Bouyancy problems

[diverrick]

I have to agree with all of the other inputs here for bouyancy control. I for one, have a "zen" like experience everytime I hit that perfect sweet spot, where you can just hang there by your breathing! It takes a while for sure, but once you feel it, you'll never forget it.

 

[StSomewhere]

I also noticed many new divers fin vertically like they were cycling. If you could get your body to be horizontal, the finning would be effective and that would also make buoyancy easier to control (less exertion and hence slower breathing with added bonus of lower air consumption).

Mermaid, for a new diver this is probably the single piece of advice that will make the most difference the fastest (trust me).

You'd be surprised at how much your feet move even when you think they are still. When you first learned to tread water by doing the bicycle kick, you were inadvertently ingraining exactly the *worst* habits (vertical, bicycle kick, possibly sculling with your hands) for good buoyancy on scuba.

There are instructors on this board who have far more comprehensive buoyancy clinics than the gawdawful PADI PPB (Peak Performance Buoyancy). I learned tons in one long afternoon with jbd who is here in SB and is an instructor in KY, I can't imagine how much I would've absorbed if I had the whole weekend to devote to the clinic instead of one day. I still work on the stuff we covered in that clinic on every dive, it was that spot on.