Horizontal ascent

[darkpup]

What's fun with the upside down, horizontal position is to practice your buoyancy and kicks. It takes a while to get use to the upside down trim in doubles, but it's definitely doable. I'm still working on my backwards kick, but most of the other kicks seem to work just fine upside down. This position helps a lot when shooting video or taking pics, you just have to work on being still.

It will be interesting to see how it works with a stage bottle.

~ Jason

 

[lamont]

My husband keeps asking, "Why ascend horizontally?" His thesis being that all risks are above you, and therefore being vertical allows you a better field of view toward what you are about to get into. The idea of buddy awareness works just fine when vertical, too, and venting both the wing and dry suit are easier in that position. Why ascend horizontally? I was going to ask this question at DIR-F, but since it was brought up . . .

We got this pounded into us in Triox.

A big reason is that if you're trim you can break trim slightly either way to use propulsion in order to change position in the water column. If you've already in bad trim with dropped knees and you're ascending too much, you will have a more difficult time coming around to a head down position to be able to kick down. What winds up happening if the diver ascends is that they'll let air out of the wing. This will often cause them to overshoot and be too negative back at the position they're trying to maintain. If they're too negative to hold that position with breath control they'll hit their inflator and at that moment recall that their right post had failed earlier.

I've also had more advanced tech divers tell me they control position at stops by bobbing their head up or down. I'm not good at this, but I've played around with it enough to convince myself that it works, and it requires a trim position to begin with.

 

[Randy43068]

I started doing horizontal ascents well before I took Dir-F.

And I'm thrilled to hear that someone else enjoys an occasional face up ascent.
I get a lot of grief for this from a certain SO DIR-F DB of mine. But I find it be be incredibly relaxing. Rad, I'd like to play that game with you and your DB too!!!!

I recall a certain GUE instructor flipping onto his back while staying only inches from the platform so he could watch my out of control drill. Should I mention it was Brando? Naw.. I'll keep it a secret. I thought you were going to yell at some SO DB through the water when that happend.

 

[darkpup]

I've also had more advanced tech divers tell me they control position at stops by bobbing their head up or down.

Are you referring to minor CG drill type changes with the head to maintain position?

~ Jason

 

[TSandM]

lamont, that's a VERY interesting post, because you just described precisely what I do that gets me into so much trouble trying to do shallow stops. Hmmm. Have to think about this.

 

[lamont]

Are you referring to minor CG drill type changes with the head to maintain position?

Yup, exactly.

 

[darkpup]

lamont, that's a VERY interesting post, because you just described precisely what I do that gets me into so much trouble trying to do shallow stops. Hmmm. Have to think about this.

Shallow stops are always a chore. It took me roughly 20 to 30 dives over the course of a few months to learn to relax, watch my breathing, and insure that nervous kick in my right foot stopped moving. It takes a while to figure out how much gas to add/dump from your wing in combination with your breathing to hit your stops. We also learned that if you have a nervous kick that keeps you swimming in circles, change it to a backwards kick. You get more practice with your backwards kick, and you're able to maintain a safe distance

Once you're able to hit your stops reliably, the next step is to learn to hold your stop with no visual reference while working on skills and maintaining team integrity. Oh fun...

~ Jason

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

learn to relax

... the three magic words of diving ... and perhaps the hardest skill for any new diver to learn ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ShakaZulu]

Because you offgas more efficently with your lungs in a horizontal position i.e. you are using all of your lungs rather than partially compression a portion slightly more and getting less use from them. That is the biggest reason. It also encourages better bouyancy technique and you are generally in a better position to get to, and assist, your buddy immediately.

Can we have scientific proof of this? Our lungs aren't big bags of air btw..........I would assume when I breath in, all the cavities in my lungs fill with air equally, irrespective if I'm horizontal/vertical.

 

[Adobo]

It's unfortunate that this topic is not openly and frequently discussed in the newbie and general discussion forums.