Going down?

[dherbman]

Or up......

How do you know? I see a lot of newer divers struggle to maintain a depth when the bottom or surface are not in view. The primary means they use for determining movement in the water column is their depth gauge. Unfortunately, the resolution available with depth gauges only allows them to tell when they have moved, not when they are moving.

I remember the frustration I experienced in trying to lock in a depth while relying on my depth gauge. It wasn't until I broke my gauge fixation and started looking around and paying attention to other cues that I was able to achieve an acceptable level of depth control.

Other methods I have used:

Water pressure on the ears
Tracking particles in the water
When diving a shorty, the hair on my arms is very sensitive to movement

What techniques/cues do you use to hold depth?

 

[Wayward Son]

Hang onto the anchor line with a death grip

It is hard with no reference point. Small stuff in the water near you does help, but you have to think to focus on it.

 

[dive_lover88]

For me, when i started i used my com's depth gauge for reference...later i started to use the natural geography as a reference. Now i gauge my depth using my own method of 1st looking at an object about 50 meters away to keep my trim then i look perpendicularly downwards to gauge my depth which is about 50-75cm from the reef or bottom depending where i dive and i would adjust accordingly...[sorry i'm not so good with my words]
Darren

 

[LiteHedded]

the ears tell it all for me

 

[cowboyneal]

After a while, you just "know." Just keep diving, and you'll get it down!

CN

 

[Ice9]

Or up......

How do you know? I see a lot of newer divers struggle to maintain a depth when the bottom or surface are not in view. The primary means they use for determining movement in the water column is their depth gauge. Unfortunately, the resolution available with depth gauges only allows them to tell when they have moved, not when they are moving.

The human body has two natural altimeters - the ears. For me, there is no mistaking when I'm going down or up.

 

[miketsp]

While a variety of methods can be used while almost stationary I've found that the only way to really hold depth mid water while finning (& breathing) hard in low vis is with the computer display. Since I dive metric and the display will give 1 decimal place that means a 10cm or 4" resolution, with a refresh rate of just a couple of seconds, which is fine for small attitude changes. Of course you can't keep waving your arms around and bring the display back in front of your eyes just to read it. You need to keep a fixed posture.

 

[TSandM]

Well, one of the best references for me is a buddy who is better at keeping his depth than I am . . .

Unfortunately, my ears tell me NOTHING about going up. Up has got to be figured out from stuff in the water, relationship to my buddy (and woe betide me if he's unstable, too), and the loosening of the drysuit or lightening of the pressure of the plate on my back. Unfortunately, none of this has proved to be informative enough fast enough to make my ascents and stops accurate yet, so I'm still doing my best superball imitation

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Small stuff in the water near you does help, but you have to think to focus on it.

That's assuming (of course) that the small stuff in the water isn't also going up or down ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Halthron]

How much movement are we talking about here? I consider anything more than 2-3 feet significant but my ears don't give me that level of granularity except close to the surface.