New to diving and this board

[GunBunnyDiver]

Hi, ya'll I just got certified and have gone on eight dives so far. I still have a lot of work to do on buoyancy control but I learn every more every time. My biggest problem really is rising too fast when I begin to head back up and my air is getting low. A friend of mine gave me a lot of tips to try on the next dive tho so I look forward to seeing how that goes. I hope to find people that can help me with advice I might need on the complex but wonderful world of diving. Until then see ya next time. Ciao

 

[Brendon]

Hold your inflator valve above your shoulder and deflate the bc as you rise. I see you're in washington if your diving includes coldwater and you use a drysuit make sure the valve on your drysuit is adjusted properly. Maintain neutral bouyancy and swim to the surface, its not a hot air ballon ride... You need more weight at the end of the dive then you do at the beginning in most cases. Make sure you are weighted properly. There are plenty of threads that discuss that topic...

 

[mselenaous]

Welcome to Scubaboard GunBunny.
You'll meet many folks here and some of which are local to your PNW area. Hook up with a few of the awesome folks to help mentor you as you grow with your sport.

Happy Diving!

 

[j yaeger]

welcome aboard!!!!
great place to start-loads of great info!
tons of great people
divers all
have fun
yaeg

 

[GunBunnyDiver]

its not a hot air ballon ride...

@Brandon
lol nope its not supposed to be, holding it over my head is what I try to do but unless I am truly upright it doesn't come out. I am not upright because I am reaching out to grab ahold of a rock or some such thing to stop my ascent. Next time I will not worry about grabbing anything and just make sure I am fully upright. Kinda tackle the problem at it's source. Also I will let some out sooner, before I began to head up because I realize from the classes that what's happening is that the air needed to make me neutral at 60 ft is way to much when I get to 40 or 30 ft, like twice what I need. Since I have a larger wing than I really need that air is collecting in corners and throwing my attitude way off so I am like upside down. So the hot air ballon analogy comes in to play. If I don't release it soon enough the small amount I put in there is a huge amount when I ascend and it looks like a balloon when I cork to the surface.

 

[GunBunnyDiver]

thanks mselenaous and yeager for the welcome, actually it was my diving buddies that recommended I sign up here.

 

[Brendon]

its not a hot air ballon ride...

@Brandon
lol nope its not supposed to be, holding it over my head is what I try to do but unless I am truly upright it doesn't come out. I am not upright because I am reaching out to grab ahold of a rock or some such thing to stop my ascent. Next time I will not worry about grabbing anything and just make sure I am fully upright. Kinda tackle the problem at it's source. Also I will let some out sooner, before I began to head up because I realize from the classes that what's happening is that the air needed to make me neutral at 60 ft is way to much when I get to 40 or 30 ft, like twice what I need. Since I have a larger wing than I really need that air is collecting in corners and throwing my attitude way off so I am like upside down. So the hot air ballon analogy comes in to play. If I don't release it soon enough the small amount I put in there is a huge amount when I ascend and it looks like a balloon when I cork to the surface.

I have a good idea what the problem is now that you have given more details... You need to get with an instructor to go over what gear your using, how much weight you have and what steps you take when you start to ascend to the surface. Being a new diver, advice over the web is not nearly as good as guided practice with a "Seasoned Intructor". If your instructor left you with the current problems your having do not use him again. Seek out another instructor or a very active diver with alot of experiance to mentor you. With that said you are in luck, many of them are on this board and local to you. Washington is full of some of the best divers I know!

 

[GunBunnyDiver]

my dive buddies have all been very experienced one is even a dive master but they would ascend at the proper speed and usually right after they checked on me and saw I was good I would start to go up real quick so they lost me pretty quick in 15ft of viz, they did give me some tips on weighting, i am currently using 34 lbs ten of that in the back of the bc by the tank in some small pockets, i learned thru a unique program once out of the program I was on my own, but have been diving with onne of the safety divers that helped me learn so its prolly a little tacky but just the way the budget worked out. I am having to much fun to complain about it thats all I can say. Every dive I learn more get better and ask more questions.

 

[Brendon]

my dive buddies have all been very experienced one is even a dive master but they would ascend at the proper speed and usually right after they checked on me and saw I was good I would start to go up real quick so they lost me pretty quick in 15ft of viz, they did give me some tips on weighting, i am currently using 34 lbs ten of that in the back of the bc by the tank in some small pockets, i learned thru a unique program once out of the program I was on my own, but have been diving with onne of the safety divers that helped me learn so its prolly a little tacky but just the way the budget worked out. I am having to much fun to complain about it thats all I can say. Every dive I learn more get better and ask more questions.

Let me give you an example, I'm from washington I spent many years diving in cold water. While I was diving there I was 6'1 230lbs large build. I wore a Harvey drysuit which is about a bouyant as they come and I only needed 32lbs... In my Northern Diver Crushed neoprene (Drysuit) 26lbs, Henderson Farmer John Wet suit 24lbs... There is a good chance you are over weighted, that might not make sense since your popping to the surface. Being overweighted causes you to really have to inflate your BC more then normal to become neutral. Couple that with Boyle laws and you get a hot air ballon ride on the way back... Not a good scenario... On the flip side of that and to be polite as possible, if you displace alot of water... Then given your description of the issue you would be underweighted. If your friends have not been able to help you yet and your unique course did not equip you with the means to address the problem yourself. I highly suggest you go out side of your group of friends and seek professional help or seek out a knowledgable diver from this forum in your area. Its not that complicated of a problem to solve, left unattended could be just the right ingrediant one day to hurt you.

 

[GunBunnyDiver]

actually I am pretty skinny point taken on the necessity of solving this issue before it causes problems. I did certainly learn about the bends so I know it's something to avoid. So far nitrogen loading has been very low because I have only been down for a max of 25 minutes and to 60 ft but as I learn to breath better and I go deeper problems could very easily arise. I am doing a dive this sunday with a new dive buddy who is very knowledgeable and has given me a lot to work on already but will be with me this time to help solve this very problem. One flaw he has already noted is that the bc I have is made for a much bigger person not that it doesn't fit me, it does but it is made for the kind of person who displaces a lot more water and while a very good bc is simply much more lift than I need. So he is loaning me his backplate and wing to try.