Buoyancy

[weightbelthater]

I'm a very new diver and i feel realy bad when I go down there and i kill hundreds of little creatures because i can't control my boyancy and i make myself to negative not to float to the surface.
I'm trying to do the way i learned it but it must be a tick or something cause i can't quite get it. Anyone with advices out there i would apreciate for the sake of those poor creatures.:help:

 

[Walter]

Practice and consider a more complete class from an instructor who will take the time to actually teach. You'll probably discover buoyancy isn't the only area in which you were short changed.

 

[ERP]

I don't think there is any real trick to it. It just takes practice.
There are a couple things that I found over my first few dives.

You don't have to be perfect with the BCD inflator, as long as your close, you have a lot more control with your lungs than you think. It's easy to get into a cycle continually chasing neutral adding and venting air from the BC.

Breathing is the key, the biggest problem I had when I started was getting neutral then finding myself negative as I relaxed during the dive and my breathing changed. You need to have controlled breathing when you dive.

 

[Aardal]

Some quick easy tips.

1. Make sure your properly weighted. Too much weight makes it hard to fine tune bouyancy.

2. If properly weighted, when adding air or letting air out, do it in short burst instead of keeping button pressed.

3. If properly weighted, when neutral use your lungs to fine tune your bouyancy. If your coming up to a big rock or object, inhale a little more air and breathe off of the top half of your lungs. Of course, don't hold your breath. This will make you acend a little. When getting past a raised object and you want to go down a little, let more air out and breathe off of the lower half of your lungs.

I hope these three quick tips will help you out and be sure to practice, practice, practice. You will get the hang of it quickly.

Aaron

 

[canuckdiver]

Practice, practice, and more practice!


Getting relaxed in the water is a very important thing. The less rapidly/heavily you breathe, not only will the amount of air in your lungs goes down, so does the amounts if gasses in the tissues. What happens is that the more relaxed you are, the less wieght you need to keep you down.
Anything you can do to help your comfort level in the water helps. I.E. having a buddy you trust, gear config that you are comfortable with, proper fitting mask/fins/suit, not cold, not overheated, etc.

Don't panic, and just remember that we are all improving all the time

 

[Ari]

It is the only thing that will really get you to become a better diver.

Nevertheless, if you feel like you have a specific problem, a few guided dives with an instructor might not be a bad idea.

Ari

 

[MikeFerrara]

Did they talk about and work on trim in your class? Are you head up when you swim? When you stop swimming do you go vertical?

If your answer to either one of the last two questions is yes getting some weight off your waist amd moving it further up will change your life in minutes.

 

[Ari]

The tank you dive have a big influence on your trim. Moving from AL to Steel tanks might prove advantagous to your trim, as well as other ways of shifting weight.

You should play around with this a little and again: practice, practice, practice...

Ari

 

[Ian Wigg]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
Did they talk about and work on trim in your class? Are you head up when you swim? When you stop swimming do you go vertical?

If your answer to either one of the last two questions is yes getting some weight off your waist amd moving it further up will change your life in minutes.

I concur 100% - I was having trouble sorting my bouyancy. I added two 1Kg shot bags into the trim pockets on my bc. I was then able to lose 4Kg off my weight belt and presto .. perfect bouyancy.

All it took was 30 mins in the pool with an experienced instructor.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Ari once bubbled...
The tank you dive have a big influence on your trim. Moving from AL to Steel tanks might prove advantagous to your trim, as well as other ways of shifting weight.

You should play around with this a little and again: practice, practice, practice...

Ari

Good point. If a substantial amount of weight is required putting the weight in the tank (steel) is the kind of change we're looking for. Why wear a buoyant tank and put weight on your waist to hold it down.