trouble descending

[bigbertha22]

I've been diving for a few years and have no problems once I manage the descent. But I have a terrible time descending the first five or six feet even though I am properly weighted. I know it is my breathing that is causing the problem.By habit,I take a deep breath off my regulator and then begin to exhale. I can't seem to get into the habit of short breaths when descending. Any suggestions?

 

[Quarrior]

Instead of taking that big breath and then descending, take a big exhale.

Another thing you can do is to flip head down and fin down below 10ft.

One thing though, are you sure you're weighted right? In other words, are you able to control your ascent all the way up, even through the last 10ft? If not, you're not properly weighted.

 

[gt3073b]

I'm still pretty new, and it takes me a few seconds to get going on my descent. My problem is usually caused by air trapped in my wetsuit. I have one of the "skin-in" suits that really sticks to me.

Here is what works for me. Once I'm in the water, I burp the collar and let a tiny bit of water in to unstick the suit. I then press on the suit around my waist and slide up to my neck to work any air out the collar. After that, I give a good exhale, turn head down, and pull the rear dump. It seems to get the air out easier and I can see what is below me. (I love the feeling when the wreck first comes into sight!)

Hope this helps,
Bryan.

 

[divingjd]

If you are trying to take short breaths while descending, that is probably the problem. Newer divers tend not to exhale completely, so there is enough air in their lungs to be too buoyant to descend. Your breathing pattern should be long, slow, DEEP, inhalations, followed by long, slow, DEEP exhalations. You also need to try to relax. If you are concerned about the descent and nervous, you tend to take shallow breaths. If you get relaxed and get the breathing right, you should find it much easier to descend.

 

[jbd]

One thing though, are you sure you're weighted right? In other words, are you able to control your ascent all the way up, even through the last 10ft? If not, you're not properly weighted.

I agree with this thought.

I think you may need to re-visit the weighting issue. Trapped air in a suit can cause some problems as well.

Descending should be a simple matter of exhaling fully.

 

[jbd]

I just respoinded to you role of the BC question and realized that possibly the is air in your BC that is not being released while at the surface. Maybe you are not fully deflating the BC just prior to the descent or maybe you are in fact overweighted and not releasing enough air to allow you to descend.

I would suggest doing a weight check with a BC that you are absolutely sure is fully deflated.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I exhale as much as I can, descent, then just don't breathe until I'm several feet under. Easy as pie.

 

[gcbryan]

Just to state the obvious, make sure you are not finning while trying to descend. Otherwise you probably exhale, vent your BC, and now that you are ready to descend it's time for you to inhale again. Leave the inhale until you are ready to drop and then immediately go with the large exhale.

 

[divingjd]

Good advice. I have seen lots of people finning while trying to descend feet first, without even realizing it.

 

[JodiBB]

I sometimes have problems with this as well....my last dive, I had my buddy watch me to see what could be contributing to it. He told me I wasn't finning, so that wasn't the problem and he stated that it appeared I was completely exhaling (and it felt like it to me as well)....I have used extra weight, but if I do that, then I'm like a lead balloon once at the bottom, so we ended up going down about 4-5 feet and then changed to head-first position, which I was easily able to descend in this matter.

I believe I'm weighted properly, based on buoyancy checks I've done with instructors, so either I'm trapping air in my wetsuit or air is getting caught in my BC (I doubt the latter as I use all my dumps on the BC--both at the bottom and top)...

Any ideas here??