Wall dive with minimal experience?

[UFOrb]

I forgot to mention, as a matter of interest (possibly), at the end of my first wall dive you enter the Blue Hole (Dahab, Egypt) & skirt the inner wall to reach the exit point, which is awesome in itself. The 2nd time we dived it our DM took straight through the middle of the Blue Hole so could just see blue whichever way you looked, except for a couple of free-divers when we reached the centre - that was so cool, but even more difficult to keep you're bearings!

 

[TMHeimer]

My BC is very old and still works fine, but almost all of my diving is shallow enough to do a CESA--almost glorified snorkeling if you will. Rarely, I do take a charter to a 100+' dive (60-80, whatever) and am buddied with an instabuddy. I think if I were to do a wall dive (never have) with a bottom of 1,000' I would get a newer BC. As long as your BC and other equipment works all should be fine if you watch your buoyancy, depth, time, ascent rate-- follow your training, etc.

 

[ls1dreams]

My BC is very old and still works fine, but almost all of my diving is shallow enough to do a CESA--almost glorified snorkeling if you will. Rarely, I do take a charter to a 100+' dive (60-80, whatever) and am buddied with an instabuddy. I think if I were to do a wall dive (never have) with a bottom of 1,000' I would get a newer BC. As long as your BC and other equipment works all should be fine if you watch your buoyancy, depth, time, ascent rate-- follow your training, etc.

I'd be using rental gear, so would be praying that the BC I use is in good shape

 

[RB7]

One experience I had when looking into the blue during my wall dive at La Paraguera .. I was ahead of the DM on a couple of occasions along the wall and would frequently do a small head turn (facing into the wall first) to check that he was behind me. On one occasion, I did a head turn but instead of looking to the wall first, I turned by head towards the blue and may have done it in a rather fast motion .. the result was that I had a severe case of vertigo right then and it took me a couple of mins of just closing my eyes and staying still for it to subside. The good thing was that I had been paying very close attention to my buoyancy on this dive and was very neutral so when I closed my eyes and stayed still for a few mins, my depth did not change ... Don't mean to exaggerate or scare the OP, but I feel had I not been neutrally buoyant on this dive - it could have resulted in me sinking/rising during those 2-3 mins and could have further complicated my situation.
Since then I have been very particular to establish neutral buoyancy incrementally as I descend on wall dives to ensure I can level off at any time without effort.
Not sure if my vertigo had anything to do with quick movement of the head while looking into the blue .. but just wanted to share with the group.

 

[seeker242]

If the area is not known for heavy current I wouldn't consider it risky. My first wall dives were when I had around 20 dives logged, before AOW. They were easy. Although, I did see a video of 2 kids almost kill themselves on a wall dive because they weren't watching their depth. They sank down to almost 140' and didn't even notice it. Luckily, there was a guy there to rescue them.

 

[rhwestfall]

My first diving post certification was a week of diving the walls of San Salvador..... Thought it to be very easy. Now, this area is not known for currents or up/down welling conditions.... YMMV