Dr. Deco:
I live in the dead center of the heat source for Hell's furnace (Arizona). Needless to say, a drysuit and undergarment aren't terribly comfortable on surface intervals. On my last couple dive trips to the lake, I had an epiphany that substantially increased my comfort level. I spent the surface intervals with my wing and drysuit inflated and floating on my back in shallow (2-3 feet) water. Most of my body was out of the water. The benefit is that I stay nice and cool, I don't have to lug heavy gear around, and I'm more relaxed and comfortable when the next dive rolls around. Additionally, I don't have to spend fifteen minutes at the surface before the next dive decreasing my breathing rate and cooling off before we submerge.
Before I decide to adopt it as a practice, I thought I'd run it up the flagpole and see if the professionals salute. So the question is, will floating horizontal at the surface with six inches of my body submerged decrease tissue offgassing during a surface interval to any substantial degree? Or is floating during the entire surface interval plain farm animal stupid to begin with?
I live in the dead center of the heat source for Hell's furnace (Arizona). Needless to say, a drysuit and undergarment aren't terribly comfortable on surface intervals. On my last couple dive trips to the lake, I had an epiphany that substantially increased my comfort level. I spent the surface intervals with my wing and drysuit inflated and floating on my back in shallow (2-3 feet) water. Most of my body was out of the water. The benefit is that I stay nice and cool, I don't have to lug heavy gear around, and I'm more relaxed and comfortable when the next dive rolls around. Additionally, I don't have to spend fifteen minutes at the surface before the next dive decreasing my breathing rate and cooling off before we submerge.
Before I decide to adopt it as a practice, I thought I'd run it up the flagpole and see if the professionals salute. So the question is, will floating horizontal at the surface with six inches of my body submerged decrease tissue offgassing during a surface interval to any substantial degree? Or is floating during the entire surface interval plain farm animal stupid to begin with?