Actual Swimming

[metaldector]

I've been diving for many years but until I started cave diving I don't think I actually swam very much while diving. Even when wreak diving the swimming portion was limited. Now, when cave diving we may actually kick for more than an hour at a time while doing circuts or traverses, and depending on the flow may swim a lot harder entering a cave system than one ever thought possible! I'm just getting into stage bottles I soon will extend the length of my diving by at least an other hour. Some of my buddies are doing 2 to 3 hours traverses now, all while swimming (kicking).
The question is, is there anyother segment of this scuba sport that requires true prolonged swimming? I can't think of any. Drift diving is just that, drifting. Lobster hunting generally is confined to a limited area with lots of stopping and poking around. Wreak diving is pulling down a anchor line and moving slowly over the wreak or penatrating ususally 60 to 100 feet. Reef diving doesn't require long swimming (although it could). But cave diving (here in Florida) requires swimming penatrations for thousands of feet. So let's hear if there is some other scuba activity that really includes prolonged actual swimming?

 

[FIXXERVI6]

Akumal Cave diving

Shallow, no flow, you can swim for hours on a set of AL 80's, I dove nahoch na chich (sac atun) and the average depth in the area I was in was 12 feet.

 

[karstdvr]

You'll find that the more you do it,the easier it gets,plus you'll learn the cave so it will make it easier to know where to be. I have had very long bottom times where there is nothing but kicking,and the frog kick makes that very easy since there is a refractory period in the cycle. The other thing that helps to is being able to spread your kick among different styles. The frog kick is great in wide passage,but in a narrow profile the modified flutter is ideal,and this is a great kick to develop for all the benefits it provides.

 

[scubafool]

This has the potential to be an excellent thread. Thanks for starting it.

 

[Charlie99]

So let's hear if there is some other scuba activity that really includes prolonged actual swimming?

Doing shore dives out to wrecks or reefs that really should be done by boat or by scooters.

For example, I decided one day to swim out to the St. Anthony's wreck off the coast of S. Maui. 22 minutes later I hit the surrounding artificial reef, and the wreck is another 2 or 3 minutes out after that. Poke around for a while, and then its a 25 minutes swim back in.

Once was enough. My subsequent visits have all be via boat.

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Although it was surface swimming rather than on scuba, I also did a similar sort of thing with an interesting set of reefs offshore from Kamaole 2 in Maui, including a spot where an undercut ledge trapped a turtle when it collapsed, perhaps during the earthquake last October. I noted a couple of ranges (aka line-ups) when doing a boat dive. A couple weeks later I snorkled back out to the area to explore a bit. Total time from water entry to getting back to the beach was a bit over 2 hours, pretty much continuously swimming for the entire 2 hours. The muscles used for flutter kicking while swimming on the surface surface swimming aren't the muscles I normally use frog-kicking underwater. I was pretty sore for a couple of days.

Future trips to those reefs will probably be by kayak, or a friend's boat.

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The other sort of shore dive which is continuous swimming for an hour or more is when I'm looking for new dive sites. There really isn't any way to find the best areas and new reefs other than swimming past them. My exploration dives of this sort are typically solo, since most divers aren't willing to continuosly swim at 2/3kt for 90 minutes at a time. It's really cool when you start off at one point, explore the extent of that reef, then take departure in a certain direction not knowing what you will find. Then finding an unexpected reef after 15 minutes of swimming, following it back along and eventually recognizing a landmark from a different shore dive (different entry point) that you have done before.

Of course, sometimes you just end up swimming along for 30 minutes not seeing anything except sand and algae, and then another 30 minutes back on a return diagonal track not seeing anything else until you hit the known reefs again.

 

[jeandiver]

This has the potential to be an excellent thread. Thanks for starting it.

Sooo , is this thread High Flow -or- Low Flow ?

Sowwy , couldn't pass that one up !

Jeano Beano

 

[mixedphat]

I was involved in a dive where a group of us chased some devil rays around a reef and then we were picked up by a tender, the boat driver claimed we'd swam 1nm, i was quite supprised by that, as it really didn't feel lke we had gone very far. i guess we were caught up in the moment.

that said we were never deeper than 15m (45ft) and had none of the stresses of a overhead environment.

 

[JimC]

... and had none of the stresses of a overhead environment.

If overhead diving was stressful, I wouldn't do it! I go cave diving to recharge my batteries and de-stress!

 

[Dive-aholic]

If overhead diving was stressful, I wouldn't do it! I go cave diving to recharge my batteries and de-stress!

DITTO!

 

[SparticleBrane]

I was involved in a dive where a group of us chased some devil rays around a reef and then we were picked up by a tender, the boat driver claimed we'd swam 1nm, i was quite supprised by that, as it really didn't feel lke we had gone very far. i guess we were caught up in the moment.

that said we were never deeper than 15m (45ft) and had none of the stresses of a overhead environment.

You were chasing animals?