voodooconstant(Offline)

Could someone please describe the basic idea of how to perform a horizontal accent? In my OW we were taught to get neutral or slightly negative, then fin up slowly while venting. From DIR vids I've seen, it looks like they just go up like magic. Is there a specific method of doing it or is it just a "practice breath and wing control until you get it" type thing?

/Matt

JeffG(Offline)

No...Its magic.

Mats Edenfeldt(Offline)

Just keep a horizontal trim as usual, when you come to the accent part just fill up your BCD to get the accent started and maintain the same position. Or if you have big lungs just start the assent by taking a deep breath, remember don’t hold your breath. If you are properly trimmed with lead you should be able to change you buoyancy just by inhaling or exhaling heavily and this is a great basic tool for the accent and the general trim during diving. Then during the way up you control the rate of accent with the BCD and you breath. The BCD is the major control device during accent and the breathing is the fine-tuning when you make your deco stops for instance. Practice makes perfect. The magic you refer to is no magic it’s just a lot of training

Good luck.

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Rich Walker(Offline)

Matt,

It's all done with the breathing. At all points of the dive, we're trying to be perfectly neutrally buoyant. Any up-down motion is initiated by either inhaling or exhaling.

So when we begin our ascent, we take a breath in, and we start to rise. Once you're moving up, resume normal breathing. Dump the wing as necessary, and alternate this with drysuit dumping too, avoiding getting too much gas in the suit, as it will become difficult to manage if you don't deal with it.

Thats all there is to it, really. And a bit of practice

Rich

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Education, Equipment, Experience
GUE training with Rich Walker

Sterny(Offline)

Or a LOT of practice!

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"I thought I had a great idea today, but it never really took off. In fact, it didn't even get on the runway. I guess you could say it exploded in the hangar." - Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

limeyx(Offline)

Yup -- I was firmly convinced it was all a joke at first, and horizontal ascents were impossible.

Just takes practice and perseverence

ppo2_diver(Offline)

I agree, it take a lot of practice. I'm fine until I have to dump air from the wing. I'm still trying to get over my bad habit of using the deflator hose rather than the rear dump on the wing. Practice, practice, and more practice.

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Precision Diving

StephenT(Offline)

i've started using the rear dump. It's ten times easier to use than the inflator hose, i'll never use the inflator hose again tbh.

QBU(Offline)

Matt,

As the others have pointed out, breath control is the key. I'd like to mention that in addition to that, I will push my legs and feet out hence raising my head and slightly changing my position and aiding my breathing, and on the flip side, on descent, I suck my heels in towards my butt and then drop my head a bit.

Besides, it gives my legs a chance to stretch/move and warm up.

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"C"

Brando(Offline)

Hi Matt,
Thought I'd chime in w/a few more thoughts.
As already pointed out by Rich, this is all done w/breathing. A few things may help make this easier though (or more difficult, depending on where the diver is actually at with these items)
Basically, if the diver is properly balanced, the amount of gas in the wing is minimal to achieve neutral buoyancy. If the diver is overweighted and requires much more gas in the wing to be neutral, then the result is a greater expansion of gas and therefore more lift for the same rise in the water column as the diver w/less gas in their wing.
Does this make sense?
Practicing ascending and descending in the water column between 20' and 15' using only your breath will help hone this skill. IOW, at 20' (6m), a 5' (1.5m) change in depth should be able to be done w/only breath control. This is obviously more difficult w/full twins than a single bottle. But still doable.
Hope that may be useful to you!

Best regards,
brando