Descents - 5 Point Procedure

In order to make a comfortable decent there are a few things you need to do first. You and your buddy need to put together your equipment and preform the pre-dive safety procedure B.W.R.A.F. Once that is completed, enter the water and put air into your BCD to about 1/4 fill, or just enough to keep your head above water. Do not over fill your BCD. Next, put in your snorkel in your mouth, it should come from the left side, while the regulator comes from the right. Swim to your desired dive spot, doing a snorkel swim. At this point, if you use your regulator you will be using precious air that you could be using while under water. Conserve your air.
Once at your site, the 5 point procedure begins.

Step 1: OK
While facing your buddy, give the OK to go down and start the dive. You and your buddy need to agree to "go down". This first step insures that both of you are ready to begin the dive, and insures both are on the "same page".

Step 2: LOCATION
This simply means that you pick out a point somewhere on shore, or a anchored boat. By doing this you start out having a reference point. If you make a straight down descent, once on the bottom and at depth you know which direction the reference is. This, of course, is based on a non-compass dive, which I DO NOT recommend. You need to learn how to use the compass, and always dive with one. Trust me, you NEED the Compass.

Step 3: TIME
Take a look at your watch and make a mental note of the time. This time is what you will use to calculate your final dive profile. Later I will go over how to calculate a diver profile, but for now a time is defined as the start of the descent to the start of the ascent. Like I said this start time is important for this reason.

Step 4: SNORKEL / REGULATOR EXCHANGE
At this point you have your snorkel in your mouth, and need to remove it and place in your regulator. You do this by holding the snorkel in your left hand while the regulator is in your right. Now, take out the snorkel and place in your regulator. Make sure you clear your regulator of water before breathing thought it.

Step 5: LET THE AIR OUT OF YOUR BCD
With your left hand place it on the manual inflator button. Raise it above your head, so as gravity and water puts a force on the BCD which allows air to be released. This makes you negatively buoyant, because now you weigh heavier than the water you displace, and therefore you sink.

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