Okay to pull yourself down?

[HowardE]

Well what if as you pull yourself down you do not change buoyancy? What then.

Then... You surface... Tell the guys on the boat that you need more weight... Then try again.

 

[mcclete22]

So how do you determine what depth is the call off depth? Say you go five feet, still forcing. Do you try to go to 10? Not to mention as you dive your buoyancy is going to change, so forcing yourself to 5 doesn't mean you are correctly buoyant 10 minutes later. And while you ignore the problem, thinking it might go away, where is the rest of the group? And when you surface and get more weight, do you try to find or catch up to the rest of the group? And as you are hurry to try correctly weighting and get with the group, are you getting all you need and doing it right? Call the dive, get your weight right and go on the next one. I have been told that danger exists in 3 feet of water. Why risk it. The post orginally said they weren't comfortable, based on what they said I think calling the dive and preparing for the next dive is the best safest choice.

 

[HowardE]

So how do you determine what depth is the call off depth? Say you go five feet, still forcing. Do you try to go to 10? Not to mention as you dive your buoyancy is going to change, so forcing yourself to 5 doesn't mean you are correctly buoyant 10 minutes later. And while you ignore the problem, thinking it might go away, where is the rest of the group? And when you surface and get more weight, do you try to find or catch up to the rest of the group? And as you are hurry to try correctly weighting and get with the group, are you getting all you need and doing it right? Call the dive, get your weight right and go on the next one. I have been told that danger exists in 3 feet of water. Why risk it.

If that's your comfort level... then that's fine. Know your comfort level and stay within that.

I know my comfort level, and often on the first dive of the day with a thick wetsuit on, I am more bouyant when I first get in the water. I might kick down a few feet, 5-10 feet, since my wetsuit is still more bouyant then it will be in another 30 seconds. I know that I am properly weighted when I dive. I have almost 100 logged dives, and I would say that I didn't know precisely how much weight I would need, depending on wetsuit thickness, tank size, tank material, etc, until I had maybe 25 dives in, if not 30 dives. It takes a while to fully determine your proper weight for every circumstance... Even with a formula, it's not precise, unless you account for % of body fat vs. muscle...

Usually, on the second dive of the day, once my suit is wet... I sink right away.

 

[ghostdiver1957]

This is really all quite simple... if you have to pull yourself down, you're either anxious, have air in your BCD or you're underweighted. If relaxing and letting the air out doesn't get you down, then you're underweighted. STOP... add 2 lbs then try again. If you're weight is off by more than 2 lbs then you likely did not receive proper instruction when being certified. Being slightly overweighted is much better than being slightly underweighted

 

[cleung]

I recall having a dive like that during my first trip after certification years ago. I was at the surface and told the divemaster on the boat that I couldn't get down. One of them passed me a 2 pounder. I took it and put it in my BC pocket and tried to descend again and this time I went down okay.