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At 09:23 PM 12/9/99 -0500, Lee Gibson and Lucy Bonilla wrote: Hello Lee, >I assume you reach the bottom in a cloud of silt sitting in the impact >crater that you've made from your rapid descent with empty wings and kicking >on your way down. Let's not stretch the truth in support of a good >concept. You should not descend at a rate greater than your BC inflator can >keep up....unless you have the new tech braking system to deploy moments >before impact:>) >Lee > >Mike Rodriguez wrote: > >> At 02:30 PM 12/9/99 +0100, Frank Riffel wrote: >> >> >3) Stress: This is the real reason to reduce your descent rate. If >> >you descent slower: >> > * bouyancy control is easier and more precise >> > * equalization is easier >> > * you have time to look for your buddies and your equipment >> > * you reach the bottom much more relaxed >> >For my taste a descent rate of 45-35fpm is just fine. >> >> If I descended at less than 120 to 180 fpm minimum, I'd drift well >> past half the wrecks I dive before I even saw them. My descent >> rate is as fast as possible with no air in the wings and usually >> kicking slightly as well. This isn't hyperbole. A free descent to a wreck at ~300 feet is not going to happen without this rate of descent if there's any current to speak of. I've confirmed my rates by looking at the dive profile in my bottom-timer log after the dive. A 120 to 180 fpm descent is only two to three feet per second. That's not an implausibly fast descent, and it is in fact the rate at which I descend to deeper sites. And I don't even need a parachute. :-) I'm not boasting... this is just the way I *routinely* do it. There are numerous people on this list with whom I dive who can confirm this; what's more, most of them have no trouble keeping up with me, so I don't understand your incredulity. On some days when the current is really going, I wish I could go even faster, but that would require vigorous kicking, which I avoid on the way down for obvious reasons. Note that I dive ENDs well under 100 feet, so narcosis from rapid compression is manageable and dissipates quickly once the compression stops. As for the BC inflator, once I see the wreck or the sand, I spread out my body and get on the inflator. The extra drag *immediately* arrests the descent to ~40 fpm (again confirmed by bottom-timer logs) and the inflator catches up with me to neutral within 30 seconds or so. I've *never* hit the bottom or anything else for that matter. -Mike Rodriguez <mikey@ma*.co*> Pn(x) = (1/(2^n)n!)[d/dx]^n(x^2 - 1)^n -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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