Mike, I have practiced my buoyancy for many months and with all due respect have gotten good at it (not to sound conceited because there is always room for improvement). I have learned a lot about my style of diving, my body, and technique with neutral buoyancy. I have had to work at different weighting techniques to figure out where my neutrality lies. I have practiced swimming it up and down so if I am slightly underweight, say with extra mil, that my dive is still successful and I have had DMs overweight me so much in the beginning that I was like a cast iron skillet.
One thing I like about the BP system is that I can incorporate my weight in my BP and connections so that I am not diving all this unneccessary "ditchable" weight. I get better balance and trim because the weight is in the proper places, not in a stupid belt around my waist that hurts my bones and bruises me or slides down and trys to fall off or crammed into pockets.
Unfortunately the first time I dove a BP it was not in the best place or circumstance for diving at all (Manatee season in the Springs in Florida) but the other dives have been much better. Ya know, I take it back. This happened on the third dive. The first two were a lot more practice, hovering, buoyancy, just getting the feel of the rig really. This happened the first time I tried to do a lot of maneuvering within the crowd. I have a pool but it is not 15ft deep. I think I'll call the dive shop in Sav. GA (Dive Locker) and see if I can play in their pool. They have been so cool to allow us to play with their new gear to see what we wanted to purchase before making a decisions.
Conor, I did a check before going down into the spring. Unfortunately, we spent a good deal of time at the surface dealing with other diver's issues before we could descend. On that day I was weighted right on. I had 6 mil of wetsuit on and the BP helped to prevent me from cramming weight in the weight pockets. It was a single tank setup. I helped SJ with doubles once and said "there's no way I could dive doubles I've got to get certified to dive mixed air." But I have come up with some innovative ideas about (me) wearing doubles. I would prefer to get certified to use the mix to avoid doubles for a lot of different dives. I have not tried doubles yet. I weight less than 100 lbs and have been concerned about handling them to be perfectly honest.
EZ, it was a 27lb wing.
Thanks to everyone who has given me input. I really appreciate all your help.
