Recently certified - buoyancy a mess. Would PPB help?

[fred32176]

Get some dives in and enjoy yourself. Ask for help when you need it. Scuba divers are a friendly and helpful bunch. Everyone starts with no skill, it takes time in the water to get better. Relax, you want to get better so you will.

 

[Joneill]

I am a newly certified OW diver (3 weeks at the time of writing). And I have done 1 guided dive since. So total 5 dives, 4 being a part of the course.

So as new as new can be. I didn't take to scuba naturally, needing 2 attempts and the 2nd being a private course so it worked at my pace. My first recreational dive was yesterday. It wasn't great.

My buoyancy is a colossal mess. I can swim buoyant horizontally back and forth, as that's something practiced a lot in the pool. Theoretically I know all about inhale and exhale, and I can use that for fin pivots. I can control breath enough to go over kelp or a rock etc as long as it's only a little bit of movement. But otherwise can only really swim in a straight line, body horizontal.

Issue 1 - I can't go down to look at stuff (guide wanted to show me a crayfish at the bottom of a kelp/shrub and I was about a metre or so above it) but there were already a couple of people down there taking photos; but I'd swum past it. I can't do sharp turns, or go downwards (and if I try, due to time lag, it will be pointless - the fish would be gone, which I don't care much about tbh at this early stage). I can't swim backwards either. I can't hold any position in water except horizontal with legs either up or flutter kick when moving. So ANYTHING that breaks this position, and my momentum will completely throw me off. Even if another diver shows up under me, if I end up being too high in water column, it's my instinct to get away from that column as their bubbles are going all over my face. If someone touches my fin, I ll lose my horizontal position and my body starts to contort.

Issue 2 - during my course ocean dives, I was too scared to add air to the BC for the risk of floating up (around 5 m depth). So I ended up either sitting on the ground or sinking to it with every exhale and using my finger to propel me back upwards. During my recreational dive yesterday, I didn't wanna be sinky or on the ground (as the terrain was full of kelp and uneven). So this time added more air to BC & in the second half of the 1 hour dive, floated up and stayed a minute on the surface (looking down at the rest) until someone noticed and one of the dive guides brought me down.

Initially, from Google reading I thought I was overweighted as most new students are. My OW instructor decided my weights after a few weight checks. My recreational dive yesterday was with a different shop to where I did my OW course, and they were surprised at how little I carried. They said it's (your weight divided by 10) + 2. They did not weight checks before descent.

I carry 4kg lead (I weigh 60kg). Based on the equation, I should be 8. I think that's a lot, surely the equation won't work as it factors in nothing.
And my fins are Heavy to manage my floaty feet (decided by OW course instructor).

I am at my wits end with research. I am either floating up or sinking down. I know everyone says buoyancy is practise, but I am starting to hate the dives cos' I know what will happen and I have no idea how to fix it. What do I even practice or change? I am just getting more experienced in getting it wrong I believe.

The recreational dive guide said to do PPB course, but shouldn't you have some dive experience under your belt to do that and perhaps atleast your own BCD (to get the best out of it)?

Is there a course that teaches you how to manoeuvre yourself? Bend your body in different ways so you can look at fish etc. or that just comes with buoyancy?

I am a very slow learner and things don't come naturally to me unless taught properly. That's why I fear the practice practice practice advice may fall short on me, and I ll end up teaching myself.. well - nothing, or worse - something wrong.

Some of the "more experienced" divers at the recreational group yesterday said to hold on to a piece of rock or something (safe) to maintain buoyancy, but I have heard and read repeatedly, touch nothing unless it's been put there for you to touch.

Any help or guidance would be hugely welcomed. And sorry for the long post!

I found the standalone Peak Performance Buoyancy course very helpful - I took it shortly after I completed my open water cert, had a great instructor and learned alot from him.

 

[boulderjohn]

Wetsuits are buoyant until they're fully saturated. So it might take a bit of time / effort to get down when it's dry. The thicker it is the more weight you'll need.

Wetsuits do not absorb water, and getting wet does not affect their buoyancy. What does affect their buoyancy is depth. As water pressure increases with depth, the bubbles in the suit are compressed. The suit loses volume, and losing volume means losing buoyancy. With thinner wetsuits (3mm), it does not make a whole lot of difference. With thicker wetsuits (7mm), the change is significant.

Because of Boyle's law, the change is most apparent at the shallower depths. In the shallowest 20-30 feet of a dive, a diver with a 7mm suit will experience a noticeable change in buoyancy with only a relatively few feet of change in depth.

 

[34109411]

@Zinman, you are one of very few divers with less dives than me. I'm really new, so I can definitely relate to what you're experiencing. Right now, my buoyancy breathing kind of sucks and my sac rate is probably abysmal. I, like you, was yoyo'ing in the water and I had trouble staying a depth near the end of a dive.

Here are the things that made a huge difference for me:
-Properly venting my BC (a wing in my case) by assuming the proper body position. And adding/releasing air in tiny increments patiently waiting for the resultant change.
-Relaxing. Somehow, I got 5-10 lbs more negatively buoyant when I quit tensing up and thrashing around.
-Steel tank. I had been renting or borrowing an AL80. But when I bought an HP100, it was like magic both for my trim and buoyancy, especially toward the end of a dive.
-Help from my diving buddies. I was struggling to plane out on a dive, when my buddy signaled me over to a rock at 30 feet depth and I just held on until I got my buoyance dialed in and had a great dive for the remaining 45 minutes.

My biggest problem now is that I don't get to dive enough. You'll get it figured out.

Wetsuits do not absorb water, and getting wet does not affect their buoyancy. What does affect their buoyancy is depth. As water pressure increases with depth, the bubbles in the suit are compressed. The suit loses volume, and losing volume means losing buoyancy. With thinner wetsuits (3mm), it does not make a whole lot of difference. With thicker wetsuits (7mm), the change is significant.

Because of Boyle's law, the change is most apparent at the shallower depths. In the shallowest 20-30 feet of a dive, a diver with a 7mm suit will experience a noticeable change in buoyancy with only a relatively few feet of change in depth.

well i understand what you mean. I am using a 7mm if i put it dry right on me it and go in the water in take sometime. if i soak it a lot and put it right after and i go down this will be much more easily. Could you explain why ?

 

[boulderjohn]

well i understand what you mean. I am using a 7mm if i put it dry right on me it and go in the water in take sometime. if i soak it a lot and put it right after and i go down this will be much more easily. Could you explain why ?

I think you had some typing issues which are interfering with my ability to understand your question. As I understand it, you are saying that if you put on a 7mm suit while it is dry, you find it harder to descend than if you put it on when it is wet.

Whenever you put on a wetsuit, air is trapped in places between the suit and your body. Once you are immersed, that air begins to flow out, and you will become less buoyant and find it easier to sink. With an ideal fit, there will be no space between you and the body, but in reality, there are spaces, and the air in those spaces will be replaced by water.

I assume that when you put on the wet suit, there is less air trapped in between the suit and you, and more of that space is taken by water.

 

[inquis]

Short story: flood the suit before trying to descend. For a 7 mm, consider flooding with warm water from a thermos before even getting into the water.

 

[34109411]

I think you had some typing issues which are interfering with my ability to understand your question. As I understand it, you are saying that if you put on a 7mm suit while it is dry, you find it harder to descend than if you put it on when it is wet.

Whenever you put on a wetsuit, air is trapped in places between the suit and your body. Once you are immersed, that air begins to flow out, and you will become less buoyant and find it easier to sink. With an ideal fit, there will be no space between you and the body, but in reality, there are spaces, and the air in those spaces will be replaced by water.

I assume that when you put on the wet suit, there is less air trapped in between the suit and you, and more of that space is taken by water.

ok thank you for your answer.

 

[RobPNW]

Buoyancy control just takes time and practice. But it does help to get with someone who knows what they're doing to work with you on your trim and not being over weighted. I know people talk a lot about using the BCD but honestly, at least 90% of my buoyancy control comes from breathing control. I empty my BC to sink as fast as I want and add a few shots back to the BC at depth to level out. After that, I control my level mostly through breathing and maybe adjust the BC another 2-3 times total during an hour-long dive.

 

[KenE]

I have found that a wet wetsuit is a bit more elastic then a dry wetsuit. I assume it is due to the water weight during donning. A wetsuit with more elasticity will have fewer air void between the wetsuit and body. I believe this is causing the difference you are seeing. I much prefer donning a dry wetsuit, so getting it wet first would not be preferred. Flooding the suit after donning is best solution, either with warm thermos water before entry or cold water just before descent. Either way, it removes the air voids.

 

[34109411]

I have found that a wet wetsuit is a bit more elastic then a dry wetsuit. I assume it is due to the water weight during donning. A wetsuit with more elasticity will have fewer air void between the wetsuit and body. I believe this is causing the difference you are seeing. I much prefer donning a dry wetsuit, so getting it wet first would not be preferred. Flooding the suit after donning is best solution, either with warm thermos water before entry or cold water just before descent. Either way, it removes the air voids.u

I have found that a wet wetsuit is a bit more elastic then a dry wetsuit. I assume it is due to the water weight during donning. A wetsuit with more elasticity will have fewer air void between the wetsuit and body. I believe this is causing the difference you are seeing. I much prefer donning a dry wetsuit, so getting it wet first would not be preferred. Flooding the suit after donning is best solution, either with warm thermos water before entry or cold water just before descent. Either way, it removes the air voids.

yes thank you, make sens