Teaching ascent to new divers

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Exactly, it should be taught on day one.
Don't understand why it is more difficult than the vertical ascent?!
I really don't get it...
 
I would agree that this is a gradual transition to a combination of skills more experienced divers tend to take for granted. Further considerations are:

1 We encourage ascending divers to be situationally aware, in particular to what is above them when ascending (ie traffic, hull, prop, other divers, etc). This is not as easy in flat trim and more readily achieved in a more vertical orientation.

2 OW students are taught to raise their LPI and gradually release air to maintain a controlled ascent. However, in a fully horizontal position, it can be quite difficult to expel all the air from the average BCD, potentially leading to an uncontrolled ascent for the very inexperienced.

This said, yes we like to discuss and demonstrate ideal techniques and encourage new divers to hone their skills.
 
You may wish to broach the subject, by not "over-weighting" novice divers, from the get-go. I have seen class after class of students, in Monterey and Carmel, sinking like mob informants. I had always thought it was scuba or skin diving; not sinking; and that some effort was actually required to descend.

Novices in that all-too common state struggle with both maintaining their buoyancy and ascent rates . . .
 
Not an instructor, but coming down on the side of thinking that if the student has insufficient buoyancy skill and control to do an un-aided open water ascent safely, correctly at a safe rate of ascending, including the last 15 feet, then bestowing that student with a card that states he/she is an open water diver is a bit off to say the least. But it is how the industry is “tuned”. Why I do not really follow.

I don’t care if un-aided is interpreted as complete free water ascent, no line
... or as only the line of your own, correctly self deployed at you chosen depth of deployment dsmb is available. I may personally think both skills are necessary to truly do “open water” safely. I think the beginner course should cover those skills, even if it then goes longer even if at extra cost for those that take longer to get there.

Again, this is just my opinion, I am aware that as a non-instructor I do not have to worry about little realism nags as to how to successfully make money with that approach. But I also benefit and suffer from the industry approach as is.
Benefit: A family member has an OW cert, and we therefore can dive together and also use those dives to practice and get actually safe as divers.
Suffer, because that family member deems her cert. level as sufficient and sees no need in becoming a better diver. It’s good enough to see the colorful fish... even so that person I.e. could not yet really reliably (sometimes maybe, sometimes definitely not) a truly safe ascent if her buddy were to get lost.
That, despite limited depth and all, that I need to change.

And imho, so should the industry.

In my specific case doing something like stating, or referring to a written, published, list of skills that OW divers should use their certificate for to get proficient with before they truly can consider themselves “safe OW divers” would help as it would lead instructors and learn hesitant students to acknowledge that bear bones OW skills alone really are not truly safe just yet in true OW, even limited to 60 ft...

Some individuals just happily learn... some prefer to spend more energy arguing the need for learning than doing the learning (truly over coming an ingrained fear of water can be a lengthy process, and of course one needs to hold on to a very healthy respect of water). For those individuals the bestowing of an OW certificate at the skill level it gets bestowed is, imho, dangerous. For most others it may work just fine. I for one was happy to be let loose and go romp Bonaire at that level... but I have my work cut out to keep that family member safe until the skill set is up to “truly being safe”.
 
One of the many things I think is lacking in diver training but I'm not a instructor at all.

I usually dive dry so ascents are easy use long volume to start up exhale then breath normally. Slight variation in trim either rolling or come slightly vertical and the drysuit auto deflates to the right level.
 
You may wish to broach the subject, by not "over-weighting" novice divers, from the get-go. I have seen class after class of students, in Monterey and Carmel, sinking like mob informants. I had always thought it was scuba or skin diving; not sinking; and that some effort was actually required to descend.

Novices in that all-too common state struggle with both maintaining their buoyancy and ascent rates . . .
Not sure if this is aimed at me or not, but just to clarify I absolutely do not over-weight students at any point in their training. I think we can all agree that this is a lazy approach.
 
Thanks a lot for the information guys. Am I correct to understand that instructors are teaching the horizontal trim and ascent out of their own initiative. This is not part of the official training of a diver at any level. There is no course book or agency sponsored video from most agencies in which this method would be introduced.Correct?
 
One of the things I was taught consistently in OW across two instructors in two completely different parts of the world (referral) when ascending was to ascend vertically with lpi elevated while facing partner. One partner monitors ascent rate through depth gauge, computer, watch and the other looks up and around for hazards, up to safety stop. After safety stop, both partners ascend slowly and vertically while looking up, left arm raising lpi for buoyancy control and right arm raised to protect head. This was also in the the training materials, the video, and demonstrated by the instructors in the pool portion and open water portion of the course.
 
One of the things I was taught consistently in OW across two instructors in two completely different parts of the world (referral) when ascending was to ascend vertically with lpi elevated while facing partner. One partner monitors ascent rate through depth gauge, computer, watch and the other looks up and around for hazards, up to safety stop. After safety stop, both partners ascend slowly and vertically while looking up, left arm raising lpi for buoyancy control and right arm raised to protect head. This was also in the the training materials, the video, and demonstrated by the instructors in the pool portion and open water portion of the course.

Precisely. All the recreational diving instruction I have ever seen, including instructional texts and videos show the method exactly the way you described. Does anyone happen to have a text book or official agency video in which they actually show the horizontal ascent? Or do instructors need to go out of the curriculum to teach that?

The only exception was UTD courses in which horizontal ascent was THE way.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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