lamont
Contributor
Rick Murchison:There have been a couple of threads on the CESA lately, with several folks declaring it an unnecessary skill, because with "proper" diving skills you'd never need it.
Here are just two of many examples (I ain't pickin' on you two; y'all just said it clearer and in fewer words than the others)
It seems many folks feel the only reason anyone would want to do a CESA is in an out-of-gas situation, and since any good diver will never, ever be in that situation then the CESA is not a necessary skill.
I'd like to revisit that.
What is a "Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent" and what are some of the reasons we might want to do one? The CESA is simply the means to make an emergency ascent to the surface. Are there reasons we might want to do that other than being low on, or out of gas? I say "Absolutely!"
Because there are reasons other than "gas planning and buddy skills" that might lead to the CESA decision, the ability to do a safe CESA in the face of great stress, pain or distress or injury is an essential skill for all Scuba Divers.
What are some of those reasons?
1. CVA. A cardio-vascular accident - a survivable heart attack, stroke, etc often leaves little time for decision-making and action before complete disability to do anything useful, like informing a buddy you're in distress. An immediate CESA could give you a chance to avoid certain drowning, and to get to help on the boat in time to save your life. Every second counts.
2. Bleeding. A severe cut or bite can start the blood-loss clock; your ability to do anything may be short lived and a CESA while you can do something can once again get you to a more survivable environment.
3. Severe pain. Whether it be some internal source (sudden burst appendix or ovarian cyst or kidney stone etc) or from injury (poisonous spine, sea wasp etc), once again, pain of this magnitude may severely limit your time of useful consciousness; time to topside help is of the essence and a CESA may be your best choice.
4. Impending panic. It is far, far better to do a CESA while still in control than to allow panic to take over and do a UPA ("Uncontrolled Panicked Ascent"). Indeed, just knowing you have the option and are competent at the CESA can go a long way in keeping under controll in the first place.
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The CESA should remain in the syllabus at the entry level; the ability to conduct a safe, rapid emergency ascent without danger of an overexpansion injury should be ingrained to the point of "automatic" in every Scuba Diver, even those who will never, ever run out of air. IOW, I think the CESA is as important in a Scuba Diver's "tool kit" as a wrench is to a mechanic.
Rick
Rick, I have never written the words "CESA should not be taught" for a reason.
And there's one really good golden reason to learn how to do it, which is that if you are underweighted and you suck your tank down to the point where you can't stay neutral and you shoot to the surface uncontrollably, you better keep your airway open on the way up. I know that I had that happen to me sometime around dive #50 and I wouldn't be here if I didn't know to exhale on the way up.
The way that CESA is currently taught, though, is in response to running out of air. That is completely back-asswards in my viewpoint since the students should be given the skills to manage their gas and stick together so that gas situations don't get to that point. But instead you read incident reports here on scubaboard of "i was at 80 fsw and gave the DM the LOA sign when I hit 500 psi and he just swam off" and the response by some posters is to want to "practice the CESA skill" instead of knowing that you should have at least around 1100 psi of gas left in an Al80 at 80 fsw.
Its also not a very difficult skill, the one time I was called on to exhale on an uncontrolled ballistic ascent I pulled it off fine after only having had the one pool and one OW practice back in my OW class. I don't understand where the desire comes to want to 'practice' something that seems like it should be completely obvious to any certified OW diver.
Meanwhile, all the cases that you cite should be extreme edge conditions. Panic you can deal with by teaching the panic cycle and how to break it and building up experience progressively. Things like CVAs aren't worth thinking about enough to worry about "practicing a CESA" if you are experiencing a CVA -- any such maneuver is a hail mary into the endzone -- you can score a perfect 10.0 from the judges on your CESA and you'll still probably wind up drowned and dead from the CVA.
So, yes divers need to be taught about CESAs. But the major utility of that skill in the ideal world would be the underweighted diver or the weight belt which slips off during the dive. Every OW diver necessarily needs to know how to ascend to the surface on a uncontrolled buoyant ascent without dying in the process. But I don't understand how a sane, thinking certified OW diver can look at their own gas mangement problems and leap to the conclusion that what they really need to do is practice CESAs. Either get a better buddy or even get a pony bottle.
My statement "Gas Planning, Buddy Skills and S-drills can really eliminate the need to ever do a CESA" should be taken *strictly* in the context of the OP in that thread who wanted to practice CESA skills because he was worried about running out of gas. That is really an idiotic response to being afraid of running out of gas since it doesn't solve the underlying problem before it ever gets started and is the wrong end of the equation to be focusing on 'skills practice'. That is what I was responding to. Not to the idea that it should never be taught. It should be taught as a skill to use on a buoyant ascent (and any of the hail mary corner cases you mention, although I doubt I'd recommend teaching those cases to OW students). What is particularly sad is that in OW courses gas management consists of "be back on the boat with 500 psi" and CESA. That is just screwed up in my opinion, sorry.
