Floating away

[mech]

I agree with breathing to change your buoyancy.
What worked good for me as a skill practice was going over an obstical by changing my breathing pattern and it's fun too.
I also like to manually inflate my BC for fine tuning.

 

[terri]

Body weight divided by 10 plus 6 lbs.? Lord, I'd be planted firmly to the bottom with that kind of weight. I weigh 135, dive with 10 lb in fresh water, 12 salt. This is with a 3-5-3 full suit and 80m tank, spear gun, usually with my limit of walleye dragging behind me on a stringer. Weighted perfectly, with or without the fish.
I have heard of this formula, do people successfully use it?

 

[JRScuba]

Adding air in a short burst and then waiting before you add more is the proper technique. Also, your bouyancy control will come in time. Check out this Web Site and it willl help you in many ways. As mentioned previously controlling your breathing will help determine your bouyancy. Practice- Practice-Practice


http://www.scubadiving.com/training/0,7253,3-0-0-0,00.html I check this site daily, just to keep things fresh in my mind.


Joe :rock_band :guitarist

 

[Ale]

Adding air slowly to see the effect and maintaining a constant breathing pattern will help you to control buoyancy. Do a surface buoancy check to evaluate if you are overweighted. Dive and you will get better and better. Remember never hold your breath while diving: you risk lung overexpansion and you will use your lungs as a BCD pushing you up towards the surface.

 

[SDAnderson]

I've only completed 2 ocean dives and a few quarry dives. I'm really trying hard to work on my bouyancy. On each dive I seem to be negative and I'm told that control will come in time. I'm a bit nervous about adding to much air into my BC. It almost feels like I'm going to ascent. Is this proper bouyancy? I'm only adding air in short bursts and then waiting for a change. Still, I seem to remain negative most of the time. I should say, "not hovering."

The point that everyone has made about getting neutral is correct, it takes time and practice. Additionally, some divers have a fear - maybe even phobia - about runaway ascents. They worry about uncontrolled bouyancy problems and all the scary stuff that can come from them. The best thing I've heard of to address the problem is...practice. Get yourself into shallow water (a pool is best, but any calm space near shore will do) and practice adding air until you have just a little too much. Learn how it feels when you cross the line between neutral and positive and practice returning to neutral.

Eventually you will learn to control your breathing and your bouyancy almost without thought. In the meantime, take comfort in the fact that the only reason so many of us have ideas about how to deal with this is because we have all been there. Bouyancy is a problem that never goes away, you just get more and more proficient at dealing with it as you gain experience.

 

[Michael Schlink]

Never inflate your BC manually(orally) unless the power inflator malfunctions. EVER. Now First let's find out really how you are weighted so instead of doing a bunch of math to determine if you are properly weighted. Answer this question. How much air are you putting in your BC at depth? Lots of squirts or just a few, does your BC fill really full, half full or maybe just a little air. At the end of the dive could you float on the surface without adding air to your BC or do you need to really "pump it up". Try the floating at eye level test, at the beginnning of your dive AND at the end. Once you get better at determining your weighting make small adjustments, try to shed a pound or two every dive until you find the right weight. Do the "float at eye level test" at the beginning of the dive and if you think your too heavy don't worry about changing the weight then. Just remember between dives to drop a pound or two then try again on the next dive. Take it slow if you dropped a pound every dive in just a few dives you'll find the right amount-Dive safe and Dive alot-M

 

[Zippsy]

Never inflate your BC manually(orally) unless the power inflator malfunctions. EVER.

Really? Why not?

 

[H2Andy]

yes i would like to know too, please

 

[Michael Schlink]

The reason not to orally inflate is because you'll have more control in how much air you add to your BC with the power inflator. It is a misconception that you can conserve air by adding air orally. In fact several BC 's now have eliminated the typical inflator hose for a "power" only method -they do have small tube to orally inflate, if the power mech. fails. You can add small "bursts" of air to your BC much easier than by using your oral inflator. Also by using your oral inflator you will invariably interupt a normal breathing pattern. On a side note you can also plan on having to flush the salt water out of your BC when you orally inflate. Please feel free to use your oral inflator, there's just not a good reason to unless of course if your inflator mech. has failed, or you need to inflate your BC on the surface and for some reason you don't have any gas left in your tank-but thats another story

 

[wreckchick]

To the original question, everyone has given you some good advice, I would add that you should really try to practice a true hover. When you're descending, stop swimming, just go down. You should be able to arrest your descent rather easily at any time. Once you've reached your target depth, just hold for a second, see how you feel (NO FINNING) and then continue with the dive. I have a feeling that you may be neutral, but that you're having trim issues that are complicating the perception of such. Finning will bring your feet up behind you and you'll "feel" more neutral. When you stop finning you should determine if you're actually descending or if your feet are dropping. Both could be happening. I didn't really "get" neutral buoyancy until I solved trim issues.

Michael, I think I know what bc's you're referring to with the power mechanisms for inflation and deflation. If you would like my opinion on these, from personal experience, please feel free to PM me.

Rachel