Buoyancy problem with drysuit when entering shallower water - solution?

[onfloat]

Go out in 30 ft of water and practice your ascents. Stop every 10 ft and hold for 1 min. Dedicate the whole dive to it. As said before vent early and vent often. I have found that raising my left arm, elbow high and bringing it down in the same kind of motion as when making the fart noise with your arm pit works for me. It's all about managing the bubble in your suit. I'm not sure about the whole loosening the straps and belt thing, just make sure everything is properly adjusted to begin with.

 

[francousteau]

when making the fart noise with your arm pit

I've made the "fart noise" in my drysuit already, but it wasn't coming from my arm pit. Am I doing something wrong?????????

 

[onfloat]

I've made the "fart noise" in my drysuit already, but it wasn't coming from my arm pit. Am I doing something wrong?????????

Only if you ask your buddy to unzip you.

 

[yukoneer]

I just made a dive yesterday with my buddy and an experienced drysuit diver. We dove perfectly fine, until about 30 feet (again!) I started having problems... with a struggle, I fared fine, went up the surface, and then later... the experienced diver strongly believes that it's a flawed exhaust valve I am having, since air is not coming out like it is supposed to (I did all of the arm raising, movements, etc...) No wonder, my damn exhaust valve... it'd be replaced by this weekend.

 

[bober99]

I've learned the best way to control buoyancy is be properly weighted and not to add too much air to your drysuit. Being properly weighted means you can control your buoyancy at almost all depths by the air in your lungs. Say you are at the surface with a full lungful of air. You should be quite buoyant. Exhale all your breath and you will sink. Breathe in at 15ft and you should stop falling. Taking normal breathes at this depth will have you hovering there. Exhale again and you will continue descending.

You shouldn't have to press your BC inflator more than 1-2 times for 1/10 of a second down to 60ft and 2-3 times down to 120.

I wear 20lbs with my CLX450 using a HP100 single tank and Seaquest BCD. If I had a tighter fitting custom suit, I could probably get away with around 14#s but can't justify the expense. One of my buddies wore only 12#s with a custom cf200+dui 400 garment and a single Hp steel tank.

Try not hitting your drysuit button at all down to 20ft then hit it once down to 60ft then again down to 100ft. Try going down to 40ft and not hitting it at all. You will definitely feel the squeeze but wait until the squeeze becomes unbearable then wait another 30 seconds before hitting the button. You want to figure out your own limits of how much air you absolutely need.

Always hit the button only once for short bursts then wait 1-2 minutes before hitting it again as it takes a while for the air to redistribute.

 

[yukoneer]

I replaced the exhaust valve the day after my friend confirmed that it was faulty. The first dive, and all dives since then, I've had ZERO problems with buoyancy.

Indeed, it was the exhaust valve I had that caused all of my problems and it has been alleviated. I have no problems whatsoever right now, and now enjoying all the benefits of a drysuit.

Thanks folks.