bouyancy control

[tndonor]

I completed my course last week. Fortunatley, it was just me and my fiance. The facility allow the both of us an hour to play in the pool, most of which I tried to achieve neutral bouyancy. I know it is an ever changing factor, but any suggestions for a newbie? I noticed I tended to orient horizontally heads up neutrally bouyant. Is that a weighting issue?

Any advice? For those that post, thanks for you time

 

[bennedc]

For me, bouyancy just came with practice....
the more you dive, the more second-nature it gets...

If you sink...put in a little air...
If you float...take out a little...still doesn't help, add 2-4 more pounds on your next dive (just be sure to balance it; wouldn't want you to be heavy on one side!)

I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it...

Just takes time...first you crawl then you walk!

 

[TSandM]

Figuring out where neutral is, and what happens to your body position in the water when you achieve it, is one of the core insights of learning to do this. You can get neutral in any particular posture in the water -- vertical, horizontal, or anything in between. The key is that you have no net drop or rise after several breath cycles. Once you ARE neutral, you can figure out what you might need to do with your weights by seeing what position you end up in -- if it's feet down, you need to move weight up your body; if it's head down, you need to move weight down. If it's off to one side or the other, perhaps your weight is asymmetrically distributed.

Learning what neutral feels like, and then adjusting your neutral posture, are so deeply important to the optimal experience of diving that it is worth whatever time and effort it takes to figure this out.

You can, as I did, find neutral and dive at a 45 degree angle to the bottom. You can do it for a long time. But you expend a lot of effort managing that, use up a lot of air, and fight the frustration that you are never stable in the water -- while your photographer friends are hovering and taking pictures, you are constantly swimming frantically in circles, because you cannot STOP. You can't stop until you have achieved a configuration and posture that allows you to be still in the water without losing your "balance".

From what I have read, this comes easily and quickly to some people. But to others, like me, it comes slowly and painfully and at the expense of a great deal of effort and thought. But it's worth it.

 

[String]

If its head-up whilst hovering your tank could be too low. Try moving it higher up the strap.

 

[cummings66]

It's also possible he's like me and no matter where he places the tank he's slightly heads up from horizontal. If that's the case he needs more weight up high and I'd use a tank camband weight pouch and move the weight up higher that way.

A lot depends on the BC he's using, does it have trim pockets, if so move weight to them, does he use a weight belt. Can he move weight off of it up higher? What's his exposure protection? In a pool he's likely to be without a wetsuit and once he's got one of those on his legs will float more and he just might be in trim.

Now if he's more vertical thqn horizontal (think tree's vs horizon) then it's just possible he's way overweighted. I know a lot of instructors overweight their students to insure they sink. It's tought to have good trim overweighted.

 

[annlaur]

Hi
here’s a great thread about breathing and buoyancy

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=129194

Good practice,

Anne-Laure

 

[craborn]

When you first start diving you are trying so hard to weight yourself properly. Once you do that work on the placement of the weights. It is a great feeling when you are really properly weighted.

 

[kensuguro]

do a couple of shallow reef dives so you can get the weights figured out. It's very, very hard to learn to hover and do neutral buoyancy if you weight aren't right.

First, get the proper amount of wieghts. Next, figure out the distribution that helps you keep good posture.

To get proper amount of weights, go on a dive and tell the DM or mate on the boat that you're going to spend a little while to figure out your weights. Maybe tell them you'll be going in last because you may need the DM to hand you some weights, or you may need to hand him some weights as you're adjusting. Then, do the weight check, which is emptying BC air, holding a normal breath, and floating at eyelevel at the surface. When you achieve that, give the DM/mate an okay sign, and start your dive.

Now you can work on distributing the weights. This really depends on the BC and the weight system (belt or integrated) you're using, but have your buddy help you. Taking weight off, and switching then around is hard to do yourself. Tell you buddy to move them around for you. This is especially useful if you're moving weights back and forth between your back trim and front integrated pouches. If you can float in a horizontal position, with more or less no finning, then you're good to go.

There's so much you can fine tune in weights, that you'll have to find a balance between how much time you're going to take to figure it out, and how much time you're going spend actually enjoying the dive. My wife's got it so perfect, she's using some 1lb weights for finetuning.

 

[Walter]

I noticed I tended to orient horizontally heads up neutrally bouyant. Is that a weighting issue?

Weight position is over rated. If you are heads up, odds are you're overweighted or not enough air in the BC to compensate for suit compression. Heads down, underweighted or too much air in the BC. This is true regardless of weight position or tank placement. You wany your tank high enough so you can reach the valve, yet low enough you don't bang your head.

 

[Doc]

About the only thing you can easily teach someone about buoyancy on the internet is how to spell it.

Doing buoyancy is equally counter-intuitive. Practice with a professional, practice by yourself. It will come!