Buoyancy over time ...

[mer]

Just an idea, were your earlier dives shorter... meaning were you getting your tanks below 1000 psi.

I mention it because personally I thought I was weighted right for my check out dives and a few thereafter. Once I dove more and got comfortable hitting the beach closer to 500 psi my neutrally buoyant amount of lead became an underweighted situation. I know this would probably only account for 2-3 lbs at the most, but it could be a contributer.

One other idea, if you're in better shape, maybe your lung capacity is higher, therefore more buoyancy.

:hithead: I have no idea.

 

[AquaTec]

DiverBuoy once bubbled...
My current cert is Master Scuba Diver Trainer with PADI. I went from my first dive October 25th 2000 to OWSI in 10 months August 26th 2001 (with 3 months off for Winter).

I find this statement very interesting, it is off topic and maybe a regulator will move it.

my first dive through instructor in 7 months [10 months less 3 off for winter]

There are so many threads here about bad divers, kicking up the bottom etc. and people say due to bad instruction.
I submit the above example as not a bad teacher but maybe not enough diving experience to be able to pass on the correct information.

The reason he has posted is because he himself is having boyance problems.

the true problem to todays poor divers may be that agencies are putting out instructors after only 7 months of diving. I wonder how many dives the equals.

I don't mean to say anything against DiverBuoy, heck i commend him for reaching that levelk of qualification in such a short period of time. heck if they would have let me drive a car at the age of ten i would have been doing just that. but i might not have been ready to be a driver

anybody else have an oppinion about
1 - how long it should take before you are an instructor
2 - how long did it take you to become an instructor
3 - what agencies certify instructors after how many dives/courses etc

 

[MikeFerrara]

I became an instructor quickly. Not in 10 omnths but fast. When I became an instructor I didn't know beans about diving. The instructors who tought me to dive still don't know beans. well they were better than most I see now.

I wasn't a tiller or near as bad off as some and thought I was well prepared to teach but I wasn't. I continued my own training, gained experience and excepted some responsibility for the fact that vertually nobody around me (in a recreational setting) could dive. I now dive and teach in a way that doesn't even resemble the way I was originally tought.

I saw a course director kneel on the bottom to check his compass. If that's all we see thats all we know.

Time is not always a reliable measure of knowlege or experience but I now can bring far more to the class room than I did at the beginning. If all the student gets is what is in the book you don't need an instructor. the instructor brings technique and real world experience. You can't give it if you don't have it. I know instructors who have been teaching for 20+ years who are not any beter. they have done the same warm water reef dives over and over. IMO, they also are inexperienced. Some of the sure can't dive worth a darn. If you do the same type of dive 100 times, do you have 100 dives or one dive 100 times?

Not to be nasty but IMO, an instructor should be able to weight himself. After all, they are responsible for teaching that skill to others.

I'll stop rambling soon I promise. DiverBuoy, You have much work to do. I believe instructors need far more training in dive technique and should be held to a much higher standard as far as their own skills. When we look at an instructor in the water we should not see much to critisize. They should be good.

 

[redacted]

DiverBuoy once bubbled...
I'm large boned and dense (not just in the head). But I could definitely do more strengthening exercises, and build more tone.

In the meantime, until I purchase a dry suit, and exchange more fat for muscle - I'm going to see if I can force more lead into the rear pockets, I'm sure I can get 5 lbs on each side - hmmph.

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

It looks like the density of muscle is 1 gram per cubic centimeter (same as fresh water). Fat is 0.91 g/cm3. So if you converted 10 pounds of muscle to 10 pounds of fat, you would add 1 lb of lead to correct bouyancy. While this could be a minor contributor to your problem, if it accounted for more than a couple pounds, you would be the Pilsbury dough bouy.

Is there anything funny happening in that body of water you dive in? Although that is pretty hard to imagine also.

 

[DiverBuoy]

Mike F. - I could respond in many ways to what you've said about diving in Indiana. I'm not surprised you've seen the kind of instructing you've seen.

However, here in southern California were doing ok, with our wreck, shore, boat, island, reef, sand and various other diving environments in all ranges of surge, currents, surf, and temperatures.

It really goes without saying - any instructor who thinks they've reached the pinnacle of diving and needs no more training or experience, should stop teaching immediately - he's doing a disservice to his students and the industry. What you didn't read in my problem report is I have mastered buoyancy, and set a fine example for my students. This is such a fine tune problem it appears to be an accurate statement that I'm breathing off of a greater than normal lung, rather than off an empty lung, and thus appear to be retaining more air. (Not to be confused with skip breathing or holding ones breath).

It is clear to me that you didn't undertand what you apparently read in this post. I hope you are able to really listen to your students better than you read for contextual understanding. When you have a serious suggestion that will benefit the problem please feel free to speak up again.

 

[MikeFerrara]

DiverBuoy,

I thought it was clear that I was responding to AquaTec's comments which I agree were off topic.

Don't breath off empty or full lungs. Breath slow and deep.

Of course you guys out there dont dive anything like all those I see. I'm sure that even though I see divers from all over the nation and for that matter the world it is different where you are. The divers that I know out there who tell me horror stories on the phone till the wee hours of the morning are certainly not talking about anyone you know.

I really shouldn't be the one to point this out but if you are pondering the amount of weight you wear and the way you breath you have not mastered buoyancy control or for that matter even the fine art of conducting a weighting check.