Female Diver Missing on The Yukon, San Diego

[perez181]

I dive the Yukon often. Lately I have been diving a new 8/7 mm wetsuit. I intentionally under weight myself to where I have to swim 10-15 feet below the surface before I can get any negative buoyancy to descend. The reason? I have found that once I hit bottom I become a brick. The first time it happened I was surprised at the air I was putting into my BC just to become neutral. Add a little narc to that and it could of gone badly, but now I am aware of it so it isnt unsettling anymore. I am very lean with barely any body fat.

 

[CMAN]

I dive the Yukon often. Lately I have been diving a new 8/7 mm wetsuit. I intentionally under weight myself to where I have to swim 10-15 feet below the surface before I can get any negative buoyancy to descend. The reason? I have found that once I hit bottom I become a brick. The first time it happened I was surprised at the air I was putting into my BC just to become neutral. Add a little narc to that and it could of gone badly, but now I am aware of it so it isnt unsettling anymore. I am very lean with barely any body fat.

sounds like an interesting "safety stop" at the end of the dive.

 

[Rascalsmom]

My sincere sympathies to her friends and family.

 

[perez181]

Never had trouble with a safety stop yet. My buddy will dive with a couple of 2lb grenades and pass them off to me when we are ready to ascend. Also we ascend on a line.

 

[Hatul]

Never had trouble with a safety stop yet. My buddy will dive with a couple of 2lb grenades and pass them off to me when we are ready to ascend. Also we ascend on a line.

I also think you should reconsider being positively buoyant at the safety stop. Say something goes awry and you get separated and need to make a blue-water ascent. You could have trouble making a safety stop or worse, an inadvertent deco stop.

 

[perez181]

I also think you should reconsider being positively buoyant at the safety stop. Say something goes awry and you get separated and need to make a blue-water ascent. You could have trouble making a safety stop or worse, an inadvertent deco stop.

Under weighting is something I do only for the deeper dives. At a depth beyond 80' I am abnormally negative when properly weighted for the surface which leads to overexertion since I'm constantly kicking for lift to avoid dragging across the wreck. For me the unlikeliness of blowing a safety stop is measured against the likeliness that I encounter serious buoyancy problems at depth. I choose the lesser of the two evils. Also I was trying to give an example of why a person may sink with an inflated BC. If they are lean and have little natural buoyancy that could explain it. I have buddies who dive with the same gear and don't share my problems so I assume its my body.

 

[Ayisha]

Under weighting is something I do only for the deeper dives. At a depth beyond 80' I am abnormally negative when properly weighted for the surface which leads to overexertion since I'm constantly kicking for lift to avoid dragging across the wreck.

This sounds highly unusual. If you were correctly weighted and neutrally buoyant, you should not have to kick "for lift to avoid dragging across the wreck". How empty/full is your BC at depth when this is happening?

Requiring weight that someone else is holding for you can be a dangerous plan for the reasons mentioned by others - buddy separation, losing the line, deco obligation, or making a slow, controlled ascent all the way to the surface. Your BC is supposed to compensate for the weight required for your exposure protection to break the surface, so it should hardly be a nuisance when at depth.

Kicking for lift is usually associated with overweighting, not underweighting. Sometimes it is just a matter of making a more efficient descent with the correct amount of weight that does the trick. Exhaling deep and long, looking down, fins pointing down, fully deflating the BC, hand(s) straight up, you can often take a few lbs off with an efficient descent technique.

 

[Hatul]

Under weighting is something I do only for the deeper dives. At a depth beyond 80' I am abnormally negative when properly weighted for the surface which leads to overexertion since I'm constantly kicking for lift to avoid dragging across the wreck. For me the unlikeliness of blowing a safety stop is measured against the likeliness that I encounter serious buoyancy problems at depth. I choose the lesser of the two evils. Also I was trying to give an example of why a person may sink with an inflated BC. If they are lean and have little natural buoyancy that could explain it. I have buddies who dive with the same gear and don't share my problems so I assume its my body.

If you're still sinking with an inflated BC and you're properly weighted (slightly negative at safety stop with empty BC), you need a BC with more lift.

 

[perez181]

This sounds highly unusual. If you were correctly weighted and neutrally buoyant, you should not have to kick "for lift to avoid dragging across the wreck". How empty/full is your BC at depth when this is happening?

Requiring weight that someone else is holding for you can be a dangerous plan for the reasons mentioned by others - buddy separation, losing the line, deco obligation, or making a slow, controlled ascent all the way to the surface. Your BC is supposed to compensate for the weight required for your exposure protection to break the surface, so it should hardly be a nuisance when at depth.

Kicking for lift is usually associated with overweighting, not underweighting. Sometimes it is just a matter of making a more efficient descent with the correct amount of weight that does the trick. Exhaling deep and long, looking down, fins pointing down, fully deflating the BC, hand(s) straight up, you can often take a few lbs off with an efficient descent technique.

It is very unusual. When I properly weight myself with a perfect buoyancy check at the surface it becomes too much weight at great depths. The under weighting that I do is so that I can become neutral at dives beyond 80'. For some unusual reason I hit a point where I just sink, and sink fast. I have no natural buoyancy so once the wet suit goes its all up to my BC. When I swim in a pool I am one of those people who cant just float on their back. I have to be treading to stay afloat. Another thing to mention is that I use to get annual occupation physicals. We would blow into the machines that you see in some astronaut movies, and I would always get asked by the doctor if I was sick. I would reply no and the doctors would tell me that my lungs were small(never thought about that until now). Also I dont need the weights to do the safety stop it just makes it easier so its just something we do for added safety. The whole situation is puzzling. I have tried numerous weight configurations and have gotten advice from many expierenced divers, DMs, and instructors. Then when they see it for themselves they dont know what to think either.

 

[Peter69_56]

Always assume worst case scenario. You may have to do a blue water deco one day and then you will need correct buoyancy. I check mine at the end of each dive to confirm I am perfectly buoyant with little to no air in my BCD or wing. In this way should I need to do a deco stop real time (or potentially have the bends) I have correct weight. Many people often shallow breath at the start of their dive and thus think they need more weight than they really do (seen this often). To check, dump all the air in your lungs for a couple of seconds and see if you slowly sink. many people huff and puff due to nervous anxiety, if they can get past this they will find they need less weight than they really think, thus less air in their BCD at depth, thus less effect on buoyancy due to depth change. Also people don't get used to the slight depth changes due to inhaling and exhaling and think they are going to take off or sink and so inflate and deflate constantly. My suggestion to you is to run your air down to say 50BAR and then do a weight check at the end of your dive so you just submerge when you exhale. This is the weight you need. if you have less you cannot do a proper deco stop if you really need to and thus expose yourself to the bends. You might be a recreational diver but things happen and you should prepare just in case.