Emergency Ascent Training: Safe or Unsafe

There has been an increasing demand on the part of scuba diving instructors and other diving authorities for a re-evaluation of emergency ascent procedures. Many diving medical authorities challenge the inclusion of open water free ascent or emergency controlled swimming ascent training in basic and advanced sport diving courses. In essence, they feel that-the potential risk of lung barotrauma is greater than the benefits to the student in such exercises. on the other hand many instructors feel that the controlled emergency swimming ascent is a vital part of scuba training and suggest that failure to practice such procedures during training is in direct violation of good diver training practices. The buddy-breathing emergency ascent procedure has been a basic method of resolving underwater emergencies related to air supply depletion or failure for years. Most instructors religiously include a considerable amount of buddy-breathing practice in pool and open water training. This emergency technique also has a number of problems associated with it. In some incidences unsuccessful attempts at buddy-breathing may have contributed to double drowning. New techniques of buoyancy control buddy-breathing ascent necessitate the evolutionary development of a “three-handed” diver. Divers are being taught to exchange mouthpieces, orally inflate vest, and maintain control of the situation throughout ascent. Some of the techniques require considerable skill and practice; they are often difficult to execute successfully under controlled pool conditions, especially for novice divers. I suggest that some of these techniques are actually hazardous to practice and virtually impossible to execute successfully in a real emergency situation. These alternatives to free ascent may actually be more hazardous than the free ascent. Divers are being injuring while practicing emergency ascents. Several cases of lung barotrauma have occurred in the southern Michigan and northern Ohio during the