New Diver Buoyancy Question

[Malibulucy]

hi guys and girls, I know this has been asked before but I did a search and sort of overwhelmed myself with info so I am hoping someone can break it down for me for my situation.

So, doing my open water course. First 2 dives today in the sea. Really enjoyed them but having issues with my buoyancy. I know this is normal for a newbie and I know it will come but I was hoping for some infor to try and help me understand how to help myself.

I have 6lbs weight on, 4 on my belt 2 on my tank to help balance as I found in the pool I was tipping forward a lot.
I am apparently weighted correctly according to my instructor with a full tank.
I can descend properly. I get down to maybe 8-9 meters and can swim horizontally, however find it very difficult to stay in one place to hover (I understand this is a skill that will come, I understand the basis behind it, just struggle with it in a current or any form of none still water). What seems to happen is I can find neutral buoyancy and be ok with this for a while, but if I swim or ascend even maybe .2 of a meter I start to float up and then find it very difficult to get back down.
I understand the one or 2 puffs of air in my jacket expand as I ascend but I didn't think it would make such a difference over such a short distance and thus begins a cycle of me struggling to stay horizontal, at a certain level and not float up. Which is quite honestly hard work.

I am wondering every time I float up should I be dumping that air and staring again to find neutral buoyancy rather than trying to kick back down against my air? More importantly though how do I stop this float up in the first place?

Things I noticed today during the dive, the less air I had left in my tank, the easier it was to control this and towards the end of my second dive it happened a lot less. I used more air on the second dive as I was actively trying to use my breath to control my swimming but again still some floating.

Any hints? My instructor says it is normal and will come, which I get but I would like to understand it to try and help myself and enjoy my dive more as my back is killing me from my position today in the dive and constantly fighting to keep horizontal at some points.

 

[Alastor]

Your instructor is right:it will come, but not unsolicited ... you have to practice that sort of control, and, if you master it in shallow water, you'll find easier going deeper.
Have you access to a pool ?
Did you ever try to hover staying at 2 - 3 m with your eyes closed ?

Cheers

 

[tbone1004]

it is quite possible the jacket you have is too big in terms of capacity and as such is trapping some air, but most likely you are breathing too much. Remember that as soon as you start rising, exhale all the way and that should halt an ascent, especially from that far down. If you start rising, always dump air out of the bc to compensate for the depth change and reach neutral buoyancy again. Most divers breathe too deep. The size of your breath determines the buoyancy change you experience on each inhale and exhale, and your lungs are capable of compensating for up to about 5kg of buoyancy change if inhale completely. This is a substantial change in your buoyancy and you have to learn to control it

 

[mi000ke]

it is quite possible the jacket you have is too big in terms of capacity and as such is trapping some air, but most likely you are breathing too much. Remember that as soon as you start rising, exhale all the way and that should halt an ascent, especially from that far down. If you start rising, always dump air out of the bc to compensate for the depth change and reach neutral buoyancy again. Most divers breathe too deep. The size of your breath determines the buoyancy change you experience on each inhale and exhale, and your lungs are capable of compensating for up to about 5kg of buoyancy change if inhale completely. This is a substantial change in your buoyancy and you have to learn to control it

+1
I'm only 25 dives in but this was the key for me (assuming you have your weights and trim dialed in). I finally started to get my breathing under control after about 15 dives and it's made all the difference. And it was just a matter of becoming aware of it and focusing on it. I still have a lot of room for improvement, but I experienced a change almost immediately once I started to focus on it.

 

[tbone1004]

you can practice this in a pool with just a snorkel. Hang off of the wall in the deep end with your knees up a little bit and you can feel yourself rising and falling with each breath. learn to control your breathing so you are hanging with your skull right at the surface of the water and you'll be much better off

 

[Kharon]

Sounds to me like you need to adjust your weight to get the absolute least air needed in the BC. The more air in the BC the more dramatic this see-saw effect will be.

During my OW checkout dives I was severely overweighted by the instructor. That made buoyancy extremely difficult. Having done a lot of trial and error testing to get my weighting down and working through trim adjustment I've found it very easy to stay in a hover - even upside down and flat on my back. Perfect your weighting, then work on trim once you get your weight perfect. Don't try to do both at once.

 

[Malibulucy]

Thanks everyone I guess I will just have to keep practicing it. I am aware of my breath and the effect it has on me however struggle to alter my breathing without feeling like I am forcing myself almost to hyperventilate or stop breathing at the end of an expiration which I know is a no. I have regular breathing, naturally quite deep and slow so being asked to blow out any more feels very forced and being asked to breathe faster feels like I'm breathing too fast. I am definitely breathing too deep I think but this is my 'normal' breath so will have to work on shallower breaths to keep me more neutral.

Thank you very much

 

[tbone1004]

so the key to not holding your breath is not closing your epiglottis as it is stronger than your lungs are, hence the concern for lung overexpansion injuries.

It is not abnormal for divers to "hold" their breath on either side of inhalation/exhalation for a bit as part of the rhythmic breathing. I breathe on scuba similar to how I breathe while doing the breast stroke, which is convenient since the modified breast stroke kick/frog kick is the best kick for scuba. I'll take a fairly quick breath in which gets me to neutral or slightly positive, and I'll exhale slowly during the kick cycle and through the glide. I'll start sinking a little bit around the same time as the glide is over which signals time for inhale and the recovery portion of the kick back to the normal hovering position.

 

[boulderjohn]

A number of years ago, when I was a brand new instructor, I was doing the OW checkout dives for several new OW students whom I had not taught in the pool. We were diving in relatively shallow water in Key Largo. (The problem you describe is bigger in shallow water--the closer to the surface you are, the more the air in the BCD expands as you ascend.) One of the students kept having the problem you describe, and on the first dive, during which I was just getting to see them in the water, we found him several times drifting upward, lifting his inflator hose, dumping air, drifting back down to us, and then re-inflating.

One time was different. We saw him drift above us and watched as he fumbled for his inflator hose again. He grabbed his snorkel instead. He held the snorkel high, pushed the end of it with his finger, drifted back down to us, and was surprised to find he could not re-inflate using the snorkel. The rest of the class was amazed to see that he was able to descend by pushing the end of the snorkel. The real reason he was able to descend, though, was that when he thought he had found the inflator hose and pushed the "button," he had let out a relaxed sigh of relief. That simple exhalation was all it took to get him back down.

That was an important learning experience for this new instructor, and the story has become a standard part of my instruction.

 

[wspalding]

As everyone else has pretty much said in this thread, you'll learn to control your buoyancy through breathing, and you'll get used to each time you inhale you rise a little, and sink as you exhale. You should rarely have to make adjustments with your BC. If you are dumping a bunch of water out of your BC at the end of your dives, you are probably futzing with the BC too much. I suspect that as you rise with your inhalation you are probably reacting by over-breathing because you are worrying about the rise. Learn to stay relaxed and it will all work itself out.