Would you dive with this op?

[ggunn]

Then when you jump in the water off the boat you don't dump all your air to descend. You should stay close to neutral in buoyancy at all times, at least in recreational dives. That's how fish swim; they don't drop like a rock.

Do whatever floats (or doesn't) your boat. I dump my BC and descend as fast as I can, then inflate to neutral buoyancy when I get to depth. On many drift dives here (Cozumel) you would be swept away from the group if you didn't do that.

 

[Ron Lee]

Do whatever floats (or doesn't) your boat. I dump my BC and descend as fast as I can, then inflate to neutral buoyancy when I get to depth. On many drift dives here (Cozumel) you would be swept away from the group if you didn't do that.

Sometimes I dump air as well. Then since my reaction time is slow I often bounce off the sandy bottom. The good thing is that the ensuing sand cloud settles very quickly. Fellow divers quickly learn to associated a "thud" along with a muffled groan with the sand cloud I create.

---------- Post added April 28th, 2014 at 02:24 PM ----------

My recollection is that the Palancar sites offer a way to dive on the land side to avoid the sloping terrain on the ocean side. That may apply to Columbia as well. So a new diver with a private divemaster/instructor could dive the land side while the rest of the group goes deeper. Everyone gets a good dive and the new diver gains experience with drift diving. No need for a wall (Santa Rosa) or known fast current sites.

If the private DM/instructor has a defined skills development "course" for the two dives, the new diver can quickly learn the skills needed to dive other sites confidently.

 

[Hatul]

Do whatever floats (or doesn't) your boat. I dump my BC and descend as fast as I can, then inflate to neutral buoyancy when I get to depth. On many drift dives here (Cozumel) you would be swept away from the group if you didn't do that.

The current moves approximately at the same speed so you won't get separated. I dump just enough air to start descending and then inflate to control my speed. If you dump the BC you will drop at max speed. If there's a bottom it's a good chance you will either hit the bottom or have to overinflate your BC to stop your descent. I prefer to control my descent, it's safer and that's how I'd advise a new diver.

 

[ggunn]

The current moves approximately at the same speed so you won't get separated. I dump just enough air to start descending and then inflate to control my speed. If you dump the BC you will drop at max speed. If there's a bottom it's a good chance you will either hit the bottom or have to overinflate your BC to stop your descent. I prefer to control my descent, it's safer and that's how I'd advise a new diver.

Not necessarily. Many dives here start with a rapid descent over sand and then a swim crosscurrent to go through a notch in the coral. I have no trouble arresting my descent before I hit the bottom and I don't overcompensate. It's not that hard, and if you are weighted correctly max speed is not that fast. But whatever sinks your boat. There are rules and then there is what works, and sometimes they are not the same.

 

[Skittl1321]

I dump all my air to descend and have to deflate my lungs as well.

Me too. I hold A LOT of air in my lungs when I'm nervous, which is usually the first 10 minutes of any dive, regardless of the conditions. Exhaling as hard as I can, sometimes my buddy has to just pull me down (a little at a time to protect my ears).

The BC gets dumped, and depending on the anxiety levels, may never get air put in it at all. Then at the end of the dive when I'm nice and calm I have a great neutrally bouyant safety stop, so despite not using my BCD for bouyancy early in the dive, the weight was right.


/Everyone is different- and one thing isn't going to work for everybody.

 

[Mossman]

While new divers are supposed to be able to dive with no dive master, I'm not sure how much the lack of one in Bonaire would be a hindrance to them, or the fact there is one in Cozumel is actually a hinderance because it breeds a sense of false security and can take years before divers ever figure out that a dive master isn't really their to watch out and instruct them.

Guided boat diving is very prevalent and cheap in Bonaire. The larger dive resorts (Buddy, Capt. Don's, Sand Dollar/Den Laman, etc.) have 6 or 11 boat dive packages and there are plenty of smaller ops on the island. For shore diving novices who lack independence, the boat dives are a great introduction to the local sites. Then, at the resorts mentioned in my parentheses, the path from the dock to/from the wall is clearly marked with a rope or cable so newbies can't get lost when they finally venture off in their own buddy pairs.

---------- Post added April 28th, 2014 at 03:14 PM ----------

The current moves approximately at the same speed so you won't get separated. I dump just enough air to start descending and then inflate to control my speed. If you dump the BC you will drop at max speed. If there's a bottom it's a good chance you will either hit the bottom or have to overinflate your BC to stop your descent. I prefer to control my descent, it's safer and that's how I'd advise a new diver.

A good chance? Uh, no. I start adding puffs of air as I'm approaching the bottom, coming to a dead stop with my nose exactly 1 mm from the sand or coral.

And because I'm not overweighted to begin with, I don't drop like a stone when I fully deflate my BC and lungs. That starts me on a descent slow enough that I have time to extend my strobe arms, turn strobes and camera on, and dial in my starter settings.

 

[AZjohn]

I'm all about free falling on the decent, one of my top 3 fun things to do on a dive. It's enjoyable to start adding the puffs of air in the BC right towards the bottom and leveling off and hover right at the end.
Haven't mastered the 1mm from the floor like Mossman yet, but like it when I hit perfect buoyancy and flatten out a couple of feet from the bottom

 

[Mike]

You've all revealed your true natures...

I descend at the same rate as my buddy

Caught all of you!

 

[MMM]

I wear so much neoprene that even though I don't put any air in my BC when I roll in, inevitably I have to swim down and am STILL the last person in the group to hit the required depth (unless others are having different troubles descending). But at least I'm warm!

 

[chillyinCanada]

You've all revealed your true natures...

I descend at the same rate as my buddy

Caught all of you! http://www.scubaboard

How do you know the buddies aren't doing the same? I more often don't have a buddy anyway