CESA Training

[dmaziuk]

I'm a bit ambivalent about writing this, but here goes: During my Rescue Diver course (in Gillboa Quarry OH, c. 1992), I actually performed an impromptu CESA during training. The scenario: I was to "discover" a diver on the bottom (~20 ffw) who required "rescuing." I needed to make an assessment, when I reached the diver, as to what to do next.

20 feet as in 7 metres? That's in no-limit zone, without prior gas loading I wouldn't even worry too much about safe ascent rate.

 

[rx7diver]

Will think more about the repercussions, what could have been done in hindsight, etc., etc.. Which belongs in a separate thread.

Yes, several lessons learned. The one my instructor stressed is, if you're going to dive shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, you need to have the right gear--including the right cutting tools. The cable that the victim was "hopelessly entangled" in was a piece of cable that my dive knife couldn't cut.

Other lessons I thought about: Mark the spot with a lift bag or DSMB. (Tie it off before ascending.) Take a compass bearing upon reaching the surface. And most important: Whenever you adopt a new piece of gear (e.g., drysuit) make sure you investigate how your previous training, no matter how thorough, might not have prepared you for using it.

rx7diver

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Take a compass bearing upon reaching the surface.

Not to go further off topic (but I will), you mean take compass readings to two different objects so you can match that when you return. When I teach open water, I determine how much weight my students require to become neutral wearing just a dry suit. You certainly learned a fair bit. You had a good instructor.

Back to the scheduled programming.

 

[rx7diver]

20 feet as in 7 metres? That's in no-limit zone, without prior gas loading I wouldn't even worry too much about safe ascent rate.

It was a training dive. A "real" dive likely would have been deeper. And longer, maybe, before the victim was spied.

rx7diver

 

[dmaziuk]

It was a training dive. A "real" dive likely would have been deeper. And longer, maybe, before the victim was spied.

Yes, so do you think you'd've chosen a CESA if it were a "real" dive?

 

[rx7diver]

Yes, so do you think you'd've chosen a CESA if it were a "real" dive?

Depends. In post #36, above, I wrote about the simulated CESA training we went through in my open water certification course. I have always done my recreational diving very conservatively, using tables and staying well away from NDL. If I saw no other option for saving my poor "victim" than making a CESA, then maybe yes.

The first rule of rescue, though, is to not become a victim, yourself. So, ... it depends.

rx7diver

 

[scubaozy]

You are so wrong, you don't know what you are talking about at all.

Off course I am so wrong and have no idea what I am talking about. Now that you explained me why, I just can't believe my own ignorance.

 

[BoltSnap]

Off course I am so wrong and have no idea what I am talking about. Now that you explained me why, I just can't believe my own ignorance.

Why don't you start your own thread to discuss it (in the relevant spearfishing forum) instead of hijacking this CESA thread? Will be happy to contribute there.

 

[Celt]

Practicing or even perfecting a CESA in 20 feet of water is a complete waste of time if you plan on diving deeper. It must work for the deepest dive you plan on doing. For someone in clear open water and good conditions who never plans on going deeper than 30 or 40 it might be worth practicing in 20 feet but it really is the bottom of the barrel thinking it is a safe option.

 

[Celt]

2. When I surface-swam back out to the victim (after locating his exhaust bubbles on the surface), I, being in my drysuit, could not easily descend back down to him! I had been using a full HP 80 when I first "discovered" my victim, and the weight on my weight belt wasn't quite enough to initiate an easy descent! (Almost all of my diving up until then had been completed in a 1/4" Farmer John; I was still relatively new to drysuit diving at that time.)

I think the danger of a CESA is losing control and becoming buoyant which is always possible in any emergency especially when the aim is to get to the surface as quickly as possible. But well done on your decision to leave extra air with the victim as it buys time to organise a rescue.