Buoyancy Issues

[TSandM]

Tracy, I went to your profile, and I couldn't find anything there to direct me to a video.

As I'm reading it, you are diving with a shortie suit and an Al80, and probably therefore using very little weight at all. I hear you about the tank -- at 5'4", I have some of the same issues. If you can't move weight up (because you can't move the tank and you aren't using weight) then all you have left is two things -- posture, and the material of your fins.

But it would be my guess that you are using SOME weight -- I used 7 pounds in salt water with a 3 mil wetsuit and an Al80, and that was with a BP/W, so no padding or anything. With a traditional BC, which tends to be 1 to 3 pounds positive, and the tank, which is 4 lbs positive when empty, I would think you'd still be using something in the range of 5 or 6 pounds of weight. If so, you can take a tank or ankle weight, and wrap it around the tank neck (this is assuming that posture has been solved, and the feet low problem persists).

I'd like to see the video; it would make it possible to be much more specifically helpful.

 

[Bappelt]

Lynne - If you click on the one photo post under her avatar it takes you to her gallery where the video is.

 

[Scott]

Tracy, I went to your profile, and I couldn't find anything there to direct me to a video.

TracyN Gallery - ScubaBoard Gallery

 

[TSandM]

Thanks for the link, Scott, but it didn't do me any good. Whatever the format of that video is, I can't read it.

 

[boulderjohn]

OK, I have seen it. Lynne, it worked for me in Windows Media. I use Firefox, and I needed to download the plugin, which I happened to do yesterday for a project.

Observations:

1. You are not nearly neutrally buoyant. You are fighting with both fins and hands to stay at your depth constantly. Thae balance between your weight and the air in your BCD should take care of that.

2. Your weight is all too low, which is one reason you are constantly going vertical. Think of a see saw with a huge person at one end and a tiny person at the other.

3. You are kicking with a technique called a bicycle kick. (More below.)

I suggest that you go to a pool and start off with a proper weight check in the pool. It should not take a lot of weight. For me personally in a pool, I don't need any weight with a 3 mm shorty. Once you are in the pool, focus on swimming with as little movement as possible. Fold your arms across your chest--absolutely no hand movement allowed for this practice!

Next, kick as gently as you can. You should have the sense that the only purpose of the kick is to take you where you want to go, not to keep you at a certain depth. Work on the flutter kick first. Your legs should be straight, with s-l-o-w and gentle kicks starting at your hips. In the video you are pumping your knees, as on a bicycle. This makes the fins go back and forth through the water like a knife, providing very little thrust. In a flutter kick, the fins go up and down; in a bicycle kick, they go front and back.

During most of your swimming, stay inches from the bottom. If your chest is inches from the bottom, then your legs can't be under you, can they?

Now work on long, slow, relaxed, gentle breathing. Try to get the sense that you might fall asleep while you are doing this.

While swimming near the deep end of the pool, practice changing your depth with your breathing. Try to go up a little bit by inhaling more deeply than before. Try to go back down by exhaling more completely than before. If you are properly weighted and neutral, you should be able to control your depth from the top of the deep end to the bottom solely by adjusting the amount of air in your lungs.

That's just a start. Once you have a feel for that, you can start working on your next steps for buoyancy.

 

[TSandM]

Yeah, it told me I needed a plugin, but it couldn't find one. I tried watching it in IE, but I get the audio and no picture

 

[DavidLoPan]

my 2 cents: but if you have access to a pool you can practice at the deep end (preferably 10' end). If you can hone in the basic skills for buoyancy control at this depth you can achieve it at any depth.
But as others have proposed it's a matter of practice, using your lungs, and/or shifting weights accordingly.

 

[TSandM]

One thing that might help is having a really good visual image of what you are trying to accomplish. Find the 5thD-x videos on YouTube and watch them; Andrew is a beautiful model of what a properly trimmed and stable diver looks like in the water. You could also watch any of Rainer's, or KMD's videos -- you'll see very stable and balanced divers in them.

 

[TracyN]

The buoyacy Gods are finally starting to smile on me. I finally got horizonatal today. I dropped from 8lbs to 6lbs and this helped tremendously. I barely had to use my arms to swim and I wasn't bicycle kicking as much. I even managed to hover for awhile which is how I managed to take my profile picture. Thank you for all your advice. The dive was much more enjoyable today.