Buoyancy help

[Aum]

Being a relatively new diver I have to admit that I was overweighted my first several dives. I guess it happens to everyone when they first learn. As bit by bit bouyancy got a lil more under control more weight just kept coming off. I was diving similar profiles btw, same gear, location, depth and so on. Looking back I'm surprised that I started with so much when I first began diving.

But one thing that I learnt (a lil intuitively and through experience - I say intuitively because although breathing is covered in OW and more in the bouyancy elective in AOW, I feel it still wasn't stressed enough) is that once you have control over your bouyancy....it's nothing unless your breathing control matches it.

Someone mentioned a quote by Uncle Pug about bouyancy control and breathing control being conjoined twins. That is so right. Can't have one without the other. I treat every dive as a learning experience and am always trying to finetune my breathing, among other things. Not only consumption but more importantly my awareness and use of my breathing and how it relates to my bouyancy. During the dive (and bouyancy under control), it's predominately my breathing that takes me over rocks/coral formations and drops me gently down the other side and keeps my bouyancy in a "dynamic" state.

Breathing for me is the fine-tuning that gives even greater control and greater finesse I guess you could say over my bouyancy. Even as a new diver, I can't impress how important it is with bouyancy control to give you a more comfortable dive and more importantly a safer dive. Especially for going deeper, get the twins under control and then think about taking them deeper.

just my .02

regards,

Arch

 

[jhelmuth]

You don't need help with your buoyancy... you need help with your buoyancy control. This is an important distinction.

First there is a difference between static neutral buoyancy and dynamic buoyancy control. You can achieve perfect neutral buoyancy only to have it *disappear* the moment you start moving. Since most divers are constantly moving they never really know if they are neutrally bouyant or not because of the dynamic forces effecting them as they move through the water.

Secondly trim (body position in the water) plays a critical role in dynamic buoyancy control. At the base level understand that when you move forward through the water at the typical heads up body inclined up trim a lifting force is being generated. Your body is like an airplane wing moving through the water. To counter this upward lifting force most divers will be carrying extra weight. When they stop moving forward the lift is lost and they sink. They have the choice of adding air to their BC to stay off of the bottom, resume moving to generate lift or to just go ahead and settle to the bottom. Moving on from this level of experience the typical yo-yo diver will probably move into the rototiller level where they have given up on controlling buoyancy and are content to till along the bottom with their fins while their head is up by two or three feet. This is often the level at which divemaster has been achieved and it is not uncommon to see an accomplished rototiller *leading* a pod of yo-yos. Of course the only time the yo-yos can see anything is at the top of their swing when they can finally looking over the cloud of turbidity coming from the fins of the divemaster/rototiller.

Now I personally would suggest that you skip those levels of diivng expertise and move in a different direction. To achieve buoyancy control you will need to be properly weighted. Properly weighted you should be able to remain stationary in <10' water with minimal air in your tank (200~500 psi.) To ascertain your correct weighting you will need to go on a shore dive with an empty tank (200~500psi) and drop weights. Weight bags in a mesh belt are nice for this but you can also use hard weights in a bucket. Start ditching weight in 2# increments until you find that you can no longer stay down. Add back one 2# weight and you are now properly weighted.

Next you should practice swimming through the water in horizontal trim so that you are not adding positive or negative lift while moving. This will come easier than you might imagine if you dedicate your dive to geting the correct trim rather than just doing your normal dive agenda and *tacking* on trim practice.

And added benefit to correct weighting and trim is that you will move through the water much easier with much less drag and therefore your air consumption will improve dramatically. Also your CO2 retention will be much less.

Truely spoken by the best-of-the-best. Heed PUGs advice here - he is right on the money, and if you understand it, you'll be there in no-time.
Would only like to add that experience is also a factor. The more comfortable you are in the water (read: relaxed), the better off you will be with not over-reacting (not to mention some of the other benefits like gas consumption). Follow PUGS advice and dive as much as you can. It will come...