How do you descend/ head up or down?

[MikeFerrara]

head up when teaching as it's easier to equalize and that's what you want your students to take esp care with!

Being able to control descent speed (buoyancy control) is what I think makes equalization easy to manage. If a student isn't over weighted and only becomes slightly neg at the surface (as apposed to dumping all they're air) a nice slow descent can be made without the need to to have fins pointed at the bottom causing the infamous OW mushroom cloud when the class gets within 15 ft of the bottom.

 

[Kim]

Feet first would mean that I can't really see where I'm going! I maybe do the first couple of feet like that (easier to dump all the BCD air in that position) - as soon as my BCD is empty I switch to horizontal, face down, to see where I'm going.

 

[mogwai]

Feet first would mean that I can't really see where I'm going! I maybe do the first couple of feet like that (easier to dump all the BCD air in that position) - as soon as my BCD is empty I switch to horizontal, face down, to see where I'm going.

Pretty much start off feet first but quickly move into horizontal. Or as horizontal as a dry suit allows. Had a blast on holiday in Egypt. Dropping down 30 metres in a slow motion, freefall position was amazing. Was diving wet there though.

 

[Scuba-Bill]

I like to see where I am going, so I am usually horizontal when the water is clear. Feet first for safety reasons when visibility is low.

Regarding equalization, I too have one ear that is slower to equalize and have not found that a horizontal descent causes any additional issues.

 

[CD_in_Chitown]

A horizontal descent/ascent put you in the best position to control movement in all directions making it much easier to maintain distance from your buddy or get to him if you need to.

And if you descend horizontally with students on their first ow dives so they can see how you do it, you'll be pleasantly surprised to see many of them imitating you by the third or fourth descent, some of them may do extremely well right away you never know until you try.