Descent difficulty, even overweighted

[lexvil]

Umm, yes. That's what I do.

Let’s add a dry suit into it now

 

[Moerae]

Well, I often descend swimming head down, and ascend swimming head up. As a previous free diver, this looks normal to me.
If descending the legs stay up, that is just perfect: the optimal attitude for swimming down using a good kick...
This insistence of always staying horizontal is quite disturbing to me: one should stay in the position which minimizes drag , allowing to swim with minimum effort.
If you are swimming horizontally, then of course your body should be horizontal. But when swimming up or down, the body should be vertical, either head up or head down.
In my view a BCD is not an elevator, it is just a device to be used for correcting gross buoyancy variations due to the suit compressing with depth and the tank becoming lighter when empty.
Going down or up should be done swimming, while keeping an almost neutral buoyancy thanks to the BCD (or using a low-compressible suit and proper weighting, which makes the usage of the BCD substantially superfluous).

Your objections and wording make it seem like you fundamentally don't understand why people dive this way and have passed judgement on it without that understanding (and strawman'ed a bit that people insist on "always" staying horizontal, vs being that way the majority of the time with logic for why)

Outside of a hot drop or other "rapid descent", I can't think of many times I "swim" up or down at all.

If you're neutral, then initiating a minor change with your lungs will result in a subsequent depth change that then makes you positive or negative, at which point you can ascend or descend literally effortlessly by letting buoyancy do the work for you. If you are diving that way then you want the increased resistance because you aren't swimming, and the increased resistance helps keep depth changes more controlled.

It's weird to me that someone would find it "disturbing" to dive in a way that takes less effort. I'm not freediving, so why would I limit myself to freediving techniques?

 

[scubaozy]

Well, I often descend swimming head down, and ascend swimming head up. As a previous free diver, this looks normal to me.
If descending the legs stay up, that is just perfect: the optimal attitude for swimming down using a good kick...
This insistence of always staying horizontal is quite disturbing to me: one should stay in the position which minimizes drag , allowing to swim with minimum effort.

I also do head down first sometimes but for a beginner its hard to empty the lungs and duck dive at the same time, they will start breathing erratically ass soon as they move. In vertical and idle position they can focus on 1 single thing at a time, that is to breath out.

 

[Celt]

Diving wet in shallow water the only use for a bcd is to offset weight through loss of buoyancy. If I was working shallow with no chance of going into deco, and needed to carry tools or gear I’d use a bcd, otherwise I wouldn’t bother with it, it’s a heap of drag. If I lost the bcd I’d dump the gear. Of course you couldn’t tell a new diver who hasn’t been trained to dive without a bcd not to bother with one. You can grossly overweight yourself with a bcd and get away with it.

 

[berndo]

It's weird to me that someone would find it "disturbing" to dive in a way that takes less effort.

Keep in mind that people who's first language isn't English sometime use words that sound too strong to native speakers. Even the ones who speak English very well.

The swimming down part is only to overcome the first few feet. It's not alot of effort. People diving with too much weight is a much bigger issue.

 

[Hojo in SC]

I weigh in at 165 and last month with my 7 mm wet suit in the Atlantic, I had to use 30 lbs (gloves, hoodie, and booties). It also seems to depend on where, my son never wore weights while in Guam, but while in FL diving in the Key Largo, he had to use about 6 lbs.

 

[DonFlorida]

Simply get steel tanks. Problem solved. Trust me I went through the same thing. Initially, with aluminum tanks and 26 pounds of weight I could barely go down. Now with steel tanks and 12 pounds of weight no problem. I have a five in each BC pocket and a one on each side of my tank. If I wear a 3 mil wetsuit I add one pound to each BC pocket.

 

[DiveHewi]

I have been diving a long time, but I'm certainly no expert. I dive locally in water temperature around 62 degrees F. I wear a 7 mil farmer john, hood, gloves. I'm usually using an aluminum 80 and a Ranger BC. I weigh in around 150 lbs. and my wetsuit is pretty tight. Almost always, I load 20 lbs., sometimes distribute that weight with 5 or so lbs. on the back just for trim.

I will typically empty the air in my BC on the surface when it's time to descend, I'm still positively buoyant, but not too much. I turn over, head down, and give a couple of kicks. Around 10 or 15 ft. I'll usually go horizontal and start adding air (very little, if needed) to try and get to that neutral sweet spot. It doesn't take a lot of effort, but you have to watch your ears!

Not saying this is the "right" way to do it, it just works well for me. It helps me stay away from being overweighed, which for me, can really strip a lot of fun out of the dive. I would say that OP needs to try several techniques to see what works best for him. Maybe spend a day and burn a tank or two trying to work the kinks out at the surface. Whatever you do, have fun doing it!

 

[jrouss28]

I have had tye same experience but, found this settles out on the second dive after the suit is no longer completely dry. The first dive takes a little extra effort to decend.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Hello, there. I have difficulty descending, and I have been trying to solve this problem with my scuba instructor. My next dive with her will be the PADI buoyancy course, but I would like to solve this newbie problem before doing that, if possible.

Here is my situation:

• body weight 165 lbs
• aluminum 80 cu ft tank
• soft lead weights, 22 lbs
• vest-style BCD
• 7mm wetsuit, Henderson Greenprene
• open water, Pacific Ocean, Casino Point, Catalina Island

When I attempt to descend, I deflate the BC and I exhale. My head will submerge, but just a couple of feet below the surface my legs float up, either putting me in a sitting position or in a prone position. I am unable to keep my legs below my body. As soon as my legs float up, my descent stops.

At that point, I usually grab a buoy line and descend hand-over-hand. But even during this process, my legs insist on putting me in a sitting position instead of a standing position. I want to be able to cross my ankles and just sink, like everybody else.

Hmm, actually there is something that I forgot to do on my last few dives: I forgot to remove air in the legs of the suit before entering the water. I may have had a fold in the suit near the ankles. Maybe that's why I had trouble descending.

What say you, please? Is leg buoyancy a known property of Henderson Greenprene, or am I making a common mistake somewhere here?

Thank you for your help.

-Bubba

According to PADI, by issuing you an OW certification, your PADI OW instructor has certified, documented and confirmed that you have a achieved "Mastery" of all necessary skills for your certification level. Proper weighting, buoyancy and the ability to ascend and descend are all necessary skills.

Unless you have substantially changed the gear that you were trained and certified in..... or you are diving in environments far different from those you were trained in....... I'd ask for my money back from from your OW instructor and move to another instructor or agency.