Descent difficulty, even overweighted

[BlueTrin]

Flood your suit at the surface. It may be too baggy in spots and too tight around your chest/abdomen causing an air bubble. In my semi-dry I often would have to wait for air to migrate out or break the seal at my face and let it out faster to descend easily.
Cross your ankles to prevent inadvertent kicking up and hold your inflator above your head while venting until your hand is under. If these steps don't work then it needs to be addressed 1 on 1 with an instructor.

+1 and as you fall, it is ok if you fall into a flat trim position, it is what many people do.

If you fall “front up” (upside down) it means you were leaning backwards too much.

I never had air trapped in a wetsuit but maybe try to flood it before to descend like @Boarderguy said.

If you swim down, don’t do it more than to overcome the first few meters, unless you know you are correctly weighted: I saw someone swim down all the way to 20m and who was unable to stay there and went back to the surface as he was underweighted …

 

[DiveProKoko]

I suspect you aren't getting your BCD completely empty. No way to know that for sure without watching you dive, but it could be that after you start to descend vertically then go into a horizontal position due to a trim issue, you are no longer dumping air from the inflator/shoulder dump due to your horizontal position. Is it possible that because there are no bubbles, you could be thinking the BCD is empty, but in reality you'd need to use the waist/kidney/back dump to release the remainder of the air? At least consider it and have your instructor work on it with you.

 

[Umpman]

a few things. Personally, for a nice slow descent, I like to descend in a prone position, like skydiving.
Second. It sounds like you are way overweighted and very top heavy.
If you are carrying that much weight around your torso and waist, it would make sense that portion of your body wants to go down first.
22 pounds sounds like a lot for someone who only weighs 165 pounds. I am 200 pounds with 25% body fat and when I wear a 5 mil wetsuit in salt water, I only have a 6 pound back plate with a 100cf steel tank. I dont wear any other weight and I am still about 1-2 pounds negative.

 

[Scooby Scuba Scuba]

Honestly, air in your wet suit isn't the problem.
The real problem is you cannot control your body position, and squeeze all the air out of your lungs.

Force yourself to keep you legs down and don't get into the trim/pron position too early.

If you're sure you deflated the BCD correctly and still won't descend, calm down and try to hold your breath and blow the air out of your lungs again and again until feel like your lungs are squeezed. For me is 3 times in 2 seconds, and I drop like a cannon ball.

When you success, don't forget to check things below, because dropping too fast might harm the carol or creatures, if you feel dropping too fast, just kick a little, inflate a little.

 

[Bubba_in_cali]

Are you saying your legs are out in front like sitting on the floor?

This is not lite legs, lite legs would pull you head down with feet up. I think this is due to you leaning backward and the tank is pulling you further.

Make an effort to lean forward and belly down in the proper dive position. Then hold that exhaled breath a bit longer and only take small breaths until you get 10-15' down. Your probably inhaling a big breath just after submerging and bobing back to the surface.

Additionally, new divers typically have no idea how much gas is still in their BC. In the belly down (sky diver)position it's easy to go a little head down and use that butt dump on your BC.

thank you, I will try that. So I may be leaning backward and the tank may be pulling me backward more. That makes a lot of sense

 

[Bubba_in_cali]

Honestly, air in your wet suit isn't the problem.
The real problem is you cannot control your body position, and squeeze all the air out of your lungs.

Force yourself to keep you legs down and don't get into the trim/pron position too early.

If you're sure you deflated the BCD correctly and still won't descend, calm down and try to hold your breath and blow the air out of your lungs again and again until feel like your lungs are squeezed. For me is 3 times in 2 seconds, and I drop like a cannon ball.

When you success, don't forget to check things below, because dropping too fast might harm the carol or creatures, if you feel dropping too fast, just kick a little, inflate a little.

yes, I will try that. I will try expelling more air out of the lungs next time. Thank you.

 

[Bubba_in_cali]

a few things. Personally, for a nice slow descent, I like to descend in a prone position, like skydiving.
Second. It sounds like you are way overweighted and very top heavy.
If you are carrying that much weight around your torso and waist, it would make sense that portion of your body wants to go down first.
22 pounds sounds like a lot for someone who only weighs 165 pounds. I am 200 pounds with 25% body fat and when I wear a 5 mil wetsuit in salt water, I only have a 6 pound back plate with a 100cf steel tank. I dont wear any other weight and I am still about 1-2 pounds negative.

oh, I see your point. If I have a lot of weight on the upper body than the upper body should be wanting to be oriented downward rather than the legs. makes sense. I will try with less weight next time, thank you

 

[Bubba_in_cali]

At 165 what's your waist size? More specifically, an average wetsuit is tailored for a beer pouch, if you don't have one, you'll likely have an air bubble there. Have you tried pulling on the neck seal to let the water in and the air bubble out? (When vertical on the surface, before you you go down.)

thank you, waist size 34 inches. I have not tried pulling the neck seal. I will do so next time, thank you very much for the tip

 

[Dutchman]

I been told by Henderson that the Greenpreme suits will require 6-8 additional lead weight because the suit is super buoyant. Suggested the leg issue requires ankle weights.

 

[Bubba_in_cali]

I been told by Henderson that the Greenpreme suits will require 6-8 additional lead weight because the suit is super buoyant. Suggested the leg issue requires ankle weights.

whoaaa, the Henderson folks advised Ankle weights?

Thank you Dutchman