Practicing CESA & ditch and don?

[Crazy Fingers]

How often do you all practice these, if at all?

What precautions do you do to minimize your chances of DCS while practicing? We all know that ascent rate is a critical factor in it, and it's probably going to be completely blown in a real OOA situation. I guess the safest way is to go as slow as is possible with very little downtime beforehand when you practice.

From what depth do you practice them?

 

[deepblueme]

What reason is there to do a ditch and don in the first place?

If you want to work on your CESA go out and work on your free diving skills.
No worry about getting DCS/AGE then.

 

[String]

Ditch and don occasionally.

CESA never as i think its a pointless relic skill in need of removing.

 

[H2Andy]

i've never done ditch and don out of class

i've never practiced CESA. i know how to do it (keep exhaling all the way to the top) and it's a skill that is very unlikely ever to be needed by me given my dive practices and gas management

 

[Ben_ca]

Why not just practice air shares..... Keeping a buddy within reasonable distance then do OOA drills...

 

[AzAtty]

CESA practice is simple if you really want to do it. Swim horizontally in the shallow end of a pool while blowing bubbles (regulator in your mouth). But my knee jerk reaction is to question the quality of your diving buddies if you feel such practice is necessary. That said, staying calm and controlling your ascent is really what a CESA is about, so work on developing those skills.

As for ditch and don, no reason you can't do that in the shallow end of the pool, either. If you can do it in four feet of water, you can do it in 40 feet.

 

[scubanimal]

Actually I do practice these. CESA, I do very slow and more along the lines to see how close to my safety stop I can get, rather than actually making it to the surface. I keep my reg in my mouth the whole way, just exhale. My thinking is that, since I do a lot of photography and I have seen several other photographers get to an OOA situation, that I should just in case I dive someday minus my brain. I do stop at my safety stop and then finish the dive normally. Depending on my 'urge' lets me assess how I did and the changes I would need should it be real.

Most of the time my ascents are from roughly 60 ft, one of the benefits is that since I've done it so many times, it just doesn't phase me, and I'm relaxed. Now whether or not that would translate to being very calm in a real OOA situation, I won't know until it happens, but I take comfort in knowing I could do it. I do try to stay well under the 30'ft min ascent, and I only do it when the viz is good, I told my buddy a head of time and there is at least one other person with my buddy when I do it. I also limit the locations to those where there is no danger of getting lost etc.

As far as ditch and don, I should practice that more, as I've had to do it several times over the past 25 years due to circumstances. One of the reasons I loved the original Black Diamond was it was so easy to D&D underwater. Unfortunately it also responsible for the most real life need to D&D. As I get older it gets a bit more difficult for me to do, and I'm finding myself doing it the PADI way now. While you did not ask, my wife practices surface D&D every dive, as she can not get in or out with gear on due to an injury. It is interesting to see how she can jump in grab her bc get into it, and down before many folks get down after jumping in with their tanks on.

All this said, I don't recommend folks whose skills are not up to date, do this without compentent help there just in case, better still do it in a pool to get your with a buddy skills back.

Bottom line I've had to do D&D several times for real, I have never had an OOA in the ocean but I still train just in case.

 

[Meng_Tze]

i've never done ditch and don out of class

i've never practiced CESA. i know how to do it (keep exhaling all the way to the top) and it's a skill that is very unlikely ever to be needed by me given my dive practices and gas management

ditto

 

[Crazy Fingers]

CESA practice is simple if you really want to do it. Swim horizontally in the shallow end of a pool while blowing bubbles (regulator in your mouth). But my knee jerk reaction is to question the quality of your diving buddies if you feel such practice is necessary.

Well, when you're spearfishing you don't really keep your buddies around. I mean, you sort of pay attention to them but everyone kind of goes off and does their own thing. Buddying up reduces the take by about half and virtually no one does it. That's why I realize the need to practice these skills.

It's also amazingly easy to get into hunting/fighting fish and hoover way more than you expect. You look at that gauge and see 1000 psi, and you think you've got awhile, but it can go real real fast.

 

[Buoyant1]

The only time I did ditch and don out of class was when I first got the weight integrated BC to see if I could do it without having a weight belt on..but when you think about it, if you have good buddy skills, the need to un-stick yourself is moot...But I guess if you are "solo-buddy diving" with someone you get stuck with on a boat, it COULD come in handy...

CESA? Not out of OW class....