Weighting and Descent

[joeabroad]

My dumb question of the day, which really never became an issue until I started wearing less weight: I'm floating at the surface, properly weighted as instructed (I checked in the manual!), with no air in my BC or in my lungs and the water line at about my eye level.

How do I descend?

 

[d@n]

Isn't this method using a FULL breath of air, no air in BC?

I use the method of being neutral at 15' with no air in BC and 500 psi in tank.

 

[doos]

You also need to add a few pounds to compensate for the bouyency your tank will gain as you use up the air. That should help you get down.

 

[Spoon]

My dumb question of the day, which really never became an issue until I started wearing less weight: I'm floating at the surface, properly weighted as instructed (I checked in the manual!), with no air in my BC or in my lungs and the water line at about my eye level.

How do I descend?

you should be able to descend by exhaling...oops you already did that. well had a hard time in the beginning as well but repeated practice and visualization helps me descend. if all else fails then i think you are underweighted.

 

[BrianS]

Yep, you need to float at eye level with a full breath of air in your lungs, not completely exhaled.

Isn't this method using a FULL breath of air, no air in BC?

I use the method of being neutral at 15' with no air in BC and 500 psi in tank.

 

[ScubaThor]

My dumb question of the day, which really never became an issue until I started wearing less weight: I'm floating at the surface, properly weighted as instructed (I checked in the manual!), with no air in my BC or in my lungs and the water line at about my eye level.

How do I descend?

Shouldn't you be holding a full breath of air? Exhaling should make you sink.

 

[Santa]

My dumb question of the day, which really never became an issue until I started wearing less weight: I'm floating at the surface, properly weighted as instructed (I checked in the manual!), with no air in my BC or in my lungs and the water line at about my eye level.

How do I descend?

If you hover comfortably at eyelevel I suppose it's no longer a matter of finning about a little too vigorously?

Regards santa

 

[Blackwood]

You also need to add a few pounds to compensate for the bouyency your tank will gain as you use up the air. That should help you get down.

It won't gain buoyancy. It will lose weight.


Sorry. Just feeling picky.

 

[Ishie]

I let out a long slow breath of air, usually point my head down a bit and give a couple kicks to get me started so the first breath I take doesn't pull me up. Though I start more head down, as soon as I'm around 5 feet, I flatten out into the skydiver position and gradually add air to my BC as I descend until I'm hovering 3-6' off the bottom. If I have issues to work out, I get to the hovering position and then let out a little air so I can gently kneel on the bottom.

Oh, except this last weekend where I did a recovery dive sans power-inflator, which I'd disconnected because it stuck on the previous attempt. That time I had no trouble getting down (deliberately overweighted), but didn't get a good chance to fill on the way down, thus smacked into the bottom with a pretty good deal of force (on sand).

What's weird is I remember struggling to get down with 26 lbs. Now, I dive with 16 and don't have trouble descending (that's with a PST tank though).