Buoyancy practice for beginners

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More dives help, that is what I was first taught. I recommend that as your diving, stay at one depth while your finning along, notice carefully if you rise or sink, then work on your breathing; NEVER hold your breath, but you can adjust your depth by the type of breathe you take. Say your approaching an object in your way but not too big of an object, try taking a deeper breath to allow you to rise above the object, then exhale to go back to the original depth you were at (once you've cleared the object).

As you progress with your breathing technique, it will allow you to cut back on weights.
 
As you progress with your breathing technique, it will allow you to cut back on weights.
People need to simply exhale fully rather than partially holding their breath.
 
A pool is actually a great place, maybe the best place, to practice buoyancy and get your trim squared away.

Go with your brother and just try stuff like the following out:

- go slightly overweight so you can lie flat on the bottom, take a big inhale and see if your whole body rises at the same time. If it does, you are in trim. If not, you may need to shift some weight around (but see next exercise). Remember to slowly exhale as you rise.

- get neutral and horizontal a foot or two off the bottom. Now play with your body position, extend your arms or bring them back to your sides, bend your knee so your feet go up and drop your thighs so your legs go down. Do this all slowly and see what happens to your trim (whether you stay parallel to the bottom).

- try finning a couple inches off the bottom without touching it. When you can do that, add turns. Move up a couple of feet and try it on your back. Do some corkscrews.

- swim along the wall without touching it

- do the basic skills like mask clearing and switching between primary reg and octopus while motionless in the water
 
Lots of great advice here. My favourite is doing a lot of shallow diving since that is where the pressure difference is greatest. I recall on my first dives that being deep was a piece of cake. For a while on my shore dives I would at times try swimming back to shore the hardest way-- within 3 feet (1M) of the surface, without going up or down.
It goes without saying, proper weighting starts it all. And of course trim-- can you hover horizontally?
I honestly don't think a lot of tricks are necessary as it isn't rocket science. After a few dives things should click in well. I recall at one point when I had maybe 30(?) dives I just stopped once to look at something and then realized I was hovering motionless.
 
As noted YouTube has an embarrassment of riches. My only problem with YT scuba instruction is, it's kind of overwhelming. Pick and choose.
 
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