Mountainmums
Registered
Hi all!
Very baby diver here looking for some advice after a series of not so enjoyable dives this spring...
I apologize if the post is a bit long winded...
I started diving last summer in Finland (which is where I live), opting to take the course directly using a dry-suit. Course went pretty well, and we (my GF/dive buddy) then took a week long trip to Malta in October where I was able to get my AOW and enjoy 9 dives, all using the dry suit. During those 9 dives, I had no major buoyancy issues (ie, I wasn't perfectly neutral and hovering, but I experienced no sudden loss of buoyancy or loss of control).
Fast forward to this spring, after a winter away from the water. We tried to do things right, and went for a pool session first to get things dialed in, as I had acquired a nice and warm undersuit since the fall. Got the weighing sorted out in the pool easily, no issues. We then went to a lake to do a couple of dives to get experience in cold water (5° then) before attempting more demanding sea dives. Same weighing as in the pool, but I could not get down at all. Added a couple of kilos and went down. I however struggled the whole dive with keeping neutralish buoyancy, and fought hard the last part not to pop up. The second dive was even worse. I had to add even more weight to just get down, and could not keep down at all during the dive. We actually aborted the dive after 30' because I was struggling so much.
With my confidence having taken a major hit, I took the opportunity to take a scuba review course and discussed my weighing issues with the instructor. We took the time at the end of the session to figure things out, and took away 8 kilos from my weights, leaving me with 2 kilos only. We decided that going with 4 would be better because with 2 kilos I could stay down but not get down.
First boat dive day arrives. As I was still nervous about going down, I used 6 kilos for that dive. It was an awful dive that went south after 5 min when my buddy had a runaway ascent from 20 meters, but, I had not issues getting down, despite being seasick and stressed the whole time. So despite the awful dive, I thought I finally had the weighing thing sorted out.
Second boat dive day. First dive is an easy entry in sheltered water. But again I could not get down. The captain added 2 kilos to a pocket, and down I went. However, I was then really overweighed, felt very negative and had no way to maintain horizontal trim with all the weight in my BCD pulling my hips down. Then when we were going up the line during our ascent, I noticed that my dry suit was not venting automatically, causing me to be positively buoyant. The second dive went pretty much the same way, except my trim was a bit better because my second bottle is shorter and thus puts weight higher on my torso. Again, I could not get my DS to vent automatically and struggled with ascending slowly. I don't understand why, as I had absolutely no problem with the venting in Malta.
Anyway, if you've made it this far....what could explain the wide variations in weighing? And how can I get under control so that the amount of weight I need doesn't kill my trim? Could the addition of the undersuit explain the difficulty in venting? Is there anything I could about it???
Any advice or comment is welcome, I really want to get back to enjoying diving and not feeling like it is a never ending struggle....
Very baby diver here looking for some advice after a series of not so enjoyable dives this spring...
I apologize if the post is a bit long winded...
I started diving last summer in Finland (which is where I live), opting to take the course directly using a dry-suit. Course went pretty well, and we (my GF/dive buddy) then took a week long trip to Malta in October where I was able to get my AOW and enjoy 9 dives, all using the dry suit. During those 9 dives, I had no major buoyancy issues (ie, I wasn't perfectly neutral and hovering, but I experienced no sudden loss of buoyancy or loss of control).
Fast forward to this spring, after a winter away from the water. We tried to do things right, and went for a pool session first to get things dialed in, as I had acquired a nice and warm undersuit since the fall. Got the weighing sorted out in the pool easily, no issues. We then went to a lake to do a couple of dives to get experience in cold water (5° then) before attempting more demanding sea dives. Same weighing as in the pool, but I could not get down at all. Added a couple of kilos and went down. I however struggled the whole dive with keeping neutralish buoyancy, and fought hard the last part not to pop up. The second dive was even worse. I had to add even more weight to just get down, and could not keep down at all during the dive. We actually aborted the dive after 30' because I was struggling so much.
With my confidence having taken a major hit, I took the opportunity to take a scuba review course and discussed my weighing issues with the instructor. We took the time at the end of the session to figure things out, and took away 8 kilos from my weights, leaving me with 2 kilos only. We decided that going with 4 would be better because with 2 kilos I could stay down but not get down.
First boat dive day arrives. As I was still nervous about going down, I used 6 kilos for that dive. It was an awful dive that went south after 5 min when my buddy had a runaway ascent from 20 meters, but, I had not issues getting down, despite being seasick and stressed the whole time. So despite the awful dive, I thought I finally had the weighing thing sorted out.
Second boat dive day. First dive is an easy entry in sheltered water. But again I could not get down. The captain added 2 kilos to a pocket, and down I went. However, I was then really overweighed, felt very negative and had no way to maintain horizontal trim with all the weight in my BCD pulling my hips down. Then when we were going up the line during our ascent, I noticed that my dry suit was not venting automatically, causing me to be positively buoyant. The second dive went pretty much the same way, except my trim was a bit better because my second bottle is shorter and thus puts weight higher on my torso. Again, I could not get my DS to vent automatically and struggled with ascending slowly. I don't understand why, as I had absolutely no problem with the venting in Malta.
Anyway, if you've made it this far....what could explain the wide variations in weighing? And how can I get under control so that the amount of weight I need doesn't kill my trim? Could the addition of the undersuit explain the difficulty in venting? Is there anything I could about it???
Any advice or comment is welcome, I really want to get back to enjoying diving and not feeling like it is a never ending struggle....