Buoyancy Issues

[RonFrank]

It can be a number of things including being overweighted which is a common problem for new divers. It is hard to solve the problem online. You can either find an experienced buddy to work on this, or a Peak Performance Buoyancy (PADI) class is available. You will get better over time. So for now you can also not worry about it, and work on buoyancy first. Trim will come in time. It can be as simple as moving weight.

 

[Scott]

My buddy was videotaping me and I noticed that my legs hang down and I cannot get horizontal. Do I need more weight? I have a weight integrated BCD.

Some good advice so far sight un seen. We may be able to add some addtional value if you could upload the video.

 

[RonFrank]

It would be helpful if you knew how to work on buoyancy, and that is easy online, or explaining it is.

Stop moving. Stop kicking, stop waving you arms about. Have a buddy check this cause there are those that kick and swear they are not.

Once you stop moving if you sink add air, a little at a time. If you float up let a little out of your BC. You should be able to float nuteral and control you buoyancy with your lungs. Do things in small measure. Add or subtract a small amount of air at a time.

When you breath IN you will slowly start to rise. When you Exhale you should slowly start to sink. By slowly inhaling then exhaling you should be able to achieve nothingness!

Do this at maybe 40' as it easier when you are a bit deeper. Then again if you are more comfortable shallow that is fine, but fine control is harder the shallower you go.

It may be harder at first than it sounds, but this is buoyancy in a nutshell.

 

[flots am]

Hey all,

Does anyone have any tips on how to attain neutral buoyancy? I can manage in large open enivironments but when I get into smaller environments I have some difficulty. I think it might have to do with my weight. My buddy was videotaping me and I noticed that my legs hang down and I cannot get horizontal. Do I need more weight? I have a weight integrated BCD.

It's all about weights.

Your weights need to be:

• Just enough
• In the right places

Just enough:
You need exactly the amount of weight it takes to sink you with some air in your lungs and a nearly empty tank. The only way to determine this magic amount is to get a nearly empty tank (~500) and get in the water with your buddy and some small weights, then start with no weight and add more until you just sink. Whatever you come up with is exactly what you need.

Anything more than this amount will increase the amount of air you need in your BC to remain neutral, and anything less than this will make it difficult or impossible to hold your position at the end if the dive.

In The Right Places:
Once you know how much weight you need, you can move it around until you can remain horizontal with little effort. This can be done by taking some of the weight off your weight-belt and putting it in the trim pockets of your BC, or using an adjustable weight harness, or even placing some of the weights on an extra cam band on your tank. You can also move your tank up or down a little, which may help.

All you need to do is re-distribute the weight until you're happy and horizontal and you'll be all set.

It's not magic, it's just physics.

Have fun!

flots.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

At one time or another, most of the buoyancy guru's, including those who have already posted in this thread, speak of the "fleeting moment" of neutral buoyancy. If our breathing is continuous, the actual moment of "neutrality" is milliseconds in duration. With experience/practice "momentum shifts" can be timed to produce gentle, small, controlled oscillations in one's depth.

I teach a slightly head lower than knees body position; not horizontal. That way the majority of the air bubble in the BC bladder is directly above, or even behind, the majority of the lead weights. I think a slight arch in the back is "natural" and using larger muscles is preferable to using smaller muscles, from an O2/CO2 perspective.

Fins &/or booties can also play a part; a less negative fin with thicker neoprene booties will help some divers arch with less flex. Dry Suit divers seem to me to have it easier here, when they are able to manipulate the amounts of air in each calf. I do not think your BC has trim pockets, so there are also aftermarket tank strap weight pockets you could add to move some weight forward of the integrated pocket location.

Finally, while I think experienced divers can "trim out" in pretty much any BC, for many beginning divers (body type, finning style, posture, ...) some BC's are definitely easier to use than others, and I am glad I now only have to deal with Oceanic BC's when some guest/client brings their own.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Buoyancy and trim are functions of weighting, breathing, being able to relax, and can be taught in the OW class if the instructor so chooses. I do not teach a buoyancy class in the official sense because number one we don't have one in my agency - they are taught in the OW class. And two, a by the book approach usually does not work for everyone. I considered a PPB class when I was a new diver but dropped the idea because it was going to be done by the book and the book did not adress my issues in the order they needed to be done.

I therefore conduct buoyancy and trim workshops that are tailored to each individual diver. Only one item seems to stay the same for everyone- a proper weight check. Everything else is addressed in the order that I see as needing attention first. Sometimes it's gear, other times where the weight is placed, and still other times body position is the area that needs attention.

Generic courses don't work IMO. At least as well as a tailored ones. There is also no need to spend money for a card that says you can swim neutral and in trim. That's what the OW card should indicate. The way I accomplish that is to start out horizontal and develop all skills from that posture. Having a buddy or instructor to help you is a real plus. PROVIDED they know how to control their own buoyancy and maintain trim. I've seen more than a few pros who could use some serious practice in those areas. Tammy had a good suggestion earlier in the thread. Work on your buoyancy and trim in shallow water. Say 6-8 feet.

First get properly weighted. Pick a point or create your own with a yard stick. Focus first on relaxing. If you are not relaxed you will not be able to do this. Next get your breathing in a regular rhythm. Not just for a few seconds but for several minutes and while you are doing this work on skills- reg recovery, weights remove and replace, and mask remove and replace. None of these should bring about a change in your breathing pattern. Not in depth of breath or rate. No reason they should. Then get in front of the mark and take hold of it. Or put your finger on it. Adjust your BC so that you are neither moving up nor down and get your breathing in that nice regular rhythm. Then take your hand away and concentrate on relaxing and keeping that point at the same level in your line of sight. When you can do that for three minutes you've made a start. Then do it while clearing your mask, and removing and replacing it. Take your reg out a drop it. You should be able to recover it without a change in depth.

That'll do for a start.

 

[boulderjohn]

Positioning of weights can help, and for a recreational diver a trim weight on the cam band or an ankle weight around the tank valve can help solve a head up trim issue. Redistribution of needed weight is ok, but adding weight is always a bad idea as it aggravates the buoyancy control issues.

Overweighting requires you to carry extra gas in the BC and that larger volume of gas also changes volume more with slight changes in depth, especially in shallow water. So more weight equals more gas which equals more change in buoyancy and the need for more frequent adjustments.

While I agree with the overall concepts here, I think that if you had to choose between weight location and overweighting, weight location is more important.

I realized this on a dive trip to a resort area in Mexico. I found myself on a typical recreational diving vacation with my old back inflate, weight-intgrated BCD. The problem was that to be properly weighted for the dive, I needed 8 pounds, and the boat only had 4-pound weights. I thus had 2 choices: 1) properly weighted with all the weight on my hips, or 2) grossly overweighted (16 pounds) with the weight evenly distributed between the hip pockets and the shoulder trim pockets.

I had been for the previous months trying to master buoyancy using steel doubles with a BP/W, and when you dive with large steel doubles, you have no choice but to be significantly overweighted early in the dive. I had gotten used to that feeling, so I went with the 16 pounds evenly distributed. It was a delightful dive. I felt completely in control of my buoyancy and trim. Every dive I ever did after that with that BCD was done with the goal of even distribution in mind. Ideally, I wanted 4 2-pound weights, but I learned that I could deal with anything (depending upon whatever the operator had available) as long as I came as close as possible to having the same amount of weight in my trim pockets as my hip pockets.

When I was teaching classes in the pool and was required to use the jacket BCDs the shop had, which had no trim pockets, I found some way to get some lead up high, even if it was just putting an ankle weight up by the tank valve.

BCDs and bodies are different, so your results will vary. Just play with the weight until it feels right.

 

[diveprof]

Lots of good advice here so far. From your description, feet down head up, it sounds like you may be somewhat overweighted. Moving weight around with use of the trim pockets may help trim, but only if your weighting is right. To me the best way to assess proper weighting is when you have completed your safety stop at the end of the dive, purge remaining air down to 500 psi. Use smaller weights and pass them off to your dive buddy until you can hold position with minimal air in your BCD. Another comment, you state that you do well in open spaces but not so well in more confined spaces. Are these confined spaces also shallow? Wetsuit compress minimally above 15'. You may require more weighting if the dive is above these depths. You can still adjust trim though with use of trim pockets or moving your tank up or down a bit in the cam band.

 

[TracyN]

Thank you everyone for your advice. This is a lot to sift through and play with. For starters I'm only 5"2 and 104 lbs so there really is no fat on me. I tend to sink quickly. Because of my height I don't think it's practical for me to move the tank up much higher on my back. I hit my head the way it is sometimes. Diveprof made a good point about shallow water and wet suits. Much of the dive was within 7-10 feet of water and I had a shorty wet suit on. There was a lot of manuevering through and between rocks because we were diving near a rock jetty. Scott made a good suggestion about posting the video. If I can figure out how to upload it, I have a short video that I made to post on Facebook. Then my horrible form will be available for all to see!

 

[TracyN]

Ok I figured out how to upload a video. Let the critique begin! First off I know I need to control my gauges. My BC does not have a great way to secure them so I'm going to have to figure out how to engineer something. Some of my problem might have been that I was trying to avoid hitting the reef. It seemed as though I was very close to the reef and I didn't want my fins to hit however from the video it appears I had plenty of room. I guess just go to my profile to see the video because I don't know how to post a link for it here.