The Iceni
Medical Moderator
With respect Uncle Pug, you have completely missed the point I was making, but I have no wish to labour the point. I thought it important to describe my feelings as a newish dry suit diver, as an old dog learning new tricks.
I think the whole of this thread is one exmple of a feature so common in diving circles, experienced divers do most things as automatic routine, as they should to reduce task loading and forget just how difficult it genuinely was to learn the skill of good bouyancy control.
Once a skill such as walking or riding a bicycle has been learned it is coordinated by the cerebellum, which is the part of the brain specifically tasked with such "routine" functions. This leaves the cerebrum, the thinking conscious part of the brain, to handle intellectual fuctions (such as running the deco profile) and to teach the cerebellum new skills.
Walking is so easy but just think how difficult is is to learn to walk again after a long period of immobility. At the age of seven I sufferd severe fractures to my right leg and was in a cast for nearly two months. I can tell you it was extremely difficult to learn to walk again. My cerebellum had to be reprogrammed because it had forgotten how, and wasted muscles had to be strengthened.
Do I detect a certain amount of censure and perhaps sarcasm in your replies, Uncle Pug? I hope not as I am sure such is beneath you.
For info, yesterday I did a couple of dives in the North sea and on both occassions I ascented in the horizontal attitude, and must say it has much to commend it. I was certainly much more comfortable and relaxed in the horizontal attitude because, surprise surprise, that is the "neutral position";- how I have now trimmed my weight and bouyancy for comfort at depth (as I described above and Rick has touched upon. Getting the centre of gravity and centre of lift as close to each other by the use of ankle weights, in my case). In the past, when learning to control my ascents, I would not have felt safe or comfortable to even attempt this, because of the well known risk of an inverted bouyant ascent and the considerable amount of potential excess boyancy in my suit (36 Kgs from 30 meters!) which could have been trapped in the legs and those rapid pressure changes close to the surcace.
You could not have performed a safe horizontal ascent on your very first dry suit dive and I estimate it has taken me at least 30 dives (or maybe even more) to master, simply because of all that variable bouyancy I have to carry in order to compensate for my heavy 300 bar twin 10s and the 6 Kg of gas which is gradually disposed of during the dive, plus all that air in my undersuit.
Sheck33 said
I doubt she was using heavy twin 300 bars 10s. There is a world of difference!
Uncle Pug, You are right to be be proud to be able to ascend at a "millenial crawl" in the horizontal attitude as I am, but it is a skill that has to be learned and there is only one way to learn it, the hard way and the diver has to configure his kit appropriately first as Nick correctly states!
It helps no-one to make fun of divers who are obviously learning these new skills (as it was wrong to post the video, in my humble opinion), and also in my opinion quite wrong to state, as you and others appear to be doing, "It's dead easy, I can do it. Look how easy it is". It takes hours and hours for surgeons to train to perform laparoscopic surgery but when they are fully skilled they find it is straightforward and make it look easy.
I can tell you it is most certainly not as easy as they make it look!
Have you had to teach you child to tie his shoe laces.
Now that's an education in itself.
Safe bubblin!
