SSI and turning off air?

[Captain Walt]

It is done in the confineds of a pool but not in open water.

 

[jtbland1]

Once again by the instructor manual in Open Water Session 4, the instructor has the option of doing either the Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent (CESA) or the Emergency Buoyant Ascent (EBA). If doing the CESA, the air is not supposed to be turned off, but if the instructor opts for th students to do the EBA, then the air is turned off exactly the same as in Pool Session 4. My particular shop does the EBA with the air being turned off & immediately turned back on, in the pool, but not typically in Open Water. The instructors at our shop typically does the CESA in Open Water, not the EBA. Keep in mind, that SSI allows some freedom (20%) to the instructors as to what is taught & how & when it is taught. I'll be honest, I just got my instructor certification recently & have not yet taught any classes, but this is what I have observed as a Dive Con, assisting with the classes.

Having certified hundreds of SSI Students and doing pool sessions with almost double the amount of SSI pool students, I have always combined the CESA with an Air depletion scenario. The air depletion is a seperate skill in it self to give a feeling of being out of air. As for doing it with and EBA I find it unsafe as you are compounding the risk level with a student dropping there belt and being positivly bouyant increasing a chance of overexpansion. I do complete the CESA in Open Water but have never and will never turn the air off in the open water because of the depth that a student is required to complete the skill from. Being an Instructor for other agencies the Air depletion is required but the EBA is optionl for the pool.

 

[siikik]

Thanks for the posts... I'm going to pass along the information to the better half because she is definitely going down the "apprehensive" path.

I became NASDS certified in 1988 and after reading some of the posts, I am thinking the instructor's book hasn't changed much since then. My instructor was very careful with his choice of whose air to turn off... apparently knowing who would react adversely was a pre-requisite to performing the procedure on them. As far as pool... everybody got to experience it, and yes, facing the instructor with good communications... but in our open water skills testing, that wasn't the case. But he did warn us that we were to perform an "out of air ascent" if it were to happen, rather than buddy breathe.

I think it's a good thing to experience... it's a very strange feeling getting only half a breath. But it doesn't necessarily have to happen at depth.


Ken

 

[Peter_C]

SSI is not the only one to do that. I was PADI OW certified and we did the same drills. Personally I think it is a good thing so you know what running out of air feels like and could give you a few extra seconds to prepare for an air share during actual diving conditions. I saw nothing dangerous as the person only had to raise their head above the water as they were kneeling.

 

[gtxl1200]

SSI I saw nothing dangerous as the person only had to raise their head above the water as they were kneeling.

I had to do it in 30ft of water. No.... just standing up.. the instructer followed you up but is was still a long way to go without taking a inhale.

 

[Peter_C]

I had to do it in 30ft of water. No.... just standing up.. the instructer followed you up but is was still a long way to go without taking a inhale.

PADI had us do that too kinda...we had our air on, reg in mouth, but the drill was to swim for the surface while blowing bubbles and NOT inhale. What they had you do is over the top and I would not consider it safe for your average diver.

 

[emoreira]

I've certified a year ago SSI OWD.
We have not done nor EBA nor CESA nor in the pool nor in the open water check-out.
What we did was to share air with your buddy. In the pool and in the open water check-out
One would never dive alone, so your buddy should be always near to share air in case you run out of air in your own tank, avoiding the need to go to the surface under emergency. At the moment that you need to share air, the dive finishes and you both have to go to the surface and make the security deco stop.
Besides one should be controlling the time and the air remaining in your tank continuously, so the possibilities that you need to do a CESA or EBA are minimized.

 

[clint@uniquescuba.com]

We do not turn off air in OW training at any point.

 

[Tassie Rich]

Hhmmmm.....some interesting posts on this one...I am by no means a guru on this site but have just finished a SSI Instructor crossover from PADI. My understanding is the EBA is not to be taught anymore, which is not a bad thing as I consider this to be bad practice, as for turning off your students air that was certainly not taught in my class.... the CESA was practiced in the pool and in open water dive 2 however only horizontally. If your dive slates have a EBA on them I would suggest they are old and need to be updated.

 

[SoybeanQueen]

Pool yes- open water never seen it.

In the pool session, my instructor did the drill as discussed earlier. Checked that I was OK, turned it off, waited for me to signal, then turned air back on and swam up with me.

For my OW dives, I had a different instructor. He turned the air off, I gave the signal, ditched my weights and started swimming up. He swam up with me, but did NOT turn my air back on. He did not turn my husband's air back on for that drill, either. I can't remember the depth - it was maybe 20 feet at most. It was unexpected, though, and therefore a bit scary.