Going Down (In a hurry)

[android]

So friend A is going to dive some recreational depth wrecks (100ft) in FL next month with friend B who live in Rhode Island and is a DM. She says there are some currents and the local DMs like to get to the wreck quickly.

I'm a bit more experienced than friend A, so friend B asked me to work on getting A to the bottom quickly.

We did a practice run down a bouy that goes to a sailboat at about 60ft in the lake.

This is what we did:

1) Made sure BC's were sucked empty and no air pockets in wetsuits.
2) Big exhale and sink like a rock.
3) Take a small breath, immediately clear ears and then continue exhale.
4) Repeated 3) until we hit the bottom, we were able to descend at about 60fpm.

I imagine we can do better with a bit more practice. Are there any other tips for rapid sinking (properly weighted, of course) that anyone can recommend? How fast should we be able to go?

We're going to go practice again next weekend.

 

[Walter]

The US Navy recommends a maximum descent rate of 75 ft/min.

When tying off to wrecks in strong currents, I usually exceed that recommendation. Your physical limit is usually how fast your ears equalize. If you can equalize easily, that limit is a matter of how fast you can swim straight down.

I'm not suggesting you exceed the US Navy recommendation.

 

[Warren_L]

The key is exactly as Walter suggests - you must be able to equalize properly for the descent rate you want. Not equalizing properly can be very detrimental, to say the least.

But also consider what is going to happen when you reach the bottom or your desired depth. You need to start thinking about getting neutral before you reach this point. The last thing you want is to go crashing to the bottom, which can create a whole mess of problems.

 

[Walter]

When hooking into a wreck, that's rarely an issue. You usually will tie into a high point off the bottom.

 

[simbrooks]

Are there any other tips for rapid sinking (properly weighted, of course) that anyone can recommend?

Kick like billy-o.

One word of warning though, its thought that severity of narcosis increases as your descent rate increases, i know i have been well narced dropping at fast rates before. Is this not one of the reasons behind the US Navy recommended rate?

 

[padiscubapro]

The US Navy recommends a maximum descent rate of 75 ft/min.

When tying off to wrecks in strong currents, I usually exceed that recommendation. Your physical limit is usually how fast your ears equalize. If you can equalize easily, that limit is a matter of how fast you can swim straight down.

I'm not suggesting you exceed the US Navy recommendation.

Comex normally uses 80m a minute (260fsw) or faster.. no limit is actually placed on how fast you can get there.. The faster the descent, the better since it crushes bubble nuclei..

I normally use (when my ears permit) 30m-40m per minute although I can get it up to about to 60m at times... One of our divers on an expedition this last May was routinely hitting around 90m/min - He's a Comex Saturation Trainer and HSE medic so he is quite used to fast descents...

 

[lostinspace]

Going Down (In a hurry) .....snip......
I'm a bit more experienced than friend A, so friend B asked me to work on getting A to the bottom quickly. .....snip.......We're going to go practice again next weekend.

roflmfao

sorry - just lowering the tone here, but honestly I couldn't help it!

 

[lostinspace]

hunh?! what happened to the smilies?!

 

[MyDiveLog]

75/ft per min. reccomended by NAUI. My advice: let your ears decide how fast you can go and descend along the line HEAD UP....swimming down fast makes air in Eustachian tubes rise (towards feet when swimming down), which makes ear-clearing more forceful/irritating to E-tubes than necessary.

 

[padiscubapro]

75/ft per min. reccomended by NAUI. My advice: let your ears decide how fast you can go and descend along the line HEAD UP....swimming down fast makes air in Eustachian tubes rise (towards feet when swimming down), which makes ear-clearing more forceful/irritating to E-tubes than necessary.

The one thing people should remember, most of the recommended rates are based around the TABLES the organization uses. There is generally an allowance of a bit faster becaue of the way BT is counted..

If you use faster rates and Tables you dont have a valid plan.