How do YOU execute your 15ft. safety stop?

[adstaa]

if i'm with experienced divers who i know are not at the risk of a runaway ascent i'll hover either vertically or horiztonally, depends on how i'm doing on the day. if i'm supervising students or inexperienced divers then i'm usually slightly negative and finning a little so if someone starts to make a rapid or uncontrolled ascent i have a chance of slowing them down or stopping them until they can get things under control.

 

[stevetim]

Great answers and very informative. This is just one of the things I want to work dilligently on to make it habitual and not a thought out part of my dives. I tend to find myself staring at my wrist computer the whole time during safety stops and tend to lose my bearing and environmental awareness. I want to be more aware of the surface and any craft in the area of my dive exit especially after the accident with snorkelers in the Keys a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Halthron]

Horizontal. I also don't do a 15 ft, I do 1 minute at 20 and 2 at 10 for most of my recreational dives.

 

[andydiver06]

If I shoot by smb and ascend slowly to 5 m reeling the spool, then I hover vetical or Horizontal checking the time and depth gauge. If I'm ascending on the anchor line at 5m I just hold the line and rest or sometimes hover or swim slowly around the depth without holding the line. If strong current is present I prefer to hold to a reference line. If it is free ascent without reference, I hover horizontally at the safety stop. Sometimes If I have a good buddy we practice some skills like Free flow, mask removal, BCD removal etc. to pass the time.

 

[Charlie99]

I started off doing stops vertically.

Then improved my ability to hover by doing them horizontally.

Then as I improved my ability to control depth with breathing while staying motionless, I went back to mostly vertical for the safety stop. I find it easier to keep good awareness of the surface and people in all directions around and above me.

At first I had to look at my gauges a lot, but with experience you can get pretty good judging distances over the last 20'. So typically now, I look at my computer just as I approach 20'. Then I do a very slow glide from 20' to 10' over however many minutes I've chosen to do my safety stop, with just a glance at the computer now and then to check the elapsed time.

If you are neutral with little or no air in your BCD, and not a lot of neoprene, then with experience, holding a constant depth becomes automatic whether or not you are horizontal or vertical. The primary short term feedback is junk in the water, and feeling any motion in the water. The long term feedback is eyeball estimate of distance to the surface.