How do you hover?

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IMO, it’s all about timing. You’ll need to begin your exhale before you actually start to rise in the water - and begin your inhale before you begin to sink. It may seem counterintuitive. And practice is the only way to get a feel for the timing. Good luck!
Yeah, that's about it, assuming proper weighting. I used to practice vertically, but have found myself hovering horizontally at times. I don't bother with practicing this anymore-- what for? I guess I hover over a flounder before poke spearing it.
 
Yeah, that's about it, assuming proper weighting. I used to practice vertically, but have found myself hovering horizontally at times. I don't bother with practicing this anymore-- what for? I guess I hover over a flounder before poke spearing it.

I hover while waiting for a fish to emerge or move to a better spot for my picture. :wink: Of course a lot depends on current/surge, but it’s a useful skill.
 
I hover because I can. And spending hours at 6m/20' decompressing gives you plenty of time to practice.

To the OP... We call it the core skills: buoyancy, trim and finning. Crack those and diving is really easy. If you've got a camera you don't need to think about hovering as you just do it. Being flat trim means you're streamlined. Being able to fin correctly and move without using your hands or kicking up the silt below.

Watching divers in some upward trim flapping their legs around like there's no tomorrow and floating up and down really isn't nice for them or the people watching them.

Hence it's practice. It does help to have someone show you what good looks like too.
 
I have spent a lot of time in the beginning to master the skill of breathing. Easier said than done for me. Practice and practice.
Give it time.
Lung is the secondary bc.
 
Hovering at constant depth without movement has a lot to do with feeling relaxed.
Focusing on normal relaxed breathing, not holding your breath, relaxing those muscles, letting the water support you, not trying to control things by fin kicks or sculling...

It is good to spend some time under water without actively swimming anywhere. Just stay there and enjoy.
 
One of the (few) advantages to training in a shallow pool is that it makes this sort of thing much harder, because you have very little depth to play with, and because the bottom is always just there, in full view, you can easily see exactly how good, or bad, your trim and vertical control actually is!

Thanks to lockdowns, and other limitations, i've spent my last 10 odd dives in less than 3m of water, so moving back to actual depth, say 20 meters, wow, what a difference ;-)
 
Luckily, we have pretty nice shore dive sites near here (~10' up to 40') and I usually go to 20' to practice.
The challenge, though, is to find a 20' area with sandy bottom.

I hate it when I sink onto a kelps/seaweed covered area because it looks scary (who knows what's in there! maybe a lobster or a crab waiting to bite me!)
 
I struggled with trim and buoyancy when I was a new diver.
I rolled left.
I rolled right.
My feet sank.
My head sank.
I tried and tried and tried, but I could never hover.
So I kept practicing.

One day, halfway through a dive, I realized that all of my problems had disappeared.
Practice, practice, practice.

Oh, and relax. If you tense your body, you initiate an asymmetrical roll momentum.
Relax, relax, relax. Stop fighting it.
 
Ditto to the other great suggestions already posted. What I have also found to be useful is my mind set. There are variables in underwater environments. Oceans present surge(s), currents, temperature variations( these impact gas density), and certainly tidal changes. Wrecks and caves have currents, flows, and restrictions and inside wrecks, surges, and large water volume changes in relatively confines spaces which create a venturi effect that defiantly challenge neutral buoyancy.

Understanding that these "external" factors influence the environment that you are attempting to establish neutral buoyancy in. If you expand the sense of the space that you occupy from a "fixed" place to the idea of an "area" that you occupy it is easier initially to maintain buoyancy in a "space" rather than the "place".

Weighting influences both trim and buoyancy demands. But so too does knowing your on board gas locations/capacity and prioritizing your management of that system. You have to determine first are my lungs my primary controlling mechanism or an alternative, i.e. BC, dry suit or depth. For example, will I use the pressure gradients at various depths to compress or inflate my wet suit or dry suit? So your lungs( lung volume), your BC, your wet suit and/or dry suit all present gas management opportunities.

For example, when I dove the Bonne Terre mine, my priority was neutral buoyancy and warmth. I managed my buoyancy and internal environment via my dry suit. Getting the right trim while I was vertical was one thing, changing the trim when I became horizontal another. Dry suits have a large volume of gas to manage. Small changes with gas can make big changes in neutral buoyancy.

Breathing influence the gas volume within your lungs that can raise or sink you depending on your both you inhalation volume and rate of your breathing, as well as your depth. Reducing task load and mentally centering help a lot with this. The more comfortable you become in an ocean environment the more proficient you will become in maintaining and sustaining neutral buoyance whether you are vertical or horizontal, or for that matter up side down.

A great tool that I have learned to maintain and sustain neutral buoyancy in an ocean environment is a john line. This simple tether has been invaluable to me in learning how to maintain neutral buoyancy at any depth. The line allows me to "See" visually where I am in a 360 degree environment and maintain my neutrality. I may be doing a deco stop at 20 feet and the surface waves change my immediate overhead from 20 to 15 feet and back. Using the john line is not only a visual aid but as a tether keeps me where I want and need to be.

The same principles apply if you are in an overhead environment, wreck, cavern or cave. Mind set and awareness of your depth( pressure gradients) as well as the environmental factors that you cannot control make it easier to adapt and trim. The only way to get experience is to get experience so get wet, stay safe, and dont skip those deco stops.
 
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