Descent rate

[Meng_Tze]

I also do rapid free descents in currents to reach a wreck or something at depths over 150 ft. I will enter the water negative and swim straight down. Sometimes I will take a breath and exhale half of it and then not inhale for 30-40 feet to allow chest compression to aid in my descent rate. However, at no time am I sinking like a "mofo".

I think that a diver should not become so negative that they can not stop their descent at any point by simply swimming up. I have had times where I clear fine on the surface, but for some reason at 20 -25 feet my ears will completely lock up. In a situtation like this, if you can not stop your descent IMMEDIATELY you can easily damage your ears. Hitting the inflator at this point will NOT begin to stop a descent if you are very heavy and sinking; the inflator is just too slow if you are very heavy.

If I choose to, I can usually snorkel to a depth of 60 feet in less than 25 seconds and have no trouble clearing, but you never know when a tiny little piece of snot can ruin your whole day. Doing a very negatively bouyant descent without a descent line or wall to hold is dangerous.

We usually splash in 500 to 750 feet upstream of our target if the current is like 3 or more knots rather than being overweighted. If the depth is like 100, we might drop 300-350 feet upstream if the current is strong. Getting a "good drop" from the captain and perfecting a vertical descent seems safer than being too heavy.

Each to their own. (you selectively forgot to include a complete quote of my statement though that would indicate controled descent......):06:

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Each to their own. (you selectively forgot to include a complete quote of my statement though that would indicate controled descent......):06:

No, I think not. I read your orginal post as responding to the question of: can someone remain on the surface (with negative bouyancy and zero air in the BC) and stay there long enough to signal OK by kicking upward. Your response is along the lines of: no, you are too heavy to even signal ok for a moment at the surface and this is good.

Your post appears to be advocating entering the water in a very negative condition. I explained how and why this is unnecessary and in my opinion dangerous even for an experienced and competant diver.

I selected and quoted the most relevant portion of your post and did not attempt to take anything out of context. Maybe I read your post wrong?

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Wow ... I sure didn't intend to cause quite so much debate. Fun to watch however!

 

[Hoyden]

The drawback to "hot drops" became very apparent to me last week. We were descending quickly after doing surface checks. When I went to hit my inflator, nothing happened. My inflator hose had popped off. I am guessing that it happened when I dumped my wing on the surface to start descending. It worked on the surface and was not leaking. If we had not been descending next to a line, I would have been in trouble. As it was, I was able to grab the line, halt my descent and signal my buddy who helped me reattatch my hose. No big deal, but if I had not been within a kick of the line I am guessing that I would have at best silted up the bottom and maybe popped an ear drum. There is no way that I could have manually inflated fast enough to stop my descent and while I can swim up my rig from a stop, I don't think that I would have been able to do more than slow down a little. Fast descents carry risks.