Need tips from the experienced

[mood]

Hello all,

this is my first post on the forum so greetings to all of you. I have been diving for about 3 months now and im already a NAUI Rescue diver. However i moved out to australia, and the water situation is completely different. I need tips from you guys on a couple of things.

First: My buoyancy isnt perfect. I want to know how you guys manage to become neutral while descending, i dont want to reach the floor and then start checking for my buoyancy. I have friends who are neutral before reaching the floor which makes their descent much easier.

Second: In high currents, how do you guys manage to stay at one place. I get pulled away and i start pushing and shoving to try to stay in one place. I usually would cause major vision damage with my fins as the sand below me starts to rise. I look at my friends around me they're and how still they are as if there is no current. And one they come to rise, they are so gentle that not so much sand rises.

Any tips,
btw my friends are all instructors with >2yrs of experience.

Thanks,

 

[Chernish]

Mastering buoyancy takes time and practice. The only ones who are born with it are fishes, and you aren't a fish. Your friends are adding small amounts of air regulary in their BC and they are controlling their descent rate, so when they reach the bottom they only have a little amount of air to add. Also they are "cheating" by using their lungs to equilibrate (we are using only part of the volume of our lungs to breathe, they are using the remainder to become heavier of lighter than usual).

Currents aren't in my area of expertise, but still: have a good buoyancy, be as horizontal as possible, try to hover a little bit further from the bottom, remember that ample, calm movements are more efficient than quick, nervous ones.

And maybe try to find people who are less experienced than your friends. A little help to the ego can do wonders.

Cheers!

 

[String]

i dont want to reach the floor and then start checking for my buoyancy. I have friends who are neutral before reaching the floor which makes their descent much easier.

Inflate on the descent to keep the rate slow and controlled - the whole point of a descent is you can stop it immediately if you have ear problems and so on so keep adding those bursts of air as you go down. Also remember taking a full lung of air will give you 4-6kg of positive buoyancy while you fill the jacket. Dont forget to use breathing a lot for buoyancy.

Second: In high currents, how do you guys manage to stay at one place. I get pulled away and i start pushing and shoving to try to stay in one place. I usually would cause major vision damage with my fins as the sand below me starts to rise. I look at my friends around me they're and how still they are as if there is no current. And one they come to rise, they are so gentle that not so much sand rises.

In a current you get more shelter by sticking VERY close to the bottom or the wall. If you're a few feet away from either you;re in its full force and its much stronger so get low and/or tight. Depending on bottom type you can hold on or even finger walk to move rather than fin which uses far less energy.
Also, if the current is too much effort to stop again just drift with it - diving is meant to be fun not a headache inducing extreme form of exercise.

 

[String]

try to hover a little bit further from the bottom

Eh? That's the worst thing you can do at all in a current.

 

[TwoBitTxn]

I make my descent as close to horizontal as I can. I don't have ear issues, so this is easy for me. As I drop, I am adding air to my BC. I have a target stop depth and as I approach that depth, I begin to inhale deeply and add air until I stop descending. I actually try to stop a few feet before my target, so as I exhale, I only add a little more air.

It takes time and practice. The goal is to not touch the bottom on descent. This makes things easier when you go to a spot where the bottom is much deeper than you want to go.

Good luck, and good diving.

 

[Rick Inman]

The good news is, most of your answer is to dive more!

Good buoyancy comes with good practice. There are a bunch of good threads here worth searching for on buoyancy. They'll talk about proper weighting (not being over weighted), using your lungs as your primary buoyancy controller, making adjustments ahead of the changes, and more. Do a search and sit back and take some time reading these threads.

As to current, good trim is a big help. Ever stick your hand out of the window of a moving car and change the position from flat, palm horizontal, to palm into the wind? In current, the less body area you have pushing against the current the less you'll need to kick to move through it.

Again, there is lost of great reading material on current diving here on the board.

Congrats on your rescue diver cert! Putting some dive numbers behind those certs will be a great help for you, and lots of fun. Sounds like you have some good instructors to mentor you as well.

 

[TSandM]

I found, when I was new, that adding some air to my BC or drysuit every time I had to clear my ears helped to keep me close to neutral on descent.

As mentioned, good horizontal trim will help you reduce the impact of current. So will reading the terrain, and realizing where you can shelter from the worst of it. So, although I can't explain it, will being more relaxed in the water.

 

[Tortuga68]

n/m. I misread the post

 

[Guba]

I'm hardly "experienced", but I have done quite a bit of diving in current while attempting to maintain my position (for still photos and video), and much of what I have to offer is simply echoing others. Those divers who are able to "effortlessly" hold position are most likely close to the bottom and in the lee of an object or projection, thus most of the current passes over them. They are also most likely in a near head-down (or at least horizontal) position, using their trim to minimize drag and positioning so they are not kicking up sediment with downward pointing kicks. Very likely, they are using kicks such as frog-kicks, too, in an attempt to minimize silting. With practice, even ol' nimrods like me can learn a few tricks that make it easier to handle, so do what the others have said...get out there, dive, and practice!

 

[mood]

Hey guys,

thank you all for your inputs. I have a dive this sunday and im hoping to try out these tips you gave me. Very much appreciated..