Originally posted by MikeFerrara
I noticed two divers on another line below us who appeared to be acting strangly. I watched as my student deployed the bag. It appeared to be an instructor with a student on a deep dive. The two looked like spiders climbing up the rope hand over hand.
Ok, silly newbie question, but...
What's wrong with using the anchor-line as a reference-point? I'm not talking hanging off it with any sort of force, but just keeping your hand on it as you slowly ascend?
Reason I'm asking is that this is what we were doing on my last dive. For my buddy and I, this was our first post-OW-course dives, and done in rental gear, and all that. Basically we had lots of other stuff to be thinking about, so a procedure of:
I hold the line, she places her hand above mine, a count of 3 seconds, I place my other hand directly above hers, she then places her other hand directly above mine, another 3 sec. count, repeat...
This gives a nice slow (about 15'/min) ascent, and the line provides a good reference so that we can take the time to concentrate on getting our bouyancy right (so we're neither hanging from, nor lifting up on the line), we stay close to each other, and don't get caught up in watching our gauges, ...
I.e. it seems to be a good way to develop comfort with all the other things you have to watch as well as your depth, but if it's a bad habit, I want to know now before it becomes too ingrained.
Jamie