Emergency Swimming Ascent

Wanted to start this thread to hear from people who have done an emergency swimming ascent or an emergency buoyant ascent. Would like to hear your stories on what happened to cause you to do it, how you managed it, from what depths, and what your experience was, and if you were successful (not injured).
I would especially like to hear from people who have practiced this and learn how they were trained to safely do this. From what depth have they practiced this and what techniques they use to vent air from their lungs?

As part of my continuing education in diving, I want to learn how to do ascents without an air supply. I figure this would be a most important skill to have learned. If I can learn how to do this safely and can practice this until it becomes second nature, then an out of air emergency in open water during a no decompression dive, would not be a big deal. Knowing I can get comfortably to the surface from any depth without feeling starved for air and taking my time would be a wonderful feeling of confidence and security to have.

The standard technique I have been taught is to look up and constantly blow out air. Some have said to whistle or say “eeeeeeeeeee”. When I have tried this I always blow too much and run out of air very quickly. Having read about this, I have seen some people describe the technique of simply keeping your airway open, and air will naturally just bubble out as it expands, keeping the volume of air in your lungs constant. This technique appears to allow you to ascend from virtually any depth without running out of air. It seems to allow you to take your time and make a reasonably slow and safe assent, reducing the possibility of getting bent. Some people have describe submariner’s doing this from over 120 feet and taking as long as five minutes to reach the surface without running out of air or feeling starved for air. I was wondering if this is true, and would like very much to hear from people who have practiced this. I can understand why this is not taught; because it would be time consuming, very risky for the instructors liability, and a lot of people would just misunderstand and hold their breath. It’s just simpler to teach “constantly blow” and you know their airway is open, even though they are going to run out of air and then panic.

I recently tried this technique in an 8-foot deep pool with scuba. I figured I was only going from 1.3 ATM. to 1 ATM., so if I started off with a half a lung of air, there was no way I could hurt myself. It seemed to work, but the depth was so shallow, I couldn’t get much of a feel for it. But it seemed like I could get to the surface and have the same amount of air in my lungs as when I started. It also felt like I was breathing the whole time (letting the air naturally bubble out) and I didn’t feel like I was running out of air at all. I would like to know if I am on the right track and I will start to practice this from progressively deeper depths. Or perhaps a safer way to practice this would be to say start at 60 feet and go to 40 feet, then gradually go to shallower depths as I develop the feel for the technique. The expansion of air would be much less, from 60’ to 40’ 27% expansion vs. the same 20 feet from 20’ to surface, 60% expansion.

So, any advice or experience with this I would very much appreciate hearing about.

bruce123 once bubbled...
So, any advice or experience with this I would very much appreciate hearing about.

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May be obvious, but it never hurts to state the obvious: Do your ESA practice at the beginning of your first dive of the day, when you don't have a nitrogen load.

You might also just try another experiment ---- after your next dive, when the other divers start ascending, follow them, but purposefully go to a 2/3 lung full position, leave your airway open and then ascend SLOWLY after them without further breathing of your reg. That will give you a pretty good feel for how long and slow of an ascent you can do without taking a breath off of your reg.

bruce123 once bubbled...
Having read about this, I have seen some people describe the technique of simply keeping your airway open, and air will naturally just bubble out as it expands, keeping the volume of air in your lungs constant.



So, any advice or experience with this I would very much appreciate hearing about.

Click to expand...

DON'T DO IT!!! This technique was practiced in some Instructor courses many years ago. It was a skill to demonstrate comfort. It works but the slightest lock up of the air way and it's all over. Several candidates didn't make it. Unless you are totally unconcious, AGAIN, DON'T DO IT!!!! It's dangerous at best.
The simple answer is, don't dive deeper from which depth you can make a comfortable ESA, or carry enough totally redundant gas supply such as a pony to get you out of the depth at which you are planning to dive.

About 9 years ago after I had been diving for a year or so, younger and dumber, I went on a wreck dive to about 70 ft in Lake Champlain.

I was sucking air like crazy, and failed to let my assigned buddy know during the dive. I was kind of intimidated by the group because they all had spare air ponys while I simply had my 80 at the time, as well as having probably at least a few years diving on me.

Less than 15 minutes into the dive, i was under 500, and took the ascent.

Somewhere between the 70ft. bottom and the surface my tank was bone dry, and I had nothing but the air in my lungs. I began to blow and made it to the surface without a hitch.

Just very embarrassing.

ESA are for surfacing at depths from approximately 60 feet and shallower. The ESA practice and skill typically completed at an OW certification dive do not even close to the real world. It is at best a method to make the ascent but in no ways does it really give you the real thing.

In OW training, the student is ask to take a breath from the regulator and start the ascent with the (VERY IMPORTANT) regulator in the mouth. This is usually done no deeper than 25-30 feet. The student will hum , sing, gurggle out air constantly through the regulator until they reach the surface. The rate of ascent must not exceed 60 feet/min. Forcing air out is by far the best way. No one has even suffered an AGE from having no air in the lungs before reaching the surface.

What actually may happen on a dive with an OOA situation is the diver will inhale (after fully exhaling) and nothing happens! Panic is already setting in. Training hopefully will take over and the diver will ascend with the regulator in the mouth (hopefully another inhale will be possible as the pressure decreases) to the surface.

What I do and many others instructors is to instill confidence in the OW student that they are capable of swimming 60 feet without air support. I do this using a drill we call the circuit. Divers swimm the length of the pool breathing off sunmerged SCUBA units at distances as far as 100 feet.

The bottom line is gas management. Out of air is a primal fear. I assure all my student that they will never be in this situation if they obey the rules and methods that are taught and regularly practice all skill learn in basic OW training.

This is what we did for the CMAS Deuxieme Echelon.

We were required to demonstrate a free ascent "sans embout" from 40m to the surface. As I recall the ascent rate had to be slower than released bubbles and we had to stop at 3m do a 360deg turn to clear the surface and then surface.

The examiner would remove the mouthpiece from your mouth at a time of his choosing to make it realistic. It became remarkably easy with practice.

We practiced this extensively from 40m - 30m then 40m - 20m and 40m-10m before coming to the surface at all. this reduced the differential pressure during the early part of the training.

Another fun skill was the bouyant ascent. We had the old collars with a manual inflation tube and an emergency CO2 bottle (dates me a little....).

We were required to blow the CO2 bottle at (I think) 20m - maybe 40m. We then we had to stop the ascent and be completely stationary at 3m WITHOUT using fins or hands to modify the ascent. Use your fins or break the surface and you failed (this was not PADI......).

This never got easy.

The argument for not teaching this any more is that the training is more hazardous than the ignorance. I absolutely don't buy this it just takes longer than the current training regime allows.

I am very pleased that I practiced this extensively.

Are you saying that you agree with a ponies usage?

If so, please check out my thread in the Tanks section

I don't know about other Agencies, but PADI has very specific guidelines for their Instructors when teaching and practicing this skill.

When introduced, ESA is done in confined water where the combination of length and depth approximate the distance the OOA diver might swim in open water. Basically, the Instructor swims along side the diver who is performing the skill and either has a hand on their reg (to feel whether they are making the "ah" sound or sneaking in a breath) or is closely watching the student's bubble stream.

In open water it's quite another matter. There are strict guidelines that govern how deep this skill can be performed, what safety equipment is required, and, most importantly, that the Instructor maintains actual physical contact with the student to prevent any runaway ascents, etc.

IOW, it's NOT a skill that one should be "practicing" in anything but confined water unless you are doing it with an Instructor under the very controlled conditions I summarized in the previous paragraph.

~SubMariner~

7 meters or so. I've never had to do one for real (4000+ dives...even if you forget to watch your SPG, the increased breathing resistance at low pressure should give you a clue) but did one for practice once from about 28m (90'.) It was easy, took about 2 minutes. Without having the usual shallow bottom, or rope nearby as a reference, I had to watch my depth gauge to keep a slow ascent rate. Actually, I probably do most of my final ascents (from 5m or so) pretty much the same way...just take a slightly bigger than usual inhalation, which is enough to make me positively buoyant, and I "let" the expanding air out as I ascend, as slowly as I want to make it.

The biggest difficulty I see among students practicing the ESA 6u4 is that they almost always blow out too much air...sometimes even before beginning their ascent. Sometimes the emphasis on "don't hold your breath" is interpreted to mean "if you're not inhaling, you better be exhaling!" so, for example, a diver who loses the regulator after exhaling, while trying to recover the regulator, is STILL trying to force out those last molecules of air left in his/her lungs.

For me, it works much better to just let expanding air out...but I suppose it's a liability issue to tell people to always blow air out in that situation, figuring they're not able to understand that not actively forcing air out is NOT the same as HOLDING your breath.

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