Controlling Buoyancy with your breath: Why?

[redacted]

I did and they said this is normal and I will get used to it / learn to control my breath better. Still seems a little counter intuitive.

I looks like answers focused more on how rather than why. You can effect buoyancy with either breath control or propulsion. Using propulsion means you have to do more work and are unable to be still. Using relaxed breath control is accomplished without added work.

 

[cbm32]

I find that after I dive a few days in a row I get to the point that I dont have to think about my breathing or anything else, other than where I want to go what depth I want to be at. When in sync with the environment just thinking casually about movement, or lack of movement, I want triggers my body to make the correct adjustments and I get there.

I always had this same experience when horseback riding. At least for slow and/or minor adjustments I wouldnt consciously do anything but very minor body cues were perceived by my horse and the corrects were made seamlessly.

When in that state while diving it is just the BEST!

 

[Pao]

In summer, diving in a rash guard and shorts I can get away with using my wing just for support at the surface and almost not using it for the rest of the dive. Just breath control. It is a wonderful feeling not having to offset wet suit compression.

 

[rongoodman]

As NetDoc mentioned, there a lots of situations where finning is a bad idea. Inside a cave or on a coral reef are good examples. I often find that when I'm horizontal inside a wreck or on a coral reef, I'm simply too close to an object, and by not finning I don't kick the object and stir up silt. Breathing gives me excellent control and allows me to maneuver in tight spaces.

There are ways to use your fins without kicking up silt or banging into things.

 

[Buliwyf]

Seemed to me that enough weight to allow me to concentrate on good breathing was a bigger +, than absolute minimum weight and sloppy buoyancy when breathing.

 

[Neilwood]

I did and they said this is normal and I will get used to it / learn to control my breath better. Still seems a little counter intuitive.

I think what the instructors mean is that you will, over time, develop the "intuition" to vary your breath timing and volume to allow a near perfect hover.

Next dive or pool session practise your hover. Get your self neutrally buoyant with lungs half full at the desired point (ideally with your eyes fixed on a point of reference such as a tile edge in a pool or a piece of coral to make it easier to judge). Now breath in slowly and you will slowly start to rise after a couple of seconds. While you start to rise, start to exhale which will counteract the rising and bring you back to and probably slightly past your starting point. At this point, inhale slowly again and so on. The rise and fall are slightly delayed from the start of the inhale and exhale so it is a balance between "I have inhaled and stopped sinking" and "I need to exhale to stop rising".

Even as a pretty new diver, if I concentrate on breathing and depth, I can normally manage a hover within about a 1 foot range top to bottom (going by my dive computers depth reading or a visual reference). This is probably due to having spent 2 hours in the pool during my OW course practising it 1-1 with my instructor. That is without other task loading. I hope and expect over time to need to reduce the amount of thought I put in to it.

At some point, the practise will become second nature and you won't need to actively think about how much breath you need or how quick you are taking it.

 

[Boyan]

Seemed to me that enough weight to allow me to concentrate on good breathing was a bigger +, than absolute minimum weight and sloppy buoyancy when breathing.

Maybe ill try with another pound or two next dive and see if this affects the breathing buoyancy.

 

[NAM001]

Hi,

I recently finished GUE Fundamentals. One of the less intuitive lessons we learned was about weights, and specifically how we have too much of those.

The result of few weights seems to be a bigger impact of breathing on buoyancy.

At the end I got the hang of it, and I see some advantages, but I also see some disadvantages. When I did my OW cert dives I felt completely stable. It wouldn't matter if I took very deep and slow breaths, I wouldn't move a centimeter in the water column at all. With the DIR setup when I take a deep breath followed by a slow and complete empty lung I go up and down extremely.

Why would this be an advantage or am I doing something wrong?

Imagine: You are in a cave, something happens, you take a big breath, shoot to the top of the cave etc. Seems like an unnecessary potential problem which could be easily fixed with more weights + more air in the BC, which would diminish the effect of the lung on buoyancy.

The difference in your rigs. jacket to the dir set u is that now you are using minumum weights to be neutral. so now you have say 1/4# lift at safety stop adn you inhale enough to become4# lighter the change is 1/4 to 4. that is alot. now you look at your self as 4 heavy with 4 in the wing and you inhale and you go from 4 lift to 8 lift with 4# of weights. 8# of lift expands in the one case and there is 4# of lift expanding in the other. More controlable. Idealy you are neutral with no air in the wing. a slight inhale gives you 2# lift and all is well. you exhale and you now are 2# heavy. you can berath onrmally because there is a delay for the lift to take effect. by that time you are exhaling. so your depth only changes a few inches. Stopping the runnaway from expansion is the issue.

 

[NAM001]

As long as yo are neutral with no air inthe wing at safety stop and 500# you should be good

 

[redacted]

As long as yo are neutral with no air inthe wing at safety stop and 500# you should be good

And able to breath comfortably. If you are unable to breath normally at the ss without ascending, you need more weight.