Buoyancy during inhalation

[Unaware6905]

I've been diving over 45 years, am AOW certified, and have over 200 dives (no one logged dives that long ago). I am very satisfied with my weighting and buoyancy, in general. However, I have one particular issue that annoys me. I move up and down in the water column depending on whether I am inhaling or exhaling. My average position is where I want it to be, but I want to stay fixed there during the whole respiratory cycle. This is particularly important while photographing. Any thoughts/advice?

 

[lexvil]

Stop breathing

 

[Unaware6905]

Stop breathing

Yeah. But you can only do that once.

 

[Doctorfish]

Not possible without a rebreather.
I use my relative buoyancy to position myself for photography, then hold my breath while taking the shot.

Alternative is to hold some dead coral with free hand, but this is generally frowned upon.

 

[lexvil]

Yeah. But you can only do that once.

And it lasts forever

 

[justinthedeeps]

One more reason rebreathers are the finest of all SCUBA approaches!

All the weird 'breath techniques' on open circuit SCUBA are not so much skills, but rather coping with a suboptimal approach.

Chugging gas off huge tanks and spewing bubbles everywhere, bobbing up and down with each breath (or pretending not to, through 'skills') seems so archaic by comparison. But conveniently simple!

 

[Tom_Ivan]

What your asking is impossible but you can get very close.

1. Use shallow relaxed breath. There's lots of advice telling us to take long deep breath but I disagree. That makes buoyancy harder. I think the goal is to breath like you would when sitting on the couch at home.

2. Counter your breath with your movement. There is always a delay so when you start to ascend you start breathing out and when you start to descend start breathing in.

You should be able to stay within 10cm or 3ish inches.
Practice in the shallow end of a swimming pool trying to stay in the middle without hitting the bottom or surfacing.

 

[The Chairman]

I've been diving over 45 years, am AOW certified, and have over 200 dives (no one logged dives that long ago). I am very satisfied with my weighting and buoyancy, in general. However, I have one particular issue that annoys me. I move up and down in the water column depending on whether I am inhaling or exhaling. My average position is where I want it to be, but I want to stay fixed there during the whole respiratory cycle. This is particularly important while photographing. Any thoughts/advice?

Timing is your friend. Also, the less you move the less you need to breathe. I use that to breathe a bit shallower, resulting in a smaller delta in my buoyancy.

 

[wlecyt40]

I use this technique: I slowly release my breath until I get to where I want to be for my photo, squeeze the shutter and breathe in. Takes practice. I learned how to shoot like that while in the Army. Allows for you to avoid the "I gotta breathe now" feeling for a few seconds while you squeeze off the shot/picture. Then, just breathe in a normal breath, look at the picture you took and make sure it's what you want then move to the next. Works well for me.

 

[grantmac]

Being correctly weighted will reduce the gas needed in your BCD which will make for less change in buoyancy with depth.