Tips for buoyancy control

[Divingblueberry]

It is difficult to give really good advice because we don't know where you are now. There can be a tremendous difference among newly certified divers in terms of buoyancy, depending upon how they were taught. Here are some questions.

• Were you taught to do your skills while you were on your knees and negatively buoyant, or were you neutrally buoyant and horizontal?
• When you practice hovering, are you in a vertical (head up) or horizontal position?
• How close to ideal weighting are you? If you are at the surface in the deep end of the pool, hold a normal breath, and dump all the air out of your BCD, which of the following happens?
  • Float at eye level
  • Float with your head just below the surface
  • Begin to sink very slowly
  • Sink rapidly
• When you are swimming slowly in the deep end of the pool, is your body in a truly horizontal position, or is it more at a 45 degree angle?
• If you are swimming slowly in the deep end of the pool and stop kicking completely, what happens?

Well, @boulderjohn, you got me really thinking here. And I thank you for that.

I am working on keeping an horizontal position as much as possible. Unfortunately, I cannot see myself so I cannot confirm it's always the case, but I am pretty sure my body isn't at a 45 degree angle. Same for the hovering : I start by being horizontal at the bottom of the pool and take deeper breaths and practice that way. I also try to keep the same distance from the bottom while swimming, even with the slope (I found following the slope with only my breathing helped me having a better focus). I don't use my arm to turn, only my kicking.

As for the weight, the 16 pounds I had the last time definitely brought me down rather rapidly. I will try 14 and 12 this week and see how it goes.

Thank you very much for you input. Your questions are very helpful.

 

[The Chairman]

How does someone know their instructor is good or not without taking the class with them?

Search for their name here on SB or ASK who's good in your area. Classes cost about the same, so go for a star that peeps speak highly of.

I teach in the 1000 Islands about 2.5 hours from Montreal. I think most here would agree my buoyancy control is pretty good. I can teach you to coach yourself.

I would also recommend Trace.

Why? He's a caver! Instructors who cave dive at least have demonstrated great buoyancy to a cave instructor. They get it.

 

[Divingblueberry]

Go back to the pool, and adjust your BCD to a point where when you breathe in you go up, and when you exhale you go down. Inflate your BCD with quick, short spurts of air.
Take off your fins so you can't unconsciously adjust your depth mechanically.
In open water, when descending from the surface, as you approach the bottom feed air to your BCD to achieve a soft landing. Quick spurts.
In open water be conscious of your feet. Are you kicking? If so, ask yourself why. If you are kicking to maintain depth your BCD air needs adjustment. The air you feed through your BCD will be more than made up for by the air and energy you save by not fighting physics.
Appreciate the water for what it provides: a truly three dimensional experience. Not only can you fly, you can fly without effort.
In my opinion, adjusting and maintaining neutral buoyancy is the secret of diving.

I will certainly try practicing my fins off this week.

I only have 4 dives and I was wearing a dry suit. Needless to say that I had not total control of my buoyancy in that context. I almost got up to the surface (from 35 feet) because I was feeling the squeeze and put too much air in my suit. :-S

Thanks very much for your advice

 

[Divingblueberry]

I practice buoyancy control during my safety stop at the end of every dive. I try not to move either hands or feet for the entire safety stop.

That's what I am aiming at !

Thanks very much

 

[Divingblueberry]

I teach in the 1000 Islands about 2.5 hours from Montreal. I think most here would agree my buoyancy control is pretty good. I can teach you to coach yourself.

@Trace Malinowski
I like the idea of a week-end drive to the 1000 islands. I guess I could rent the gear once there You think it would be feasible ?
I'd be thrilled!

 

[Divingblueberry]

First I want to congratulate you for wanting to have good skills. Buoyancy will make your dive so much more fun. There are 2 main things to work on in the pool.

First is the hover. You proberbly did it in your certification class. However they proberbly had you do it vertical. Practice it horizontally in a diving position.

Second while in the hover get about 2ft off the bottom of the pool. Close your eyes and try to maintain the hover. If something touches the bottom of the pool you will know what is your lowest point. Start with 10 seconds and see how long you can make it.

Use your other senses when diving to notice depth changes. Are your ears equalizing in open water does the water temp changes. These are good ways to know you are chafing depth.

That is a good exercise. I like the idea of doing it with the eyes closed. Thanks very much for that @Octopusprime

 

[boulderjohn]

As for the weight, the 16 pounds I had the last time definitely brought me down rather rapidly. I will try 14 and 12 this week and see how it goes

I described how to do a weight check in my previous email. Have you done that? Assuming you are using a 3mm suit in a freshwater swimming pool, that is a lot of weight. It is possible that you need it (everyone is different), but that would be unusual. I have some students who don't need any weight at all in such a situation. Using a basic jacket style BCD, I need only a couple of pounds myself--with a shorty wetsuit, I don't need any. When PADI's new standards came out calling for instructors to teach trim, I had trouble doing that in the pool with most of my students. The smallest weights our shop had were 2 pounds, and if I put a 2 pound weight in each of the trim pockets and on the waist (weight belt or pockets), most of them were overweighted with that total of 8 pounds.

If you were taught to do your skills on the knees, understand that you can only do that effectively if you are significantly overweighted. If that is how you started, you need to start over with a true weight check.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

@Trace Malinowski
I like the idea of a week-end drive to the 1000 islands. I guess I could rent the gear once there You think it would be feasible ?
I'd be thrilled!

We've got training platforms in 30 feet of water at Bonnie Castle. Check out my coaching page.

 

[-Moe]

I'd love to book some coaching sessions with Trace but unfortunately he is on the US side of the border. Can anyone recommend someone in SW Ontario who does private coaching and comes with the high regard that Trace has on this forum?

 

[Bubbles McGee]

I'd love to book some coaching sessions with Trace but unfortunately he is on the US side of the border. Can anyone recommend someone in SW Ontario who does private coaching and comes with the high regard that Trace has on this forum?

I don't know about private coaching but Dans Dive Shop in St Catherine's is very focused on teaching skills right the first time.