Buoyancy, weight and Trim.

[Todd Whitworth]

Hey Folks,

I'm looking for some feedback. I dive in British Columbia Canada most of the time, and it's cold here so I have a lot of exposure protection. I wear a full 7mm wetsuit, with a 7mm shortie overtop. Keeps me nice and warm.
Typically I wear about 40lbs of led. 14 pounds on my weight belt. 3 pounds x 2 in my two trim pockets. 10 pounds x 2 in my BCD's integrated weight pockets.
Sometimes I can go down without the trim weight but most of the time that's not the case. I don't always have an easy time staying neutral, and I think I use my BCD too much to try and control buoyancy. Still working on the breath. Any advice tips or tricks? Your answers are most appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Todd

 

[JohnnyC]

One recommendation is get a drysuit. Using that much lead with that much neoprene is less than ideal, especially as your depth range increases. It becomes a safety issue (think about it, at 10m, your 14mm of neoprene is only 7mm, at 20m a little less than 5mm, and the inherent buoyancy tanks to virtually nothing). I need less weight in a drysuit than if I were in a wetsuit for equivalent water temps. There's a tipping point where the obverse is true, but for cold water that's how it shakes out for me.

Get rid of the BCD with integrated weight pockets and get a steel BP/W, even better if you can get a DSS one with the weight plates. You can move a significant amount of that weight off your belt and out of your pockets. You may still need a belt or trim pockets to get horizontal, but it's significantly less extra weight.

Do a proper weight check and dive a balanced rig. Many people are significantly overweighted because they are not diving a balanced rig. If you have air in your BCD at your 5m safety stop, you're overweighted.

Keep working on your breathing. A lot of new divers tend to breathe pretty shallow on the surface, and it complicates the initial descent. They feel like they can't sink because they're actually storing a significant amount of air in their lungs due to psychological factors. Exhale fully.

 

[Sbiriguda]

Hello Todd welcome
About your question it's perhaps better you post it in the proper section, so that more people could read it since it's related to the topic they are already talking about or looking for. The section could be the one on wetsuits if your question is more about the exposure protection or beginning scuba (and also other sections as well) if your question is about trim and buoyancy. You will see that there are also open threads on the same topic, you can feel free to open your own considering that you are also diving in very specific conditions and trim and buoyancy are affected by the type of suit and the quantity of lead you use
As we say in Italy, buone bolle, make nice bubbles

 

[decompression]

These are very common issues for most divers, yes there are tricks. They are the basics of diving that are sadly sped through on most ow courses. I can post several things but the single biggest aid is a course I teach, extreme scuba Makeover. A 1 day workshop that’s guaranteed to get weight off off you and correct trim, propulsion and bouyancy.

But enough of the sales pitch.....

Start with a proper weight check, critical
Do a trim check to see if you are head/foot heavy and redistribute the weights
Adopt the proper position in the water, breathe
You should be able to ascend and descend using only your lungs....no BCD or drysuit assistance, no sculling or fining.

Practice.

 

[TMHeimer]

These are very common issues for most divers, yes there are tricks. They are the basics of diving that are sadly sped through on most ow courses. I can post several things but the single biggest aid is a course I teach, extreme scuba Makeover. A 1 day workshop that’s guaranteed to get weight off off you and correct trim, propulsion and bouyancy.

But enough of the sales pitch.....

Start with a proper weight check, critical
Do a trim check to see if you are head/foot heavy and redistribute the weights
Adopt the proper position in the water, breathe
You should be able to ascend and descend using only your lungs....no BCD or drysuit assistance, no sculling or fining.

Practice.

Perfect advice. I would assume you've done a proper weight check. If not that's step one. Then the trim check. My GUESS is you are adding/venting too much BC air. I dive with a 7 mil farmer john and use 42 pounds, so that much weight is not uncommon at all with that thick a suit. I was down to 37 pounds and got a new wetsuit. Back up to 42. The old one probably lost some "integrity' due to age. I know several instructors here that use that much weight.
May not be relevant, but with my new(er) wetsuit, descending when the suit is bone dry can take a little more work than on a 2nd dive when it's wet.
Not sure about switching around equipment to compensate. This will obviously affect trim, but if you use the same suit you still need the same weight, regardless of whether it's lead on a belt or weight elsewhere on you.
Of course as stated, there is the drysuit option. I'm not very familiar with how weighting goes with a drysuit, as I don't dive dry and the students we had also dive wet. But I think a drysuit requires a lot of weight too, maybe more?
The deeper you dive with a thick wetsuit the "easier" buoyancy becomes as the change in pressure is gradually less as you go deeper (suit compresses/expands less & less). On a "deep" dive you will rarely use your BC inflator if at all. You'll be at a point where your BC air displaces the right amount of water to compensate for the "thinner" suit.

 

[Sbiriguda]

Start with a proper weight check, critical
Do a trim check to see if you are head/foot heavy and redistribute the weights
Adopt the proper position in the water, breathe
You should be able to ascend and descend using only your lungs....no BCD or drysuit assistance, no sculling or fining.

Very well written, I heard the same concepts exposed in different ways but this is probably the simplest and clearest I've ever heard

 

[AJ]

One thing I have learned: take your time. Don't rush to change things, but take time to asess and plan your next change. Change one thing at the time. It takes me at least two to three dives to know for sure if changes have worked out good or not.

 

[Todd Whitworth]

Really helpful suggestions thank you so much! I've been thinking a lot about the air in my lungs and how much that is affecting my buoyancy. I'm still learning and practicing. As for the suggestion to get a dry suit, I've thought about it, but we are going to be headed south next fall, and likely staying down there for a while. So I don't want to take on the extra expense of getting dry suit certified, and investing the $$.

I'm pretty happy with my BCD, it's the same brand and make I did all of my initial training so I'll stick with it for now. Might switch to a backplate once we are in the tropics, less bulk. I really appreciate you taking the time to get back to me.

Cheers and happy diving,

Todd

One recommendation is get a drysuit. Using that much lead with that much neoprene is less than ideal, especially as your depth range increases. It becomes a safety issue (think about it, at 10m, your 14mm of neoprene is only 7mm, at 20m a little less than 5mm, and the inherent buoyancy tanks to virtually nothing). I need less weight in a drysuit than if I were in a wetsuit for equivalent water temps. There's a tipping point where the obverse is true, but for cold water that's how it shakes out for me.

Get rid of the BCD with integrated weight pockets and get a steel BP/W, even better if you can get a DSS one with the weight plates. You can move a significant amount of that weight off your belt and out of your pockets. You may still need a belt or trim pockets to get horizontal, but it's significantly less extra weight.

Do a proper weight check and dive a balanced rig. Many people are significantly overweighted because they are not diving a balanced rig. If you have air in your BCD at your 5m safety stop, you're overweighted.

Keep working on your breathing. A lot of new divers tend to breathe pretty shallow on the surface, and it complicates the initial descent. They feel like they can't sink because they're actually storing a significant amount of air in their lungs due to psychological factors. Exhale fully.

 

[Todd Whitworth]

I've played with using trim weights vs not using them. Sometimes when I don't have them I've had no issue sinking, as I mentioned in my original post. It honestly might come down to my own lungs and learning how to utilize them best underwater.

Cheers,

Todd

One thing I have learned: take your time. Don't rush to change things, but take time to asess and plan your next change. Change one thing at the time. It takes me at least two to three dives to know for sure if changes have worked out good or not.

in my initial

One thing I have learned: take your time. Don't rush to change things, but take time to asess and plan your next change. Change one thing at the time. It takes me at least two to three dives to know for sure if changes have worked out good or not.

 

[Todd Whitworth]

I wanted to start a conversation in a more appropriate thread but I couldn't really figure out how to do it. Need to poke around a little more and figure out how to properly use scuba board. That said, really happy with all of the great advice I've gotten. Thanks a lot everyone.

Todd

Hello Todd welcome
About your question it's perhaps better you post it in the proper section, so that more people could read it since it's related to the topic they are already talking about or looking for. The section could be the one on wetsuits if your question is more about the exposure protection or beginning scuba (and also other sections as well) if your question is about trim and buoyancy. You will see that there are also open threads on the same topic, you can feel free to open your own considering that you are also diving in very specific conditions and trim and buoyancy are affected by the type of suit and the quantity of lead you use
As we say in Italy, buone bolle, make nice bubbles