hot descending

[STOGEY]

I recently dove with a person who is a Professional diver by trade. He works for a local municipality by repairing its boat docks and so forth. Anyway this guy when he descends, descends very hot. You know he descends fast to get to the bottom as quick as possible. When I dove with this person I did the same type of descent.

I'd like to know why is this a good or bad practice since I was able to control the equalizing of my ears and felt no bad effects. I realize that most professional divers are probably task oriented.

Just asking.

 

[voop]

Well, if there's nothing to see on the way down, then I do not see any harm in going down as fast as you can equalize your airspaces.

Going up is another story, though That is where we do not stress.....

 

[teknitroxdiver]

No problem there. I always go down at maximum rate, because in the places I dive, there isn't much to see between the surface and the bottom. As long as you can keep up with the equalizing, you'll be fine. Also this is useful when there's jellies on the surface, just do a giant stride and keep booking it on down. Just make sure in that case that 1) your air is on, and 2) you'll be able to equalize quick enough.

 

[Buoyant1]

Did one by accident once...I forgot to put air in the BC before I did my giant stride!

It was on a resort course..when we got to depth the instructor came over, gave me a puzzled ok? signal, I signalled back that I was OK, and he just shook his head and appeared to laugh!

Glad I remembered to equalize! hahaha!

 

[OE2X]

Hot descents can work great if you are in current and need to get to a spot on the bottom quickly. You also won't burn up a lot of gas by a slow descent. A couple of rules though:

1. Don't descend any faster than your buddy. You should stay together at all times.

2. As long as you and your buddy can equalize fast enough and remain together - great.

Another thing to keep in mind - if your buddy has problems with his ears or sinuses on the way down, in order to be a good buddy they may suffer severe barotrauma in order to keep up with you. Not good. If your buddy has to go back to the surface and you are still in freefall mode this can put you and them in jeopardy.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Rapid descents are viewed by some divers as being potentially beneficial from a deco standpoint as they feel it potentially minimizes the formation of bubble nuclei with the benefit of less bubble formation during the ascent phase.

On the other hand, rapid decents are associated with greater observed symptoms of nitrogen narcosis on air and with a higher incidence of HPNS when using helium mixtures at depth.

 

[verona]

On the other hand, rapid decents are associated with greater observed symptoms of nitrogen narcosis on air .

This is especially true in cold water. And cold, low vis, dark water

 

[matt_unique]

I recently dove with a person who is a Professional diver by trade. He works for a local municipality by repairing its boat docks and so forth. Anyway this guy when he descends, descends very hot. You know he descends fast to get to the bottom as quick as possible. When I dove with this person I did the same type of descent.

I'd like to know why is this a good or bad practice since I was able to control the equalizing of my ears and felt no bad effects. I realize that most professional divers are probably task oriented.

Just asking.

Ditto what others said but I personally prefer a slow descent. I am more comfortable to descend more slowly; carefully equalizing, hitting the inflator button on my drysuit, looking around for passing sea life, checking the condition of the mooring line (which my boat is moored to above), and looking for the wreck/bottom to appear.

--Matt

 

[Uncle Pug]

I usually descend at 30fpm. I keep in passive contact with my buddy during descent via light beam. There are times, when agreed on before hand and warranted by conditions, that we will do a rapid negative descent but that is usually only in current situations.

 

[novadiver]

I think the science is still out on the subject , I know it's possible to decend faster than you can take air in , ( that means one continuous breath from the surface to the bottum) , but the physics of this means that your also not off gassing as you decend. This could be the cause of serious nitrogen narcing and the retention of co2.