Buoyant at safety stop. What next?

[Heffey]

I have read a lot of threads about proper weighting. My question is not related to proper weighting itself, but rather, one symptom of improper weighting.
What do you do when you are at the end of your dive, you are approaching your 15 foot safety stop and realize that you are positively buoyant. Do you just blow off the stop, spend 3 minutes head down finning trying to stay down, or are there other choices one can make?

 

[Aquanaut4ata]

If you you're positively bouyant at that point, there's not alot you can do about it...Probably the best choice you have is to get hold of something like an anchor line, a rock (if the current won't beat you into said rock) and try to complete the safety stop. With that said, there's no magic that takes place at 15'....if you can get to something to hold onto between 30' and 10', that's better than no safety stop, but I would also suggest adding some time to it as you get closer to the 30' mark.

Another suggestion: instead of just grabbing something and looking at your watch for 3 minutes, if your bouyancy is such that you can still control it while moving, just get up to the 15-20' range and continue the dive for at least 3 minutes.....there's nothing about that safety stop that says you have to be still.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

In the abscence of an anchor line, swimming is probably the easiest way to finish the dive as you can maintain a slight down angle.

On the other hand, if you are so bouyant that you really have to work at it, I am not sure a safety stop is doing you much good. As indicated above, you can do the stop anywhere from 10 to 30 ft, so in anything but extreme cases, you should be ok at 30 ft.

 

[Heffey]

there's no magic that takes place at 15'....if you can get to something to hold onto between 30' and 10', that's better than no safety stop, but I would also suggest adding some time to it as you get closer to the 30' mark.

Another suggestion: instead of just grabbing something and looking at your watch for 3 minutes, if your bouyancy is such that you can still control it while moving, just get up to the 15-20' range and continue the dive for at least 3 minutes.....there's nothing about that safety stop that says you have to be still.

I wondered about doing the safety stop at a deeper depth. On my first open water dive I was underweighted. On return to the surface I could probably have maintained buoyancy at 20 – 25 feet but by the time I hit 15 feet I was headed for the dry side. I was using the down line to hold my position but with the wave action that in its self was a nightmare.
I was better weighted on my next dives and mostly used the down line as a reference.
Thanks
Jeffrey

 

[Heffey]

On the other hand, if you are so bouyant that you really have to work at it, I am not sure a safety stop is doing you much good.

I suppose that any benefits from the safety stop might be negated by the extra exertion at the end of the dive.
Thanks for the input,
Jeffrey

 

[Wijbrandus]

This happened to my wife and I on one of our first OW dives in the ocean. She was too light, and I was still too heavy. Since it was a free-floating safety stop, she had a really hard time maintaining her depth.

She grabbed a hold of me, and I let the air out until I was able to compensate for her additional bouyancy. We ended up doing 5 minutes at 15', and almost totally forgot about our issues as a flock of eagle rays came by.

In the absence of a line, an overweighted buddy could make a good anchor...

 

[TwoBitTxn]

When you have a down line available, you can hold the down line to keep you in place.

TwoBit

 

[mossym]

This happened to my wife and I on one of our first OW dives in the ocean. She was too light, and I was still too heavy. Since it was a free-floating safety stop, she had a really hard time maintaining her depth.

She grabbed a hold of me, and I let the air out until I was able to compensate for her additional bouyancy. We ended up doing 5 minutes at 15', and almost totally forgot about our issues as a flock of eagle rays came by.

In the absence of a line, an overweighted buddy could make a good anchor...

ah yes, but in the zen of scuba..why would you have an overwieghted buddy???

 

[Wijbrandus]

ah yes, but in the zen of scuba..why would you have an overwieghted buddy???

Well, I figure when you are on a cattle boat, there should be no shortage of them.

 

[JodiBB]

Are you inflating your BCD on the way up? That'll make you positively buoyant extremely fast!

I don't put any air in my BCD as I ascend. I kick for the surface and let out any air that has expanded in my BCD until I get to the 15' mark and then hover...only kicking if I start to descend. Once I've been at my stop, then I'll kick to the surface and orally inflate my BCD.