Horizontally in the pool. There is no compelling reason to do it otherwise. The risks for a single diver doing it once is amplified for an instructor doing it multiple times.
Frequency of advanced divers practicing CESAs ? [Poll]
- Thread starter Roger Hobden
- Start date
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OP
Roger Hobden
Contributor
Great ! Thanks for the clarification. Much appreciated !
OP
Roger Hobden
Contributor
BTW, I agree totally.
CMAS calls it "Level II", and I agree that such a terminology is much less misleading then the term "advanced".
Personally, I would be fine with the label "slightly less incompetent".
But I have unfortunately no control about how the agencies chose to label their certifications.
I am slightly less incompetent than I was a year ago. 
I rather think a CESA is what you do when everything else fails horribly but you are not dead yet. Beats drowning. I don't think the "horizontal" practice stuff is worth beans, and I am confident the vertical practice is stupidly dangerous if it is done widely. Take a freediving class if you want to get better being underwater without a tank. That's my plan when I get through my higher-priority courses.
Interesting topic though. I assumed CESA was to dangerous to be commonly practiced, and now I know even experienced divers think the same thing.
I rather think a CESA is what you do when everything else fails horribly but you are not dead yet. Beats drowning. I don't think the "horizontal" practice stuff is worth beans, and I am confident the vertical practice is stupidly dangerous if it is done widely. Take a freediving class if you want to get better being underwater without a tank. That's my plan when I get through my higher-priority courses.Interesting topic though. I assumed CESA was to dangerous to be commonly practiced, and now I know even experienced divers think the same thing.
snowdog61
Contributor
performed it once during my OW - think it was from about 30'. Not something I think I would want to practice (or do) unless it's an absolute emergency. I know it can be done but I'd prefer to either rely on my buddy or my pony (if solo) for my redundant supply and slowly off gas on the way up rather than CESA to the surface.
Unfortunately I practice them every week as I follow students up and down. It’s really great on the ears and sinuses....
Never. I always carry an AL19 pony so this type of a ****show will never happen
Never and don't intend to. It's is a measure of last resort that honestly should never occur. Plus practicing it is not a safe thing to do.
It's been 33 years since my YMCA openwater certification, but I vividly recall the instructor scaring the $&@* out of us about how dangerous CESA was and how it was somehow the culminating skill we'd demonstrate on one of our last checkout dives.
Never practiced it again until I started doing DM certification and either demo'd it for students or had to do it for my instructor who determined if it was "demonstration quality."
Actually, going way back, right after my initial certification I dove with an idiot who was much more experienced (and thus should have known better). He told me to breathe my tank dry and surface. So you might say I practiced CESA. I was a newby, what'd I know? (And he was in a sense my boss, who you don't want to question.) Granted, we were in 5-10' as I ran out so it wasn't a bolt upward from the depths. The dive plan was such that if I did run out it was going to be in shallow water so on the one hand it was as safe as it could be under the circumstances but on the other it was about as dumb as could be from the outset. I lived. The tank I used was among those "bad batch" aluminum models and I chose to condemn it myself, though VIP and hydros seemed to confirm it didn't suffer any ill effects of being drained.
Never practiced it again until I started doing DM certification and either demo'd it for students or had to do it for my instructor who determined if it was "demonstration quality."
Actually, going way back, right after my initial certification I dove with an idiot who was much more experienced (and thus should have known better). He told me to breathe my tank dry and surface. So you might say I practiced CESA. I was a newby, what'd I know? (And he was in a sense my boss, who you don't want to question.) Granted, we were in 5-10' as I ran out so it wasn't a bolt upward from the depths. The dive plan was such that if I did run out it was going to be in shallow water so on the one hand it was as safe as it could be under the circumstances but on the other it was about as dumb as could be from the outset. I lived. The tank I used was among those "bad batch" aluminum models and I chose to condemn it myself, though VIP and hydros seemed to confirm it didn't suffer any ill effects of being drained.
I am slightly less incompetent than I was a year ago.
Interesting topic though. I assumed CESA was to dangerous to be commonly practiced, and now I know even experienced divers think the same thing.
Free diving classes will teach you to hold your breath and ascend rapidly. Not exactly the best training to fall back on when your lungs are even partially filled with compressed gas.
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