact is that a scuba ascent is 30 fpm, not to exceed 60 fpm, during an emergency I'd go with 60, and that's what the normal rate was when I learned and decades thereafter.

For a safe effective procedure that can literally save your life, I believe the training agencies have been remis in duty to properly teach this procedure. There is no way to tell how many divers have been harmed, or quit diving, because they went immediately to a buoyant ascent because of lack of training.

A buoyant ascent is the last on the list in the event of an emergency surface, and should be the last resort, not to be confused with a CESA, which it often is.

Running out of air should be an inconvenience, not a death sentence for recreational divers. The list of backups for ooa is longer now than when I started diving. More reliable equipment, SPG, alternate second, buddy, CESA, and buoyant ascent, not to mention an available BC.

 

[boulderjohn]

For a safe effective procedure that can literally save your life, I believe the training agencies have been remis in duty to properly teach this procedure. There is no way to tell how many divers have been harmed, or quit diving, because they went immediately to a buoyant ascent because of lack of training.

I have written many times that I believe the way CESA is taught in pool sessions leads students to believe that the skill will be nearly impossible to perform in real life, leading them to hold their breaths in a real OOA emergency, and a rapid, breath-holding ascent is what a joint/PADI study identified as the primary accident-related cause of death on scuba. In reality, as you and others have pointed out in this thread, a properly done CESA is not a big deal and should be easily accomplished in real life.

I knew an avid photographer who regularly took pictures in shallow water until he realized he was out of air. Someone asked him at what pressure he regularly began his final ascent, and he answered, "CESA."

Although I answered "no," I did have a CESA-like experience once. I was acting as the victim in a rescue diver class, pretending to be unconscious at about 25 feet. The student rescuer come upon me and straddled my tank. He grabbed my inflator hose, and I heard him absolutely jam down on the button to fill my wing with air. I immediately began to exhale for all I was worth as I headed up like a Polaris missile. I was still exhaling fully when I breached the surface.

 

[scubadada]

I have never run out of gas, even when using a J-valve with my steel 72. I simply can't imagine why or how you would run out of gas. I have been semi-witness to one out of air, the diver and boat were gone when I surfaced and I was picked up by another boat. I'm quite sure I will never practice a CESA.