Sinker or Floater?

[jdarnall2001]

I float, my husband sinks.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

I used to be a sinker, but now I am a floater. It was drilled into my head that you needed to be able to float above all else. A swim instructor from the local high school were I grew up had a student drown at the the lake because he cramped up and couldn't float. He was always haunted that he had not been harder on the boy in class and made him learn to float better.

I practice floating everytime I work out at the pool. Always for at least 5 minutes, but a couple of times a month I float motionless for 20-30 minutes. The more I do it the better I get and more relaxed I feel. It used to be a great struggle for me to float on my back.

 

[victor]

Breathe in, I float
Breathe out, I sink

Breathe out, sink, lie still on the bottom of the pool for 30 seconds, you get rescued

Very embarassing

 

[Paco]

I'm probably neutral; I can float but need to keep air in my lungs. My son-in-law is so negative that I saw him in a full 3mm wetsuit with his lungs full air and he still sunk like a rock to the bottom of the pool. Most negatively bouyant I've seen.

 

[fishoutawater]

In fresh water I only need six lbs of lead with my shorty, and ten lbs with a full 5mil. But I just found out in Jamaica that I need a full ten lbs on my belt with no wetsuit.
I went on the resorts snorkeling trip and they insisted I wear a snorkeling vest and no weight belt. Talk about futile. I'd blow all the air out of my lungs and I still floated like a cork.

 

[Don Wray]

Float, especially after a big ole bowl of pintos!

 

[piikki]

I used to be a sinker, but now I am a floater. It was drilled into my head that you needed to be able to float above all else. A swim instructor from the local high school were I grew up had a student drown at the the lake because he cramped up and couldn't float. He was always haunted that he had not been harder on the boy in class and made him learn to float better.

I practice floating everytime I work out at the pool. Always for at least 5 minutes, but a couple of times a month I float motionless for 20-30 minutes. The more I do it the better I get and more relaxed I feel. It used to be a great struggle for me to float on my back.

I totally think some sinkers are fakers There are the true ones, then the ones who, like you say, do not know they'd float. There probably aren't so many on scubaboard but many people get so flustered if they have to float without aids that they move in a way that promotes sinking. Then they panic that they are sinking, and certainly, as a result, sink. Even most floaters need to be relaxed to float comfortably I'd assume.

I totally agree that even though most people "just" float or simply always were sinkers, there is a way to train floating.

 

[TheDavil]

I'd say I'm a sinker, but barely. With a full breath I'm at eye level, or sometimes the eyes are slightly below the water.

So very close to neutral I can taste it.

My legs are very negative, never needed ankle weights on a drysuit, sometimes I even get an air bubble back there on purpose.

Me too, exactly....

I'm a runner/bicyclist, so my legs being negative isn't too surprising...

David

 

[thomjinx]

I have always been a sinker. Less so now that I am older and a wee bit heavier, but I still can stand on the bottom of the pool with a relatively full breath. With a very full breath I am about neutral. I have tried, and I don't think there is anyway I could 'learn' to float (without moving) in fresh water. In salt water I can lean back and just barely keep my face out of the water. It is great when I am snorkeling or freediving, as I have no problem descending to look at something. I can swim underwater better than I can on the surface.

 

[MSilvia]

I do whichever I want. If I keep my lung volume high, I float. If I keep it low, I sink.
I can exhale and then sit comfortably on the bottom, or "breathe off the top of my lungs" and bob like a cork.