Perfecting my buoyancy

[rsingler]

You're at the early stages of this search. Yeah, everybody says, "go dive a lot", but your comment about reinforcing bad habits is spot on.

My advice at this stage?

Get in the pool or the ocean, doesn't matter.
Descend, get neutral.
Lie still at 3-10 feet.
Still! Don't move, don't scull, don't do anything but breathe. Wait until it all stops.
Then analyze.
Are you upside down? One side low?
Are you fin low? fin high?
Keep in mind that it will change a little as your tank empties. Where is your tank relative to the strap that holds it? Will it finish negative? neutral? positive? Will that pry your fins up or pull them down?

Move one or two pounds.
Do it again. And again. And again.

Hold your hands still and your knees flexed for a frog kick. Don't move.

Where do you end up?

Be self critical.
Are you horizontal?

If you can't get neutral, back up a few steps and search SB for neutral buoyancy.
Search SB for proper weighting.

Once you're truly neutral, and are happy with your position in the water at both full and empty tank, then go get some more instruction along the lines of what others have said.

My 2¢

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Lots of good advice here and I won't repeat any of it. The idea of using a mirror is great. I haven't heard that one before. One suggestion I would make is to get a GoPro or underwater camera that takes video. Set it up or get someone to video you underwater. Studying your movements underwater can be quite revealing. It is even better if you have your buddy film you when you are mid dive and not aware of the camera. You may be quite surprised at what you learn.

 

[mi000ke]

You're at the early stages of this search. Yeah, everybody says, "go dive a lot", but your comment about reinforcing bad habits is spot on.

My advice at this stage?

Get in the pool or the ocean, doesn't matter.
Descend, get neutral.
Lie still at 3-10 feet.
Still! Don't move, don't scull, don't do anything but breathe. Wait until it all stops.
Then analyze.
Are you upside down? One side low?
Are you fin low? fin high?
Keep in mind that it will change a little as your tank empties. Where is your tank relative to the strap that holds it? Will it finish negative? neutral? positive? Will that pry your fins up or pull them down?

Move one or two pounds.
Do it again. And again. And again.

Hold your hands still and your knees flexed for a frog kick. Don't move.

Where do you end up?

Be self critical.
Are you horizontal?

If you can't get neutral, back up a few steps and search SB for neutral buoyancy.
Search SB for proper weighting.

Once you're truly neutral, and are happy with your position in the water at both full and empty tank, then go get some more instruction along the lines of what others have said.

My 2¢

Ha Ha - I laughed when I read this, as this is what I did to improve my buoyancy and trim - I did a couple of hours in a pool with an instructor - and the process went something like:
Instructor: lie still under the water, let yourself roll, rise or sink if if happens, and we'll see what needs to be adjusted.
Me: (thinks he is being perfectly still)
Instructor (stands me up) - you were moving
Me; No I wasn't
Instructor: yes you were - let's try it again.

It probably took me 20 minutes to learn to lie still. And that has paid off in now being able to descend with minimal weight, as I used fidget a lot at the surface without realizing it.

And the one pool session during which we adjusted weight and trim until I was cruising horizontal 6" above the bottom and ascending and descending using only breath was the most impactful instruction I've had. Not only was I able to dive better almost immediately, but my SAC rate went way down once I was no longer worrying about buoyancy and trim. Just made diving way more enjoyable.

If OP does not have a mentor handy, something to consider: when I was in the process of working on buoyancy, when doing a guided dive I would try to stay close to the DM and mimic what they did - just to try out different things. I would try to breath when they did, ascend or descend with them, hold my body similar to them. And it helped me to learn some different and useful techniques and refine my skills a bit. These days I am working on my back finning technique, so I like to observe how the different DMs do that and then try it to see what works.

 

[hroark2112]

who wants to say they killed NetDoc, eh?

Isn't there a sign-up sheet somewhere for this??

:::fleeing:::

 

[EireDiver606]

First of all there is no such thing as the word perfect @chairman or OP. People who use the word perfect either have a convoluted sense of perfect or have a big ego.

Second, what @tbone1004 said about mirrors and 3 ft hovering. YouTube videos don’t help, you need to do it yourself.

Third, @DogDiver said is true. I had ok... buoyancy and trim and then I did GUE Fundamentals and it is still nowhere near “perfect” but it has improved significantly (the other divers thought I had finished a “tech” course haha ) and I earned a rec pass when I did it with 28 dives before doing it. Consider taking a GUE fundies class. Or it would be good to get a technical instructor who is really good, to work with your buoyancy for a day filming you and going over the video with him and taskloading, taskloadong, taskloading,

Taskloading helps so much with your buoyancy afterwards!

 

[EireDiver606]

yes you did, you're a full cave and CCR diver, don't sell yourself or your instructors short.... Training like the Big Boys does not mean GUE training, just training by proper instructors

If the instructor is limited to the agencies poor standards... it’s hard for him to change the agency. It’s a mindest.

 

[EireDiver606]

Buoyancy: add small amount of air to wing not huge amounts in one go. Use kidney dump (because you’re in good trim!). Expect buoyancy changes due to depth pressure (Boyle’s law).
Use your lungs mainly for buoyancy changes when you get to your desired depth or if it plateaus abs there is no massive buoyancy shift. Use your lungs to fine tune your buoyancy. For example, if you want to go over a rock that is only 2m high and then it continues back down to be flat again, use your lungs! Hold breath until you start to ascend and then very slowly release bubbles as you go over rock to skelt regain position in water after rock. Don’t listen to “never hold your breath in scuba diving”, this is fuc@#^* }^*£<~. Hold your breath for buoyancy ALL THE TIME but never hold your breath while ascending!

Trim: these are vital for trim. I might have left one or two out.
Arms out straight in front of you, like Superman for stability. Back arched backwards slightly like a bent c. Head up!! Communication!! Legs fully stretched out unless that makes you leg heavy, and in that case, bring legs closer to your torso. It’s all about balance. I definitely don’t have the skills to be saying this but it definitely helps. As I said, after my GUE Fundamentals course with only 32 dives, people thought I was doing a technical course, and I still have a lot to work on!!

Equipment does help though!!

 

[EireDiver606]

However, the GUE fundamentals will cover the first step (you will probably learn a lot but still "fail" it)

I passed with 26 dives going in. Why should he fail it?

 

[Bent Benny]

Well I had a chance to get in the water an hour ago. I'm getting closer. I was just getting comfortable with my jacket bc then I switched to this bp/w and it has thrown a whole bunch of different issues at me. I have dived it a few times now and I am getting closer to where I think I should be, but I'm still working on getting it properly adjusted and how I should distribute my weights.

Thanks for the advice @rslinger it helped alot to just be still and see what happened. I made some more adjustments and I have 1 full tank left until the weekend, so I will be able to give it another go tomorrow I think.

I'm finding with this setup that in order to float at eye level with a full tank, I am too light to be able to hover at 15'.

I am using an al80, steel bp, farmer John + step in 7mm wetsuit (waiting for my drysuit to arrive and it's taking forever)

Thanks to everyone else for all of the advice.

 

[Lorenzoid]

My opinion...go dive. A lot.

That's common advice, but I think it's only part of the equation.

When a diver can achieve good buoyancy while remaining motionless in one spot, that's a sign that he has figured it out. I thought after 100 dives or so I had good buoyancy control, but I was humbled in Fundies class by the experience of trying to hold my depth while remaining still. After my first shot at Fundies it took another 10 hours hovering above the bottom of a pool before I was able to do it.

Hire a tech instructor for a day or two.