Buoyancy control and orientation in the water?

[GregA2k6]

Hello again!

Thanks to those who helped me with my earlier question! (I'll try not to badger you guys too much with my beginner questions!)

The main impetus for my wife and I to get our PADI certification is for our trip to Australia this summer. We will be landing in Cairns and will have about 5 weeks to spend in the north end of the continent making our way over to Darwin via 4x4. (as well as 5 days in New Zealand) Now.....the fragility of the reef has me thinking about bouyancy!

Clearly you need to be in total contol of your bouyancy and depth when near a reef. I have two questions. I had my first pool dive last night and had a few issues. I had a leak in my BCD and I was unable to keep myself at any particular depth with consistency. I assume the leak would compound with my inexperience to make this a bit of a challenge?

Secondly, I found that my "orientation" in the water was quite a bit off. I couldn't seem to stop my hips and legs from sagging. I seemed that, whenever I kicked, I was pushing myself upwards into shallower water as a result. (which then caused the air in my BCD to expand which then had me rising quicker...ug!) When I was in the shallow end doing mask clears and removing my reg. I had a hard time staying on the bottom. The instructor added some weight. (I'm not sure how much I actually had) Could that be the issue? What should I change for next time?

I realize that experience will help a lot with these issues and that I shouldn't expect to get everything right on my first pool dive. I will definitely make sure I get help from my instructor with this but I thought I might pick the brains of the people here in the meantime. I guess I had so much fun (despite those difficulties) that I am a bit eager (to say the least!) to get my head around these issues and understand how to improve.

Thanks again for reading!

GregA

 

[MoonWrasse]

A leaky BCD shouldn't impact buoyancy control that much, unless the leak was major, IMO.

How much weight did you have on? Remember that you will likely increase your weight when you hit salt water, compounding your position issues.

You may want to consider a PPB class as well.

 

[JKSteger]

You are correct. It WILL take some experience to get a grasp on bouancy control. However the first thing that would help (beside a BCD that didn't leak) is to perform a weight test. You should enter the water with all your gear and a tank that is near empty. Then move to an area that is slightly "over your head". Let all the air out of your BCD and then take a normal breath and hold it in. You should float about "eye level". Exhaling you should start to sink.

If you are not "eye level" with a normal breath, adjust weights accordingly. If you are above the water more then add a small amout of weight then try it again until you get it right. If you sink then take small amounts of weight off and repeat until you get the right amount of weights.

If you do the weightcheck in freshwater then dive in salt you will need to add about 6 pounds.

Then remember how much weight was required. Also remember what you were geared in while testing. ie. 7mm fullsuit, 3mm shortie, etc. What BCD? What size tank? Aluminum or Steel? If your configuration changes then you need to do a weight check in that gear.

Hope this helps.

Jeremy

 

[Damselfish]

Just the fact that you are already aware of this and thinking about it is a big step in the right direction. Many new divers aren't. (Some old divers aren't. :11: )

 

[Walter]

Most of your buoyancy is controlled by breathing, not by your BC. Dive as much as possible between now and your trip.

 

[H2Andy]

Greg, two common problems.

legs dropping: you have too much weight behind your center of gravity.
you need to weight yourself optimally (i.e. reduce weight) and then
re-position some of that weight above your center of gravity (i used
weight pockets on my top tank band to carry 4 lbs, and then wore
2 lbs on my belt, for example).

bouyancy: this is the hardest skill. it will come with time. as Walter says,
watch how you breathe. the key is to get ahead of the curve. anticipate
when you'll need more air in your bc (descending) and when you'll need
less (ascending) and stay ahead of the curve. then make small adjustments
with your breathing, not with the BC. this takes a while to get
down pat, but if you keep trying, it will come to you.

 

[Willie]

Most of your buoyancy is controlled by breathing, not by your BC.

That is if you are weighted properly to start with. So do the check mentioned by JKSteger in post 3 to get a good start.

Dive as much as possible between now and your trip.

Excellent advice. Dive easier sites and with competent buddies as often as you can until your confidence in the technique improves. If you are always with a new person at a new place, you will spend a lot of time concentrating on those other issues.

And make notes in your dive log about the gear and weight amount for reference in similar circumstances later.

 

[Darnold9999]

Re boyancy, others have given you good advice. Learn here, you will need to adjust when you get there so it is worth learning how to adjust here.

Strongly suggest that you plan a liveaboard for some part of your trip. Day trips are OK and I am glad I did a couple, but a liveaboard is an order of magnitude better. You see so much more of the reef and the diving is WAY better.

 

[Davwardo]

You will find a lot of information on this forum about buoyancy control!

As a new diver myself ( about 50 dives ), I found that the main 3 things that made a massive difference for me were:

1) Correct Weighting.

The correct procedure to test your weighting has already been explained above. Make sure you recheck each time you dive in difference exposure suits. Never let someone just guess for you! It was also very good advice to write in your log book your weights / kit / suit used and how you felt your buoyancy control on that dive.

Without correct weights, your buoyancy is never going to be right.

2) Correct BC use.

As a new diver, people often use the BC as a lift ( add air = go up ). Obviously, this is totally wrong ( and dangerous due to the risk of out of control ascents ) and this should have been explained clearly by a good instructor.

The other thing that people tend to do is to put far too much air into the BC. This is often a symptom of being overweighted! Only put in / remove small amounts of air and WAIT to see the effect before adding / removing more air. My buoyancy improved 100% as soon as I started doing this.

The only exception would be if you need to dump air quickly.

3) Breathing.

Your BC helps you to attain neutral buoyancy ( remember, small bursts of air then wait to see the effect ) but your breathing finetunes it. There is a lot of information on the forum on breathing but a good tip I was given was to breath like Darth Vader ( very slow and deliberate ). I found that this type of slow breathing really helped me. As an aside, it also helps to keep me more relaxed under water.

Hope this helps. Ultimately, great buoyancy only comes with experience. I still work on buoyancy on almost every dive and am a long way from perfect ( good excuse to keep getting back in the water ). Good Luck.

 

[Scuba-newbie]

Some great info in this post!