My wife won't sink

[CycleCat]

I'm pretty sure she's not a witch. But she has struggled with getting underwater since the beginning. She's a 5'8" runner, about 130+/- pounds, fit, with little fat.

In a 7mm full suit, in fresh water she wears 14 pounds of lead and still struggles getting down that first ten feet underwater. She has worked on buoyancy, I've worked with her on it, we had buoyancy as one of our AOW specialties and spent an entire day working on it, she has continued to work with an instructor with it but still struggles. I on the other hand am 30 pounds overweight and submerge fine in a 5mm with 8# of lead. We'll put more on her because she is getting frustrated but I can't imagine she really needs it. All her instructors believe she has sufficient weight (or too much) and suggest she needs to relax and something about her stance is causing her to have a hard time getting down. Next time we go diving I'm going to see how much lead is required just to sink her wetsuit. Any tips on sinking a buoyant diver without overloading lead?

 

[tursiops]

What BCD and fins is she using?

 

[girlwithbigtanks]

What are her feet doing when she is trying to decend? She may be kicking (natural thing to do for most of her life in water). Keep feet quiet and good exhale.

Im guessing that’s what her instructor means “try to relax”. She is an athlete. It may just be making a new mind body connection for a new activity. Dumbing it down to she just needs to relax has never worked for me for athletic people.

 

[rongoodman]

It isn't a contest, she needs as much lead as she needs. If she still has a lot of gas in her BC at her safety stop then she can think about shedding some weight. Has she tried inverting on the surface and kicking down that first 10-15 feet while dumping from the rear OPV? It might just be a matter of getting down to the point where all that neoprene starts to compress.

 

[lexvil]

Oh, thought this was a disposal thread.

Does she fully exhale, it’s a hard thing for some people to do.

 

[Boarderguy]

Give more time at the surface for water to ingress and push air out of the wetsuit and BC, I've found this often causes problems with initial decent. Breathing normal will allow her to drop on each exhale and will keep her relaxed. Have her cross her ankles to prevent incidental fining. She'll get it figured out as you both dive more often.

 

[AdivingBel]

My wife has the same issue. She has 800+ dives, so for her it’s not comfort in the water or weird finning. It’s just how she’s made. She can’t duck dive to the bottom of a swimming pool. Her solution is to find a comfortable way to carry the weight and an easy way to hand up weights if in a situation that requires her to doff gear in water. She dives a Stiletto so I got her the big pouches. Works fine for “tidy bowl” diving and you’ll never catch her in a 7mm.

 

[CuzzA]

You can literally dive when diving. Empty BC, dive head first, exhale and start kicking.

 

[davehicks]

I'm pretty sure she's not a witch. But she has struggled with getting underwater since the beginning. She's a 5'8" runner, about 130+/- pounds, fit, with little fat.

In a 7mm full suit, in fresh water she wears 14 pounds of lead and still struggles getting down that first ten feet underwater. She has worked on buoyancy, I've worked with her on it, we had buoyancy as one of our AOW specialties and spent an entire day working on it, she has continued to work with an instructor with it but still struggles. I on the other hand am 30 pounds overweight and submerge fine in a 5mm with 8# of lead. We'll put more on her because she is getting frustrated but I can't imagine she really needs it. All her instructors believe she has sufficient weight (or too much) and suggest she needs to relax and something about her stance is causing her to have a hard time getting down. Next time we go diving I'm going to see how much lead is required just to sink her wetsuit. Any tips on sinking a buoyant diver without overloading lead?

A new 7mm suit can be VERY buoyant.

Before adding more weight (in 2lb increments):

• Make sure you are fully vertical
• Raise the BC Dump hose high and deflate
• Fully exhale at the same time
• If she does not start to slowly sink, have her try to invert and dive head first. The weight of the legs will push you down and get past that initial resistance.

If that does not work add a little weight. Eventually that suit will compress a bit more and be less buoyant.

 

[CycleCat]

What BCD and fins is she using?

She started out with a Sherwood/Genesis Sirene women's vest BCD but for the last half dozen dives she has been using a SeaQuest Balance back inflate to improve her trim. I'm hoping to transition her to a BP/W once she gets used to the back inflate. Fins are Scubapro Jet Sports. The struggle has been the same in both BCDs. Three pounds on each shoulder, four on each hip.

What are her feet doing when she is trying to decend? She may be kicking (natural thing to do for most of her life in water). Keep feet quiet and good exhale.

Im guessing that’s what her instructor means “try to relax”. She is an athlete. It may just be making a new mind body connection for a new activity. Dumbing it down to she just needs to relax has never worked for me for athletic people.

I'll have to pay more attention to her feet next time.