How fast do U descend?

[drbill]

I try to get to depth quickly, although it may be pretty deep. However, I no longer plummet down head first as it risks potential debris (dip) tube clogging (yes, I believe in winning the lottery, too). I descend horizontally and flared to avoid this and giove me time to clear my mask, test my pony bottle, turn on my camera... and get eaten by a passing great white.

 

[bleeb]

Just out of curiosity, how many times have you been eaten by great whites?

 

[DiverBeth]

I descend as fast as my ears allow it. I usually don't have any problems with clearing so I can go fairly fast. Most of my buddies usually descend fairly quickly too.

 

[TSandM]

In poor viz, I descend slower, both to keep track of the team, and because I don't like splatting into the bottom before I've seen it.

In clear water, I'll go down as fast as my ears will let me, or as fast as my teammate's ears will let HIM. But it is never a good idea to get sufficiently behind on equalizing that you have to go back up to get it done. I suspect the people who are criticizing the OP aren't criticizing his descent rate, per se, but his lack of care for his ears.

 

[Hank49]

In great vis, which is usually the case where I've dived, I like to go down slow and enjoy the view. Aaaahhhhhhh.......

 

[drbill]

The maximum recommended descent rate is 75 feet per minute. There are some times one might want to exceed this rate, such as tying off to a wreck in a strong current.

Walter, what is the basis for this recommendation? Just curious as to the why.

 

[drbill]

In poor viz, I descend slower, both to keep track of the team, and because I don't like splatting into the bottom before I've seen it.

How true... I remember one dive where the boat was supposed to be in 50 ft of water and I descended at a fairly good rate through thick murk... until my camera struck the sandy bottom... at 32 ft. Funny thing is that the camera was running for some reason so it recorded the impact.

 

[Tigerman]

I basically just empty my bc (and when dry my suit) of air, sink slowly down the first couple of feet, lean forward and go down as fast as ill sink and I can clear. However, when I close in on the bottomn/hard deck, I start slowing down to make a nice smooth "landing"..
No not landing as in actually being on the bottomn.. Just above it

There are of course exceptions tho..

 

[TimAZ]

I was told that I decend 2 fast. How slow or how fast is right? When I decend I equalize ok every once in awhile I have 2 go up and get the pressure off than I decend to 65'. I am a new diver and have been criticized!!!!!!!

When I was a new diver I frequently did fast descents and never had problems clearing. I was, however, overweighted and once got into an uncontrolled descent. It took me about 20' to arrest the fall during which I could have seriously damaged my ears if I were having a clearing problem. I guess my $.02 is not to descend any faster than you can immediately halt. (Oh, and stay with your buddy if s/he is slower).

 

[erparamedic]

At the start of my decent, I flip head down and kick down... helps me to get down the first 20 feet or so, which is when I'm the slowest... getting all the air out of my suit and clearing my ears. Then I seem to be good and turn my position to upright while drifting downward as quickly as I can get there. Love that "rocketing" down feeling and then eloquently moving to a horizontal position a few feet from the reef.

When I'm in low vis (the home quarries), I will decend a bit slower till I have a platform or other "attraction" in site, then I'll speed up a little. I've never been a dirt dart and don't want to start now.

That said... on the vacation that I just returned home from, I saw the all time worst decents of my entire life. In fact, we named the couple "Reef Crashers". They would rocket down, and crash into the reef butt and tank first, with their arms and legs flailing above them. And that was only the beginning of the horrible and dangerous techniques. They got sooooo many "talkings to" and just never "got it".