Difficulty Descending?

[somewhereinla]

Two more tips:
Relax. It really does help.
Ask someone more experienced to watch you. I remember when I started diving I didn't have a good technic as far as letting all the air out of my BC until someone noticed and show me what I was doing wrong.

 

[RICHinNC]

Try not descending in a "stand up" position. Go head down.

 

[Davidstealey3]

i like TSandM anwser. i just cant believe you did your ow checkout dives in a drysuit. did they give you a drysuit cert also??? dont do the head down descent yet untill you get used to equalizing.

 

[unlikelyfish]

Thanks TSandM, that is useful advice.

It isnt that unusual to do the checkout dives in a drysuit here though not everyone does. I think you are more likely to want to dive again if you do. I am particularly sensitive to the cold so it was a no brainer.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Nothing wrong with learning to dive in a drysuit especially in an environment where a dry suit is the best choice.

I like TSandM's post too though, unless I need to do a negative entry, I usually don't bother trying to vent the dry suit until I get in the water. It vents real easy in the water and having some air in there makes moving around on land way more confortable...so generally none of that squating and burping stuff for me. LOL

 

[unlikelyfish]

I agree. In my experience learning other sports, it is better to learn in the same type of equipment you will use afterwards. Half the class took the class in drysuits, the other in 7mm. The ones in 7mm were those getting certified so they could dive in the tropics with no intention of diving locally.

Anyway, thank you all for the advice. I will try it out next time, which will hopefully be soon.

 

[TSandM]

I got certified in a dry suit. It makes life a little more interesting, but boy, is your first tropical trip a treat!

Mike, I don't "burp" the suit on land any more most of the time, either. But it helped a lot when I was new.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I got certified in a dry suit. It makes life a little more interesting, but boy, is your first tropical trip a treat!

Mike, I don't "burp" the suit on land any more most of the time, either. But it helped a lot when I was new.

I understand. Please don't take my comment as being "critical". I think the main point is that you can't dive well with too much air in your dry suit.

A tropical trip...that's what I need.

 

[lorien]

Lots of great tips here and I second them. First make sure your BC and drysuit are do not have air in them. If they do that just makes it that much harder to get under.
Exhale and if you must inhale take a little breath and exhale again, empty lungs will get you under faster.
And I agree the main reason most new divers cannot get under is that they are unconciously finning and/or moving their hands trying to maintain position or whatever. You are then keeping yourself above water. Cross your fins and your hands if need be, exhale fully and you should start on down. Small inhale & another big exhale and you should go down more and then you should be pretty good.
I found sometimes when I started that I was trying to descend after a decent surface swim and I was somewhat out of breath so I had a harder time desending as I was taking bigger breaths. Had to learn to calm down and relax, get my breathing under control and be able to fully exhale to start my descent.
It all gets easier with time and experence as you learn to realx as well.

 

[Bob Vincent]

>>>>>>TSandM<<<<<<< Thumbs up. A dry suit takes practice to learn how to extract every morsel of air from. After practice this becomes a lot easier but to me the big thing is controlled breathing.

The same with your wetsuit.

You get to a point you can control your buoyancy without touching your inflater and be able to control your movement within a vertical column of about 30 plus feet are so by controlled breathing. It's like you inflate your lung to a point hold that volume then breathe then want to go up exhale a little to your desired height then hold and breathe to go down exhale the held volume descend then hold then breathe while your lungs act a buoyancy compensator. You still take full breathes but your lung volume is the only thing you changed. Practice this and it will just click and when people tell you that you dive effortlessly while they remember their hand is all over their inflater and looking like a yo-yo.

Practice makes prefect.