Ascending from dive safely

Stan Bugg, a known scuba diver with decades of dive experience and with over 5000 logged dives gives advice to novice scuba divers on how to ascend from dive correctly:

Watch your ascent rate on all dives. You should never exceed an ascent rate of 10m/minute when diving shallower than about 30m. An ascent rate of 5-6 metres per minute is recommended in the last 10m of ascent. Complete safety stops on all dives that exceed 10m depth. The rule of thumb is 3-5 minutes at 5-6 metres. Safety stops assist with reducing excess nitrogen, which reduces the risk of decompression illness. They also slow your ascent rate, by forcing you to stop for a period of time. For dives deeper than about 24m, add an additional safety stop of at least one-minute at half of your maximum depth, before doing the usual 5-6m safety stop.

These recommendations on ascending from a dive can be found in the DAN Emergency Handbook, which Mr. Bugg is a co-author of.

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How to control one's ascent rate

Still before the advent of depth gauges, ascending on a line was the best method for controlling the ascent from dive when going on a dive from a dive boat. Nowadays it still is the same. When ascending after a shore dive, the best option to control how fast you ascend would be checking the speed of your upward movement visually against the sea bed structure.

The instrumental methods of controlling the speed of your ascent include frequently consulting your depth gauge or dive computer to ensure your ascent rate stays within the prescribed limits. The skills of buoyancy controlling by the means of letting air out of your BC and drysuit should be practiced beforhand by every diver until they see they experience no problems using these two main methods effectively and adequately to different situations.

But the real problem is that the vast majority of divers fail in their estimate of speed they are ascending at, which results in the fact that they come up faster than they think. Quite often the effective rate of their ascent exceeds even the fastest officially defined as affordably risky rate of 60 feet per minute.

Ascending in 10 foot increments stopping each time and proceeding to the next increment only after a mandatory pause may be a solution for reducing the effective ascent rate and ensuring that diver doesn't exceed the safe 10 ft/minute ascent rate.

For the last 10 feet of the ascent the majority of suba training/certification agencies recommend ascent rates never exceeding 10 ft/minute, which means safe ascending from the last 10 feet depth of a dive must take at least 60 seconds.

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There are scuba diving schools and programs in Bali that you should attend if you are not an experienced scuba diver. These programs will teach you all about breathing and safety etc. so that you can really enjoy your scuba diving. You will also explore the depths with experienced divers and instructors, who will help you make the most of your scuba diving experience. There is so much to see and learn, that you will be well advised to take advantage of one of these programs.