Mndiv
Contributor
Hey guys, I am (turned in July) 16 (got my cert when I was 15) and me and my dad went diving in Lake Ore-Be-Gone, MN. The sport is still new to us, but I can tell that I have pretty much found a love for diving thats gonna last me a lifetime!
One thing that we struggled with though as our ascent. Descent was no problem on the first dive, we went to 60 feet and swam around for a while, however as the water was quite murky we would look at our computer and notice all of a sudden that we were ascending quite fast and seemingly before we knew it, I could see the waves on the surface. We went up to fast thats for sure, and it certainly got my heart rate going but when I think about it it took us about a minute or so to the surface, (we weren't at 60 ft for very long), and thats about a foot per minute which is a descent ascent rate.
One thing to add would be that our computer (we have the same one, the Genesis Resource Pro In-Line console) has, in my opinion a bit too conservative of a ascent rate indicator, because if your below 60 ft it suggests a MAX ascent rate of 30 ft per min. at any time. If you ascent for 5 feet at a rate of 60 ft per min, you have and ascent rate 'violation' which is annoying because I never have a dive were I ascend no faster than 30 ft per min at any on point...
But heres my question: On the second dive of the day in an effort to avoid that situation again, I added 2 more pounds of weight (which ended up being to much because I was overweighted a little) and dove with little air in my BCD. When it was time to start making our way to the surface from 55 ft I let all the air out of my BCD (our instructor told us, NEVER use your BCD as an elevator, always let ALL the air out), and started kicking to the surface, which became very tiring very fast. It was sort of a anxious feeling because I would look at my depth gauge and notice that I was going up very very slowly but as soon as I stopped kicking I would slowly start descending again, so it took a lot of energy for me to make it to the surface.
Do I have to let ALL the air out of my BCD, or is it just most of it? Just some general advice to the newbies would be great!
One thing that we struggled with though as our ascent. Descent was no problem on the first dive, we went to 60 feet and swam around for a while, however as the water was quite murky we would look at our computer and notice all of a sudden that we were ascending quite fast and seemingly before we knew it, I could see the waves on the surface. We went up to fast thats for sure, and it certainly got my heart rate going but when I think about it it took us about a minute or so to the surface, (we weren't at 60 ft for very long), and thats about a foot per minute which is a descent ascent rate.
One thing to add would be that our computer (we have the same one, the Genesis Resource Pro In-Line console) has, in my opinion a bit too conservative of a ascent rate indicator, because if your below 60 ft it suggests a MAX ascent rate of 30 ft per min. at any time. If you ascent for 5 feet at a rate of 60 ft per min, you have and ascent rate 'violation' which is annoying because I never have a dive were I ascend no faster than 30 ft per min at any on point...
But heres my question: On the second dive of the day in an effort to avoid that situation again, I added 2 more pounds of weight (which ended up being to much because I was overweighted a little) and dove with little air in my BCD. When it was time to start making our way to the surface from 55 ft I let all the air out of my BCD (our instructor told us, NEVER use your BCD as an elevator, always let ALL the air out), and started kicking to the surface, which became very tiring very fast. It was sort of a anxious feeling because I would look at my depth gauge and notice that I was going up very very slowly but as soon as I stopped kicking I would slowly start descending again, so it took a lot of energy for me to make it to the surface.
Do I have to let ALL the air out of my BCD, or is it just most of it? Just some general advice to the newbies would be great!