It's dangerous only because typical dive training only requires students to do it once, in simulated conditions, from relatively shallow depths, while an instructor is holding onto their BCD. After OW class, they're never required to do it again ... and almost nobody practices the skill.
That's not learning a skill ... that's being shown how to learn it. Skills are only learned through repeated application.
Might I recommend repeated application?
Facing a situation under stress is nothing like doing it with the assistance of an instructor. The assertion that OW divers are "trained" to do a CESA is a fallacy if one only follows the minimal requirements of their agency. It would be more accurate to say they've been shown how to do it ... once ... perhaps years ago.
Might I recommend repeated application? Oh, and periodic practice.
String..I think your suggestion about the OOA not being so easy a year or two after training, is what the agencies are afraid of.....I am not so sure I agree with them though. If you really practice this CESA enough, in the early days of your diving, it becomes a skill you don't lose...essentially like "riding a bike".
And if you continue to practice, say from 90 up to 20, you stay fresh.
I remember the first time I decided to practice free ascents back in the late 70's....from around 90 feet....... heading up, my lungs felt like a factory making air....the higher I got, the more air kept coming...it was actually kind of cool, and kind of fun.
Yup, back in the day we had to do free ascents from the depth of our certifications, 30, 60, 100, 130, 150, 190. But it was easier back then, the ascent rate was 60fpm and there were no safety stops.
After you have done this several times, I think there should be almost a neuro-chemical change in your brain and your permanent memories....every time you do an ascent from then on..year after year, for decades, each ascent should remind you that air is being "manufactured" as you rise...There should be no need to "process" the thought of "how" to free ascend to the surface 20 years later...you should still have this, just like riding a bike..it should still be hard wired. If it is not, I don't think you ever really learned it in the first place....indicating original training was sadly inadequate.
Agreed, but why not practice anyway? Just be careful.
On another note.....
Scubapro used to make a regulator back in the 80's that would have the 1st stage start really HONKING when the tank got low....This was a high flow potential reg, as Pat Frain used to use one of these with us back in the 90's for everything from 140 foot deep HOLE IN THE WALL dives to even deeper stuff like the wrecks around 220.
That was the MK-VII, it was annoying as all hell.
But a reg like this could be mandated for Beginning Open Water Divers, or any diver that dives infrequently. The training agencies could use this to prevent OOA...they could mandate proceedures for what to do if the reg starts honking....if you see your buddy with a reg that begins honking, you know he/she is in an emergency surface- now scenario, and you need to get them to the surface...some agencies would have the buddy with sufficient air, donate a long hose prior to OOA, and have both head to the surface....another might just suggest the one buddy help make sure the low on air buddy with honking reg actually gets up to the surface---directs behavior, assists bouyancy if needed, etc.
The honking leaves no doubt about the problem.
With the stats we are discussing in this thread, it would seem this old technology would be perfectly in line with the issue.
REgards,
DanV
It would work in that application, but so would a lot of easy to use electronics these days.
Which is exactly my point. IF it happens for real its not going to be a nice controlled ascent looking up, making a sound and just riding positive buoyancy. Its going to be click..no gas. wide eyes, look for buddy. there isnt one, panic, i need to be out of here now, fin like hell and maybe inflate to the surface MAYBE remembering to breathe out. A real life cesa is NOT going to be controlled.
Every real life case that I have had actually witnessed was perfectly controlled. If your experience is different ... you're diving with the wrong crowd.
My main reason for disliking it however is it teaches a student that its "OK" to bolt to the surface if you get a problem rather than problem solving on the bottom. Im also against buddy breathing being removed as believe a breathable source of gas is far better than bolt n pray.
It is never OK to bolt, it is always better to solve it at depth and BB is a much better solution that an ESE, what's your point? That the agencies are run by fecocephalics? What else is new?
I don't think it's well advised to end up with only 50 psi. Do you feel great if you pull into a gas station with your car running on fumes?
I feel much better than I would walking down the road with a gas can.
An AI computer should be telling you how long you can stay at whatever depth you are at and still have an appropriate reserve. You already didn't have an appropriate reserve before the assent. You can do that without an air integrated computer.
Or with one, just depends on what you got.
