Achieving neutral buoyancy

[alan_lee]

Hi all! Would like to find out how can I achieve neutral buoyancy when I'm in the water. Being a newbie, I'm able to achieve that on when I'm on the move, but when I'm supposed to remain at a particular spot, I've tread water to stay neutral. Am absolutely amazed how the experienced divers can just hover without moving their limbs! Kinda Jedi master like!

Cheerios!

 

[K9trnr]

Hi, Alan. Are you currently in an open water class or are you certified? If you're in a class, you'll cover buoyancy further as the class progresses. Since you mentioned treading water and being fine when you're on the move, it sounds like you're just a bit negatively buoyant. Adding air to the BC (in small bursts) should get you neutral. If you're certified, check out a peak performance buoyancy class. It's a great way to get practice and tips on achieving neutral buoyancy. Better buoyancy will also come with experience, but (at least with PADI) you'll need to be able to attain neutral buoyancy before becoming certified, and that's a good thing because you'll start off on the right foot (or off both feet and with no need to tread water).

 

[victor]

Alan
As Richard said it sound like you are slightly negative and your trim is feet down. This seems to be the norm for someone with as few dives as you.
You need to resolve both to become comfortable.
With your present trim if you are neutral and feet down as soon as you start to fin you will head for the surface.
See if you can get your instructor to do an advanced bouancy class, it is well worth it.
Do you have your own gear yet?
If not try and persuade the LDS to bring along different types of gear to test it is even better. Never know might get the course for free on the chance that you will buy loads of kit.

Diving of Singapore the water is toasty warm so you should not need much weight, carefull positioning of your weights on the weight belt and position on your body, will help.
Changing fins from negative bouancy to positive bouancy can make a huge difference.
Remember you must do some tests with nearly empty tanks to avoid being buoyant at the end of your dive.

 

[Matthew]

Hi, Alan! After adding air to your bc so youre neutral, try to get a feel for how your breathing affects your buoyancy. You should start to rise when you make a long, full inhale (but dont hold your breath) and start to sink when you do a long exhale. With practice you can use your breathing to control your depth. This is how the Jedi master does it.

 

[alan_lee]

Thks everyone, for the advice!

Re my weights, yea, I do reckon that I'm over-weighted by at least 1 piece (2lbs?), cos initially, my buoyancy control was practically non-existent, tended to breathe way too much. All in all, I used 6 pieces of weights (I'm 84kg/185lbs) and dive with a 3mm shorty.

Actually, I dun feel comfortable with air in my BC cos of my concern with the air expanding at shallower depths. Am hoping to achieve neutral buoyancy with just my breathing. I know it's a long road, but it's something I'm determined to do.

 

[furore]

You can control your bouyancy with your breathing, but it is a bit wrong to say you want to achieve neutral with breathing. The downside of relying on breathing techniques all the time is greater air consumption too.

Neutral bouyancy is something you and your BC have to sort out

Cheers

 

[gcbryan]

Thks everyone, for the advice!

Re my weights, yea, I do reckon that I'm over-weighted by at least 1 piece (2lbs?), cos initially, my buoyancy control was practically non-existent, tended to breathe way too much. All in all, I used 6 pieces of weights (I'm 84kg/185lbs) and dive with a 3mm shorty.

Actually, I dun feel comfortable with air in my BC cos of my concern with the air expanding at shallower depths. Am hoping to achieve neutral buoyancy with just my breathing. I know it's a long road, but it's something I'm determined to do.

Put some air in your BC, that's what it's there for You will be overweighted at the beginning of a dive by at least the weight of the air in your tank. As you use that air you will need to vent your BC but that's part of the "skill" of diving.

Make fine adjustments with your breathing but don't do so because you are afraid of putting air in your BC.

 

[Matthew]

You can control your bouyancy with your breathing, but it is a bit wrong to say you want to achieve neutral with breathing. The downside of relying on breathing techniques all the time is greater air consumption too.

Neutral bouyancy is something you and your BC have to sort out

Cheers

Of course you have to add and vent air from your bc as you change depth, but I wont do that everytime I want to get just a bit closer to the bottom, or to rise slightly to avoid an obstacle. The other alternative would be to fin or use your hands, which is what results in greater air consumption.

Whenever you stop moving, your breathing will always have an effect on your depth because of the changes in your lungs' volume, and you can use that to your advantage. If you dont take that into consideration, you'll never hover like the Jedi master.

 

[SmileMon]

I don't know about other BCs, I use back inflated BC.

For me if I don't have enough air in my BC, I'm head up, fin down, finning to keep myself bouyant.
If I have enough air in my BC, I'm horizontal.
If I have too much air and I'm using it to my advantage, I'm head down, fin up and bearly finning to watch something up close.

If I have too my air and I'm not doing anything about it, I start going up, the first 5 feet is slow, the other is quick...

If I have enough air in the BC but I'm in the sitting position, I start to drop (for some weird reason or unknown physical laws), taking a big breath stops me from dropping.

 

[Walter]

I've tread water to stay neutral.

Then you are not neutral, you are overcoming being negatively buoyant.

You can control your bouyancy with your breathing, but it is a bit wrong to say you want to achieve neutral with breathing. The downside of relying on breathing techniques all the time is greater air consumption too.

You have it reversed. Adding air and dumping it through out the dive wastes air. While you do use your BC (assuming you are wearing a wet suit) to achieve something close to neutral buoyancy, the fine tuning is done with breathing. Once you start relying primarily on breathing to control buoyancy (I never add air to my BC when diving with no wet suit and a single tank), your air consumption will drop.

I don't know about other BCs, I use back inflated BC.

For me if I don't have enough air in my BC, I'm head up, fin down, finning to keep myself bouyant.
If I have enough air in my BC, I'm horizontal.
If I have too much air and I'm using it to my advantage, I'm head down, fin up and bearly finning to watch something up close.

That's simple physics and works the same with any BC.

If I have enough air in the BC but I'm in the sitting position, I start to drop (for some weird reason or unknown physical laws),

When you move to a sitting position, you move part of your body deeper so your wetsuit and the air in the BC compresses.