ending a dive

I enjoy scuba diving and the reward/risk for me is worth every second of underwater sheer enjoyment, so i try not to think negatively so as to enjoy my dives. However, i need to clear something up so i can feel more confident in my ability and would like any input into my query!!

What is the best way to ascend in an emergency or even if i just want to surface quickly????????

My instructor (ex military) said that CESA is always the best way, but according to the PADI heirarchy this is third on the list i think,so i am confused by this.

I realise there are different situations, so would be appreciative of all comments with regard to this.

cheers all!!

(a not so new noob)

Are you talking about an OOG situation?

Once upon a time there was a spate of free ascent accidents, the agencies, rather than deciding that people did not know how to do free ascents and needed to be taught decided to downgrade them from first to third position, something that I thought was singularly stupid, but typical. In part it was to enforce the then rather new requirement for all divers to be equipped with an auxiliary, a rule that was taking a lot of heat.

If you've got gas, use it. If you buddy's handy, use his auxiliary, but never be afraid to do a free ascent if you feel you need to. If you are not confident to do a free ascent, find a instructor or mentor who is also not afraid so that you can learn and practice ... I see it as a (maybe THE) critical skill.

There are several ways to handle an emergency and CESA is just about the the worst.

Why? Quick ascents or out of air ascents are prone to issues. Better to share air and do a safe slow ascent. An emergency ascent runs risks of embolism and DCS depending on how deep the dive was and how long you were down. 60 feet per minute is a much safer ascent rate and more slow is more better.

If you need to do a CESA than do so but having gas to breath is always the better option.

You are ALWAYS better off with something to breathe. If you are low on gas, ascend normally. If you are critically low or out of gas, or have a situation where you soon will be out (like a wide-open freeflow) share gas with your buddy, and do a normal ascent. CESA is for the double failure of being out of gas AND having no auxiliary supply (whether your own or your buddy's) available to you. Anything which delays you in a CESA, or even just misjudging your ascent rate and going up too slowly, can result in drowning.

RonFrank:

There are several ways to handle an emergency and CESA is just about the the worst.

Why? Quick ascents or out of air ascents are prone to issues. Better to share air and do a safe slow ascent. An emergency ascent runs risks of embolism and DCS depending on how deep the dive was and how long you were down. 60 feet per minute is a much safer ascent rate and more slow is more better.

If you need to do a CESA than do so but having gas to breath is always the better option.

Click to expand...

There is not question that gas is better than no gas, backups and buddies are always preferable. However, the bugaboo concerning free ascents is just so much hogwash created by people who don't know any better (or do know better have a private agenda). If a free ascent runs the risk of DCS, then you were making a technical dive and, for technical diving, free ascents are pretty much off the table. I have done, quite literally, thousands of free ascents (most rather shallow) in the course of teaching, my students have done tens of thousands, all without incident. If a diver suffers an AGE while making a free ascent, that is not because there is something inherently wrong with a free ascent, rather it is because the diver does not know how to do one properly, it is basically a training and practice issue and the powers that be don't want to commit the time necessary in a course to properly solve the problem. Instead they say to use your buddy's auxiliary but they also do not commit the time necessary to develop good buddy skill and air sharing ability.

thanks to all,

thalassamania, i am quick to agree with your comments, namely about training. i think if proper instruction for a free ascent is given then surely it would be the quickest method. by the time you find your buddy or react to any given situation you could already have saved precious seconds.
i do however appreciate the added complications with this and without extensive practice with CESA, would be more comfortable taking heed of the other posters who have (thank you) taken the time to share their views.

the jury is still out though..

Here's the problem: you should always be very close to your buddy AND be able to do a free ascent with ease. A course that does not fully prepare you to be trained, practiced and ready to do both ... well, that borders on the criminally negligent.

Criminaly negligent? Then I would bet that probably 99% of the instructors and dive shop owners need to go to jail. Only a committed few actually take the time to teach a student how to correctly make a CESA. And by correctly I don't mean doing one or two of them. My instructor did the introduction in a YMCA pool which was only ten feet deep so we did it once horizontily because of time restraints. I didn't know what he was talking about anyway. I later got with another instructor in Ft. Laud who took me on some reef dives and showed me how it was done. I paid by the hour so it was up to me how many of them we did. Later I hired a DM to try it some more in the Upper Keys. I think that all new divers should do the same thing. So it costs and extra hundred buck for a DM for a couple dives but it might save your life.

How deep are those free ascents? I don't think I've ever done one deeper than 20-30'. What makes them 'proper'?