surfacing from bottom

[fire_diver]

OK, I am a little confused here. We have many experienced divers ascending two different ways.
A few newbie questions: Which is safer? Which should I practice more? Is one better than the other?
My instructor pointed out that the kicking ascent is used because you always (try to) stay slightly negative which leaves you, not the BC, in ultimate control of your ascent.
To the OP; great question!
Get Wet!

The only absolute in diving is that every descent should have a corresponding ascent.

Other than that there are many ways to accomplish every aspect of diving. You asked a question, but you didn't tell us what gear you use. Gear often dictates the best way to accomplish something.

 

[rongoodman]

I've been working on horizontal ascents, trying to feel my tanks being the first things to break the surface. I'm finding it's easiest to start to ascent by going a little head down and doing a back kick or two.

 

[Charlie99]

I do a lot of dives that are very multilevel. We go down to 80', or perhaps 120' and look at things for a while. Then we slowly ascend up 20', then ascend again, and then again. By the end of the dive we are up at 25' or shallower. Throughout the dive I've been neutrally buoyant. I stayed horizontal.

Why should I change for the last 25' of the ascent?

==============================

Some have posted that you should be negatively buoyant in order to avoid a runaway ascent. I have also had newbie buddies that went around without enough air in the BCD because of fear of a runaway ascent.

The key is to retrain yourself, so that your instinctive reflex action to going upward is NOT to suck in a big breath of air, but instead you reflexively, automatically, strongly exhale. Then you dump some air from your BCD and get back under control.

My experience is that once a diver realizes how much more negatively buoyant he becomes upon exhaling strongly, that they are much more comfortable being neutrally buoyant, even as they ascend the last 15'.

This also makes a big impact on effort and air consumption during the dive. If you are negatively buoyant, then you need to continuously fin to stay at constant depth. You are on a constant treadmill, finning away. If you are neutrally buoyant, you can just stop finning and you stay where your are. This leads to a much more peaceful, enjoyable dive. A nice side benefit is reduced air consumption.

If you aren't doing horizontal breath control ascents now, I recommend that sometime during your next ascent you test out how much ascent-stopping power you have at your disposal by simply blowing out, exhaling vigorously.

 

[pmenear]

You have to find your own way when it comes to ascents, descents and decompression as gas absorption and release is different for each individual. That is why computers have an adjustment to make them more aggressive and less aggressive so they can be matched for a wider range of divers, experience tells you which way you can or need to adjust them.
My method for ascending is for me and may not work for someone else safely and that goes for every method.
I use my computer ascent rate reading, its strapped to my right arm and I use my left arm to control my inflater/deflater, I maintain neutral/positive buoyancy all the way up with minimum finning. Any dive on air upto 50m. I leave the bottom fast at around or above 15m/min with my alarm bleeping all the way upto 20m where I slow right down to around 5-10m/min. I do my deco stops and then ascend the last 5m very slowly about 2-3mins getting slower as I get nearer the surface.
Getting away from the bottom fast reduces my deco time.
This is just the way I do it and not a recommendation, I recommend everyone find the method that works for them.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

You’re right of course if you make the deepest part of your ascent slow it will extend your bottom time. If your running close to your decompression limits you can do the first 25-50% of your ascent at a relatively fast rate, say 30 fpm. The exception would be for dives shallower than 80 feet since once you approach 30 feet you really do want to slow down, and there will be no harm in staying there as long as your gas supply allows.

 

[FuzzyNutz]

Sorry, I don't mean to hijack, but is there any posed danger in descending too fast? Assuming you have no problems clearing your ears, mask, etc., are there any bodily threats or other issues from doing so?

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

Sorry, I don't mean to hijack, but is there any posed danger in descending too fast? Assuming you have no problems clearing your ears, mask, etc., are there any bodily threats or other issues from doing so?

Descending fast is one of the more common ways of losing your buddy. It is not a bad idea to plan on regrouping at 10 or 15 feet and then proceeding with the descent. By then you will gone from vertical to horizontal and made a big adjustment for buoyancy changes. 10 feet is a good place check on your buddy and fix any problems either of you may have (clearing, tank valve not on all the way, BC not hooked up etc.). Of course sometimes waves, or current, can cause you to want to get to depth more quickly.

But given the context of the thread I think you were asking about physiological problems. Other than clearing, which you have already ruled out, I can not think of any.

 

[j yaeger]

anyone mention fist-to-fist up the anchor line?
slows things down alot diving from a boat
oh yeah,ya gotta find the anchor again first...
have fun
yaeg