scubascobey
Registered
I'd like to ask for advice on dealing with buoyancy in my dry suit. Here's the situation:
- I have a small BARE suit and dive with a very thick undergarment (NW water) and wear 29 lbs weight, with a 119 or 130 steel tanks. I have weight split between my weight belt and BC and my BC is a back inflater. I weigh 116 lbs and am short (5'4").
- My 1st problem: When practicing buoyancy I tried hovering for 5 minutes, with no air in my BC, using only my dry suit for buoyancy. The air I'd add to the dry suit kept going to my legs/feet, of course then I wasn't hovering any longer because I had to summersault to get the air out. Or if that didn't happen, I'd start hovering and after a minute, I'd end up rolling so my tank would be towards the bottom and it would pull me down to the floor. I'm trying to find "perfect" buoyancy to pass my AOW class. When I had this problem, I was wearing: 16 lb weight belt, 1.5 lb on tank and 3 lbs in one pocket of my BC and 2 lbs in the other = 26.5 lbs total.
- My 2nd problem: Using only my dry suit for buoyancy, I tried hovering with a different set up, but now I'm having problems with getting my fins up off the bottom. I moved my tank up (my BC down) so that the weight was shifted higher, and moved to ankle weights (to deal with leg buoyancy). I'm having troubles with finding the perfect amount of air in my dry suit so that I maintain buoyancy when swimming and when hovering without adding/removing air. I was wearing: 16 lb wt belt, 1.5 lbs on each ankle, 5 lbs in each pocket of BC = 30 lbs total.
I need some advice on anything I can do to correct these problems.
Thanks much!
- I have a small BARE suit and dive with a very thick undergarment (NW water) and wear 29 lbs weight, with a 119 or 130 steel tanks. I have weight split between my weight belt and BC and my BC is a back inflater. I weigh 116 lbs and am short (5'4").
- My 1st problem: When practicing buoyancy I tried hovering for 5 minutes, with no air in my BC, using only my dry suit for buoyancy. The air I'd add to the dry suit kept going to my legs/feet, of course then I wasn't hovering any longer because I had to summersault to get the air out. Or if that didn't happen, I'd start hovering and after a minute, I'd end up rolling so my tank would be towards the bottom and it would pull me down to the floor. I'm trying to find "perfect" buoyancy to pass my AOW class. When I had this problem, I was wearing: 16 lb weight belt, 1.5 lb on tank and 3 lbs in one pocket of my BC and 2 lbs in the other = 26.5 lbs total.
- My 2nd problem: Using only my dry suit for buoyancy, I tried hovering with a different set up, but now I'm having problems with getting my fins up off the bottom. I moved my tank up (my BC down) so that the weight was shifted higher, and moved to ankle weights (to deal with leg buoyancy). I'm having troubles with finding the perfect amount of air in my dry suit so that I maintain buoyancy when swimming and when hovering without adding/removing air. I was wearing: 16 lb wt belt, 1.5 lbs on each ankle, 5 lbs in each pocket of BC = 30 lbs total.
I need some advice on anything I can do to correct these problems.
Thanks much!