CESA Training

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I would love to hear a real answer one day as to why this cesa thing even exists and it would be such a relief if this thread didn't
My guess (and bear in mind I was possibly not even a live when it started) was that people were getting injured (with lung overexpansion injuries/DCS etc) doing rapid ascents due to being out of air. Better at that point to have a procedure even if it is a last ditch hail Mary than nothing.
 
Would be better if you are Nitrox certified as well. Dody there are concerns one should have with going on a liveabord during a pandemic. So you think Quarantine in the Maldives is nice? Think again!

Also there are other ways to do an emergency ascent in an OOA situation that is not CESA. It was taught to me by my instructor who was also in charge of commercial diving on oil rigs. It's it something to understand and not taught. Then again I don't see many instructors teaching students how to deal with vomiting underwater which can happen.

Some of the people on this forum will know what I am talking about when it comes to using another option to survive an extreme emergency for OOA with no buddy nearby to assist or so you can get to that buddy. I keep my BCD bladder clean and would rather risk a lung infection which can be cured than drowning when I could self rescue.
The plan is to do Nitrox cert in the Liveaboard. Here, there is no Nitrox and my assignment runs until end of July. Incredible story in the Maldives. But I guess that the organization is better in Thailand. If I have to stay 14 days for a quarantine, it is not a big deal.
 
You might like to review this video of the US Navy training.

I see two differences. First, this is not CESA, this is Buoyant ascent which is even riskier. Second, the first step of the procedure is to completely empty all the air in the lungs. But it is really impressive. Especially the speed. And they claim it is completely safe. However, they have specialized facilities and medical personnel at the ready. Could not train like this yourself.
 
@Dody this is related to a different post of yours: take an appropriate amount of gas with you and get a redundancy if you do not trust your buddy.

Regarding the people laughing at you for suggesting a redundancy, they are showing a lot of behavioural biases. Just because it never happened to them, it does not mean that it never will.
 
Except for the safe ascent rate.
Have you ever run out of air? Have you ever taken a free dive course? I have never putzed around when I ran out of air, but kept a steady kick to the surface... just like I do when I free dive. 84FSW is the deepest I've been to while freediving. If I'm not weighted, then 60ft is about my limit and I don't kick on the way up. But hey, I'm a cork.
Teaching is horizontally in the pool however, would also make no sense.
That's the only way I teach it anymore. They get the mechanics down and it's on the surface. I repeat it a few times, even if they get it right the first time. Those who do it once from depth get all the danger and fear and often never ever do it again. IOW, they get an experience but not any real training.
 
The plan is to do Nitrox cert in the Liveaboard. Here, there is no Nitrox and my assignment runs until end of July. Incredible story in the Maldives. But I guess that the organization is better in Thailand. If I have to stay 14 days for a quarantine, it is not a big deal.

You guess? That is a huge mistake right there Dody. You will have no clue as to who you will come in contact with that could be giving you the virus no matter what safeguards you think you have in place. Wuhan virus is surging in many Asian countries right now, Indonesia Thailand China HK are all having serious problems.

Good luck with your trip though.
 
Have you ever run out of air? Have you ever taken a free dive course? I have never putzed around when I ran out of air, but kept a steady kick to the surface...

Nope and nope, but when I was young and stupid (as opposed to old and stupid), I learned the hard way that on breathhold dives you don't ever exhale on the way up. Because the surface is much much farther than it looks.

So I actually see the point in training scuba divers to swim with their airway open. I'm not entirely on board with forcing the "A-hhhh" on the way up, but what you gonna do? -- the instructor needs to see bubbles.
 
My thoughts on the original post:

As divers who know we need air and don’t want to die pursuing our hobby, we continuously work to identify, evaluate, and mitigate risks.

Effective mitigation strategies either reduce the likelihood of the contingency under consideration or provide a means of making that contingency a non-emergency—or both.

Therefore, if one is concerned about an OOA emergency at 30 meters, practicing CESA from that depth seems like an ineffective mitigation strategy because it neither reduces the likelihood of the event nor does it make the event a non-emergency.
 
I think that I am. I always do weight check at the surface. I dive with 4kg. Sometimes, I even feel that I should take 5 because I can't go down very fast without exhaling but I'd rather be slightly underweighted than slightly overweighted. It is better for my buoyancy control.
I’ll not comment of the CESA as I’ve never done one, and don’t teach it (its not in the BSAC practical syllabus, as already explained by @Gareth J ).

The danger with being underweighted, is you will find it more difficult or impossible to control the rate of assent, especially in the last 6m. Remember every Kg of mass displaces 1Lt of water (the difference between fresh and salt is negligible). A difference of 1Kg +/- can be managed by using the lower or upper range of your lungs, it takes practise and a far bit of effort. It’s so much more comfortable to be neutrally buoyant at the end of the dive.

For example, I’m weighted to be neutrally buoyant with 70bar. When I finish a dive with, say, 50bar or 100bar there is less than ½ Kg to compensate for.

My suggestion is get weighted properly.
 
I think that I am. I always do weight check at the surface. I dive with 4kg. Sometimes, I even feel that I should take 5 because I can't go down very fast without exhaling but I'd rather be slightly underweighted than slightly overweighted. It is better for my buoyancy control.
Surface checks are not accurate. The correct amount of weight you need is determined by a nearly empty cylinder (500 psi or 50 bar), an empty BCD’/wing, (and if you are wearing a dry suit, one with only enough gas to keep you comfortable) at your safety stop. You then rise and fall with normal breathing. But you don’t sink or cork.

check your weighting at the end of dives to dial it in.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom