How many dives before people got their buoyancy at a comfortable level?

[Cruiser24]

My initial instructor advised us to give it 50 dives to get comfortable with our bouyancy control. At a basic level I found that to be a reasonable baseline. But keep in mind that it boils down to "compared to what?" ... buoyancy control is relative to what you're doing with it, and how you measure "comfortable" ... I'm coming up on 2900 dives, and still working on getting better with my buoyancy control ... there will always be ways for improvement if it matters to you.

You do not need to take AOW to improve buoyancy control ... many (most?) AOW classes won't even address the problem ... they'll just provide you a few extra dives under different conditions and not really focus much on your skills at all. If you want to improve your buoyancy control, seek a class that focuses on it ... a well-taught Peak Performance Buoyancy class, a skills workshop, or one of GUE or UTD's entry-level classes. These classes will spend a lot of time and effort going through the equipment and techniques that help you improve buoyancy control, without all the splash of "experience" dives.

The other way, of course, is to dive, dive, dive ... find a mentor who can take you diving. Pay attention to your weighting, trim, and breathing ... and you will improve through sheer effort. That's probably the most fun way ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

totally agree with bob. ur buoyancy control has got nothing to do with taking aow classes. perhaps it adds on to ur total number of dives and hence improving ur buoyancy control but more imptly as bob pointed out is to dive, dive, dive. as in most sports, u need to practise, practise, practise and if u can find someone to give u abit of guidance/pointers along the way so much the better. most imptly hv fun along the way

 

[Griffo]

I think equipment and environment plays a big part. I felt entirely comfortable with me buoyancy control before i'd even finished my OW course. But that was in the tropics with almost no neoprene and little weight. When I moved to cold climate, I got the shock of my life that my buoyancy control was actually completely crap and had to start all over again, this time the learning curve is much higher and after 20 or so dives I still am not as confident as I was in the tropics.

 

[TSandM]

Well, it was my 50th dive before I held a 15 foot safety stop. I wrote a thread about it, but my search modality here doesn't seem to be working tonight. I'm edging up on 1000 dives now, and still work on my buoyancy control on every dive.

I'm not sure formal instruction helps at all. A good instructor CAN see where your equipment is getting in your way, or help you distribute your weights for better trim. That makes life easier. But buoyancy control is a thing of feeling and nuance. You have to FEEL what is happening in the water column -- there are a lot of cues you can use, about how your gear feels on your body, what your ears are doing, what the light is doing, what is happening to the particulates in the water, and where your buddies are. You have to learn how much to add or vent at a time, and that's just trial and error. And above all, you have to learn breath control. The biggest perturbing factor for midwater buoyancy is the wrong breathing -- people get anxious and distracted, and begin to breathe with full lungs and shallow panting, and the next thing you know, you're on the surface. Or you try to do something and hold your breath.

A wonderful SB poster who was here when I came, and sadly is no longer around, was Doc Intrepid. He told me buoyancy control is 80% mental, and it is. A relaxed diver, breathing slowly and rhythmically, in good horizontal trim, is likely to be a stable diver. An anxious diver, panting, kicking and waving his hands, and aimed head up, is an unstable diver, and will have problems in midwater.

The good news is that I am living proof that ANYBODY on the planet can learn good buoyancy control, if they're determined enough to do the work.

 

[tstormdiver]

To begin with, it probably took me 100 dives before I started to feel comfortable with my buoyancy. Then at about 250 dives or so, I started my cave training & realized it was no where nearly as good as I thought it was. What a wake- up call. I would say that now it is pretty decent,... but there is always room for further improvement. I have my good days where it is spot- on & bad days where it isn't where I want it to be (thank goodness, this is becoming rarer as I go along).

 

[Guba]

Okay, I guess I'm not getting the point. My first "dive" was a resort course. After spending the morning in the shallows (Playa del Carmen, Mexico) getting used to the equipment, my guide (instructor...whatever) and I headed out to an offshore site. At 45 feet, I totally enjoyed the sensation of inhaling and watching the slight rise, and exhaling and the slight descent. I was totally "comfortable" from that moment on. Oh, sure, as I acquired my own equipment and moved through OW, AOW and Rescue, I sharpened and honed my buoyancy skills, but I cannot say I was ever "uncomfortable" with buoyancy issues (unless I just did something totally boneheaded and made a mistake...like using the wrong weights on my gear by accident...fortunately, a rare occurrence).
Perhaps my experience as a lifeguard, swimming instructor, and science teacher (knows a thing or two about buoyancy principles) played a part, but I just don't ever remember having that significant a problem with buoyancy comfort levels. I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, but it's the truth, I promise! I can assure you that I still work on my buoyancy skills, and I'm constantly attempting to improve them. My mantra is to never stop learning, and I'm not where I want to be yet!

 

[elan]

It took me about 100 dives to dial it more or less. Hiccups still happen here and there, but at that amount of dives it was more or less comfortable.
I started feeling more or less comfortable with the dynamic aspect of the buoyancy, like descends and ascends, at about 200 mark, It still far from being good though.

This numbers are all for dry suit and double tanks as this is the configuration I mostly dive.

AOW did not do much for my buoyancy.

Peak performance was a good course but as I now look at it it gave less bang for a buck than say a fill card that I could use for filling the tanks and diving. I still got the card anyways but I could have spend the PPB money wiser

 

[ColoDale]

Ongoing. Added camera, new gear including new 5mm booties to replaced absolutely crushed and falling apart old ones, 3mm wetsuit jacket which I sometimes wear and sometimes don't, misc new gear that adds or lessens weight, the temp of the water affects my bouyancy and how tired I am, breathing more, general cross/down current, etc.
Some dives my bouyancy is off for some reason with same configuration as ususal. It just feels wrong that dive and it shows on my air consumption.

As a beginning diver it took 25-50 dives to get comfortable. But then I still needed more experience when not horizontial all the time i.e. upside down, swimthroughs, vertical, taking photos in current, assisting others with any issues or me with an issue, differences between traditional BCD and back inflate.

I didn't really learn any of this in a class. Just practice. I did watch other divers who's bouyancy and air consumption was good.

I know when my bouyancy is good when the dive is almost effortless (discounting long swims and current).

 

[Juardis]

Including our certification dives? 10. But there was a lot of practice in a 15 foot pool and a perfect buoyancy class between certification and the next 11 dives. 5 dives into my 11 dive trip both my wife and I were VERY comfortable with buoyancy control. Trim control is a different story, but as far as ascending/descending/hovering just by breathing alone, we both got comfortable after our 5th open water dive.

 

[Scubagolf]

I found that doings things during my first 10+ dives that required good buoyancy control really helped: multiple swim-throughs (Cathedrals off Lanai), practicing head down positions to look for critters under reefs, and not holding onto the anchor line during safety stops. The transition after 50 dives in warm water to a 7mm suit with 30# of weight did not feel like a major event

 

[PatW]

It really depends on how good is good enough.

The first things to do are to get your weights distributed properly. Most BCDs have places to put trim weights up near your shoulders and the rest of the weight in pouches. I run 4 lbs in the trim spots and 6 lbs in the pouches. That distribution really helps keep me horizontal.

The second thing to do is get properly weighted. As you dive, you go through the air in your tank making the tank more buoyant. So you want just enough weight so that you can perform a safety stop with your tank at about 500 lbs pressure. Many new divers go into the water overweighted often by more than 10 lbs. That overweighting makes buoyancy control much harder.

I got pretty happy with my own control and then I started taking underwater photos. What worked pretty well before just did not cut it for photography. So I had to work on getting much better at buoyancy control.

I don't think buoyancy control is something that you will get better at unless you work at it.