feet first decents or swim down? huh?

[rox@ucf11]

Originally Posted by texdiveguy

I also recommend that ascents be in the horizontal position for many of the same reasons plus a few more that are important to this phase of your dive.

Why? really I am interested and not just trolling.

I descend horizontal but for some reason, lI ike to ascend vertical with my head up at times, I think it may be because I cavern dive and am afraid of hitting my head on a rock during ascent, but I see cavern and cave divers ascend horizontal too in the places I would probably not.

In general though I like to ascend vertically, and especially so in the last couple feet.

[Splitlip]

Originally Posted by rox@ucf11

Why? really I am interested and not just trolling.

I descend horizontal but for some reason, lI ike to ascend vertical with my head up at times, I think it may be because I cavern dive and am afraid of hitting my head on a rock during ascent, but I see cavern and cave divers ascend horizontal too in the places I would probably not.

In general though I like to ascend vertically, and especially so in the last couple feet.

Yup. I ascend verticaly. I want to scan above me. Especially the last few meters. I was hit once by a boat. I hate it when that happens.

[Bigg_Budd]

Ascend horizontal up an anchor line, or in the water column? I've not seen anyone do that yet.

I always ascend vertically, unless I'm drift diving where I can just nose the trim up a bit and cruise to my safety stop...

[fire diver]

I always ascend horizontally. I fins are typically the first thing to breach the surface.

[CompuDude]

Originally Posted by coral cowgirl

Horizontal facing buddy.

Yup. Vertical in the first few feet of the descent, and the last bit of the ascent, but horizontal for the rest of the trip. You want to be prepared to swim anywhere needed, should the need arise, and its just not possible when you first have to bring your feet up to get them behind you.

It's also easier to control your rate of descent and ascent when you're already in a horizontal position. If you're ascending too fast, you can start to kick down easily from horizontal. If you're vertical, ANY movement of your feet only serves to worsen the situation, and it takes significant repositioning to get to where you can kick down.

You definitely need to be aware of what's happening on the surface when ascending, and vertical is fine for the last bit, but for the majority of an ascent, horizontal is safer.

And yes, keep an eye on your buddy.

[captain]

Hard hat divers go down feet first, scuba divers go down horizontal or head first. I prefer head first.

[EAN3236]

feet first is best because of easy equlizing, helps you remain oriented, easyier to control bouyancy, also useful in case you need to re adjust gear and also so you can better buddy eye contact... a tequnique in adv classes to avoid silt outs is to: slow decent near the bottom, establish netural bouyancy, and when swimming try to stay well off the bottom, if you must stop and maintain contact on the bottom find a spot exhale momintarily to become slightly negitvely bouyant, and inhale as you land gentley on your knees

[fire diver]

Edited becuase I'm an idiot some times.

[warscout2]

good post ean welcome to the board

[EAN3236]

that last tip was for people who are more comfortable meeting up on the bottom prior to their dive, or need to stop and rest on bottom etc...

as for the full view of the bottom decending verticle you just look down and there's the full view of the bottom same thing if your horizantal you look straight and you see water you look down and there's bottom

as far as the gear adjusting goes that's a "just in case" factor in case you need to tighten the straps on you BCD for ex. its usually easyier to do it vertical as suppose to horizantal

of course there's nothing wrong with descending horizantally I am just giving my opionion