buoyancy, trim, depth gauge

[pengwe]

Got out to the dive site today, and realised I had forgotten my depth gauge. The max depth here was about 10m, so I wasn't too worried. I found it much harder to control my buoyancy without the depth gauge. Normally, I check it quite a lot to see if I am drifting up or down. Is this a good habit, or is it better to use environmental cues, when swimming around?

I also sometimes check my buoyancy by just keeping still for a bit to see what happens. I noticed for the first time today that being in or out of perfect, back-arched, head-up, feet-extended trim, made quite a lot of difference. If I was just relaxed, I'd be OK, but in trim, I would sink. Does that mean that even relaxed, I'm still kicking myself up, or maybe a breathing thing, or what?

 

[SparticleBrane]

It sounds like you're very reliant on your depth gauge to hold buoyancy. I would recommend that you stop relying on the instruments and try to use environmental clues.
Say you're diving a wreck -- are you getting closer to it? Moving further away? How about the "stuff" in the water -- are you moving up or down compared to it?
Can you feel the pressure growing on your ears or can you feel them venting (or are they changing at all?)

Not sure about your 'in trim/not in trim' issue -- video would really be helpful for that.

 

[PfcAJ]

Work on having "relaxed" equaling horizontal trim. Really, it should be an effortless position.

 

[David C R]

This works a lot for me!

I try to keep in trim, then I still, take a breath (not to deep) and add very tiny air with my inflator.... you will feel exactly the moment that your body relax in trim cause you get closer to a neutral buoyancy. then start to breath normally and you'll see you won't sink, this by assuming you're rigg is a bp/w and you're weight is balanced


hope this could help you