Need feedback to improve buoyancy

[Kimela]

Ok. I'm going out on a limb here. But after reading Dive and Let Dive I'm thinking you'll all be nothing but supportive. Right?

I've got over 230 dives and have pretty good buoyancy in most situations. The ones that seem to make trouble for me are when I'm in an overhead environment ... even for 30 seconds ... doing a swim-through or trying to get up under a shelf/ledge to take a pic of a critter. I think that I become anxious, end up not exhaling enough air and then sort of float up. I can lay down near the sand - not on the sand - to get settled to take pics of blennies without a problem. But if you put a ledge over me I'll float like a balloon. Maybe I need to pretend there are ledges over me everywhere I go. I also have a difficult time backing out of tight spaces without floating up. Again, I can go backwards - just not without difficulty if there's something above me.

Suggestions please. Thanks!

 

[aquacat8]

Sounds like you are inhaling slightly more than you are exhaling and breathing yourself up. Try doing the opposite... long slow exhale, slightly shorter inhale. Focus on exhale. Still getting a normal amount of air of course, but as long as your weight is correct and you haven’t put extra air in your BC it is your “lung bladder”?doing this I think.

 

[aquacat8]

Backing out could be finning technique

 

[aquacat8]

I usually do a long exhale to initiate a drop under something. If you don’t drop when you do a long exhale you are underweighted or have too much air in your BC to be truly neutral. You might not notice this until you enter a confined environment. In fact on reefs I like diving a little positive and gently finning down to look at things, if I stop gently finning down I float up and back. My feet are up off the reef and my preferred rear dump valve is up. You might be doing this unconsciously too... it’s a great way to reef dive, but in that case you might need to dump that tiny extra bit of air for your swim through, where you’re going to level out, and the extra buoyancy will reveal itself if you have it.

 

[aquacat8]

One last thing, it’s a trim thing. You maybe diving slightly feet light. This is something I was doing and did not realize until I got in a confined environment, because I was unconsciously correcting for it in open water with body position and swimming style. In close quarters my flaw revealed itself to my chagrin and I am in the process of trying to correct with trim weights.

 

[Steve_C]

That is what happened when I started taking pictures. I would float up when I went to take a picture. Problem was I was instinctively holding my breath. Physics tells us that when you hold your breath you are unstable (assuming no hand or fin motion). You will soon go up or down. It is the rhythmic breathing that stabilizes us in the water. Try practicing going up a tiny bit at a time

 

[Altamira]

It is natural to have a tendency to hold your breath when under stress or concentrating on a task, and consequently have to concentrate on forcing yourself to breathe normally and relax.

 

[Kimela]

All of these answers make sense - and agrees with what I think I am doing as a stress response (stressor being the pressure to not hit what's above me while also not disturbing what's below me). I think I'm holding my breath and/or taking shallow breaths while not expelling enough air, making me ascend. The good news is that I'm not that person who stirs up the bottom.

I have the Seawing Nova fins - I don't think those are the problem, but I'll try to be aware of what is happening with my feet when this happens. Thanks.

So I need to focus on exhaling ... breath in ... breath ouuuuuuuuuuuut! This will require more practice. Perhaps another trip soon. I'll have to confer with my dive buddy to see what we can do.

Feel free to add anything else that strikes you as a possibility.

 

[The Chairman]

Fins aren't a problem.
Trim might be.
Probably, the issue is apprehension. We instinctively breathe with a bit more air in our lungs when we are anxious. As your apprehension increases with your ascent, you suck in even more air.