CESA - why? I'll never run low on air!

[Rick Murchison]

Your buddy calls the dive due to reaching agreed-upon gas pressure and you head back towards the upline. As you reach the upline, your wing suddenly fails and you drop down 30ft to the bottom while attempting to correct it. Your buddy follows you down to help you but you've become tangled in a fishnet. Your buddy tries to get you untangled but because of the increased depth and stress he's using up his gas quickly. He decides to save his own life he has to ascend to get help.

Your buddy is ascending, and as you continue to try to get out of the net, yoru regulator gets snagged and you can't reach it anymore. You cut off your own gear, and its all tangled in the fishnet, and you're down to 200psi by now. You're wearing a weight belt, but pick up a rock to add to your weight to make up for the removed gear.

What option do you have now, besides CESA?

I see this thread has outlived its usefulness...
Rick

 

[dumpsterDiver]

If I was presented with the feeling that I was going to pass out immediately and I could not immediately signal my buddy that I needed to ascend, then I would be on my inflator. I would not be swimming up. I would hopefully have my other hand on the weight belt, and wait to ditch that until the last moment. Swimming while neutrally bouyant is much more work then is necessary in my mind. If after completing a portion of the ascent in a bouyant condition, and the diver feels somewhat better, he can always just flare out, dump air from the BC and try to hang for a few moments at 20 ft.

I was once diving solo at around 170 feet and almost instantly upon arriving at depth became extremely dizzy and my ability to see became very poor. I was reasonably sure that the symptoms were due to a reverse squeeze or un-equal equalization in one ear, however this time it felt different. I was also taking psuedophederine and was suddenly concerned that (since I had both nitrox and air tanks on board) that I might have mixed up an air tank with a nitrox tank and I might be experiencing impending oxygen convulsions. (Maybe the narcosis was affecting my thinking somewhat also, but my head was spinning and there was no way that I could read my guages). I was really pretty alarmed and I just totally relaxed my body, filled the BC and went for a quick ride to around 60 feet or so. The thought of doing a rapid SWIMMING ascent really didn't cross my mind and I knew that I could not see well enough to effectively monitor the speed of my ascent while swimming.

My whole point is that, if a diver REALLY feels that they are willing to risk nearly everything to get to the surface fast, establishing positive bouyancy ASAP should be a higher priority than trying to swim up. Of course, I think too many people would get killed if we really tried to teach emergency bouyant ascents, but that is how I will handle the situation. I think it is an important skill, that a diver should try to at least mentally rehearse.

 

[mdb]

I see this thread has outlived its usefulness...
Rick

Rick: Sure you were not surprised. The folks who think CESA is not necessary and their "teams" etc are the answer will continue to post the same stuff over and over.

I've done 3-4 CESA's over the past 35 years. Glad that I had practiced. As you pointed out in your OP, it is just one more tool. Nothing more complicated than that.

 

[caseybird]

can't we pick on Thas or something?

Don't worry Thas, I've got your back.


Steve

 

[letterboy]

Don't worry Thas, I've got your back.


Steve

I believe thats called brown nosing. . .and here is a bigger gun for you. . .

 

[jeckyll]

I've never had to CESA. But I've had one issue in current where I thumbed the dive and ascended at a rather quick rate (I detailed it in 'incidents and lessons learned').

I don't think there is anything wrong with knowing and understanding the skill. Personally, I wouldn't dive beyond 80 fsw without doubles (or if nothing else was available due to boat size restrictions a slung 40) and a buddy I trust.

In much of the water I dive (cold, dark often between 80 & 100 fsw) I would think that in the emergencies listed by Rick I would still signal my buddy/team first. I would count on them to get me to the surface should I fail part way. On a couple of occasions I have turned dives due to onsets of slight panic narcs, but always under controlled circumstances.

I think that CESA's due to lack of gas planning or attention to reserves should be unnecessary in todays day & age given the technology available, and the ease with which the information required to do basic Rock Bottom gas planning is available online

 

[String]

1. CVA. A cardio-vascular accident - a survivable heart attack, stroke, etc often leaves little time for decision-making and action before complete disability to do anything useful, like informing a buddy you're in distress. An immediate CESA could give you a chance to avoid certain drowning, and to get to help on the boat in time to save your life. Every second counts.

Something like that you're unlikely to make a controlled proper rate ascent anyway which is what cesa is supposed to be. You also still have air so can breathe so dont need to worry about silly hums and breathing out all the time.

Why CESA when you still have air and can make a controlled ascent while continuing to breathe?

2. Bleeding. A severe cut or bite can start the blood-loss clock; your ability to do anything may be short lived and a CESA while you can do something can once again get you to a more survivable environment.

Why CESA when you still have air and can make a controlled ascent while continuing to breathe?

3. Severe pain. Whether it be some internal source (sudden burst appendix or ovarian cyst or kidney stone etc) or from injury (poisonous spine, sea wasp etc), once again, pain of this magnitude may severely limit your time of useful consciousness; time to topside help is of the essence and a CESA may be your best choice.

Why CESA when you still have air and can make a controlled ascent while continuing to breathe?

4. Impending panic. It is far, far better to do a CESA while still in control than to allow panic to take over and do a UPA ("Uncontrolled Panicked Ascent"). Indeed, just knowing you have the option and are competent at the CESA can go a long way in keeping under controll in the first place.

I suspect trying for the surface whilst trying not to breathe is likely to induce panic far more easily than ascending and continuing to breathe.


Why CESA when you still have air and can make a controlled ascent while continuing to breathe?

All of the above you have air so why would you choose to ascend without using it? Rather than worrying about making noises, blowing out etc why not ascend at a similar rate while continuing to breathe your gas?


---

The CESA should remain in the syllabus at the entry level; the ability to conduct a safe, rapid emergency ascent without danger of an overexpansion injury should be ingrained to the point of "automatic" in every Scuba Diver, even those who will never, ever run out of air. IOW, I think the CESA is as important in a Scuba Diver's "tool kit" as a wrench is to a mechanic.
Rick

Im of the view its a dangerous relic with no place in the modern world and should be remove. Some agencies have already done it, hopefully more will follow suit. It puts divers in the wrong mindset entirely for dealing with problems underwater.
Fosters the very bolt and pray instinct dive training is trying to remove.

 

[Tom R]

What a joke? Is that supposed to be a rebuttal, or an argument of some form? If you disagree, I for one would like to hear a reason. If you don't have one, insulting the OP is childish and impolite.

Pot calling Kettle, come in Kettle

 

[300bar]

ok here's my small input on cesa,

I've forgoten all about this for a long time(must have been on my flash braincell(1))

About 10 years ago my wife and I rented some tanks in egypte,we first checked out the divecenter and it was brand new(includining tanks and compressor)
So we went out for a 2 person dive. a normal ean 21% so there was no gas check :shakehead
After a few minutes and a good 20m we both began to feel (very)sick.The gas was havely poluted with CO.(wich we found out later) we both gave the out of air signal(on a full tank) and both made a cesa,because we both feld we could not breath this air.
I think, if we would not have done a cesa and made a normal breathing accent,we would not have been here anymore.:no

So yes there is a place for cesa IMO as a last resort

ps.. at that time we already had 15 years of diving logged so we where no newbys,
if we had been, we might have smelled on the air, as experianced divers we didn't

 

[GreenDiverDown]

Why CESA when you still have air and can make a controlled ascent while continuing to breathe?

Your question makes no sense given how Rick has defined CESA for this thread. Nowhere has he suggested that one should not continue to breathe while they still have air available. To suggest otherwise is silly.