When I tried the adding water thing, I didn't add water to my BC during my safety stop at the end of the dive, I added it at the beginning of the dive when trying to get below the first ten or fifteen feet(I guess in my first post I said I added it at the safety stop, but the water was already in my BC at that point). After I got below the surge, I would still sink with my lungs full of air, so I guess I figured I had enough weight. I actually had to add air to my BC to reach neutral bouyancy at that point. As far as being winded goes, I never felt winded at any point before, during, or after the dives. I run three miles every day(except on weekends), do crunches and weight training, and I'm in pretty good shape. I felt pretty relaxed through the dives. I mean I was excited to be diving a reef, but I don't think to the point that it greatly affected my breathing, so I'm sure that wasn't my problem. I thought about that water being weightless in water thing, but with the waves that size I wanted to get below the surge and away from the boat. I guess my reasoning, although flawed, was that as I finned down head first, I pulled the bottom dumps and made sure I held them open until the bubbling stopped and water entered the bc thinking the water would force any trapped air out the dumps, which were at the highest point in the water. The reason I didn't do this with the air release on the power inflator from an upright position was because without finning, I still had trouble descending even after the bubbling stopped. I knew head first was not good but, I guess I just wanted to get down below the boat and the surge. After I got down to about 20 feet, I would then continue in a feet first position. Actually, I didn't have to go head first on every dive, just a couple of them, but even when I could get down in a feet first position, it was like it would barely work if it worked at all, until I got down to about 10 or 15 feet,then descent was normal. The fact that once I got below the surge, I would sink even when my lungs were full unless I added air to my BC made me think I had enough weight. I mean I didn't drop like a rock or anything, but I still sank with my lungs full. I added air to my BC for the duration of the dive, and then toward the end of my dive and at my safety stop, I would let the air out to maintain neutral bouyancy as needed.
The problem I was having, with my safety stop,(and it was mostly on the days with the worst waves) was that when a wave would pass overhead, it would kind of pull me toward the surface. I could exhale my air to go back down so I was neutrally buoyant, but it's like, when the waves would pass, they would kind of churn me toward the surface. Since I would still sink with my lungs full, unless there was some air in my BC. I assumed I had enough weight. So do you, Stephen, or any of you other veteran divers, think more weight would keep me from churning so much in big waves? I would think that a 50 pound object, for example, that is neutrally buoyant would churn about the same as a 100 pound object that is neutrally buoyant, wouldn't it?...them both being neutrally buoyant. It seems like mass would be the deciding factor in that situation and not weight. Should I have added a little more weight and countered it at depth with a little more air in my BC? I just thought it was strange that once I got down past 10 to 15 feet or so, I felt properly weighted and had no problems with buoyancy control or descent. Have you heard of any other people who have experienced this or am I just some kind of freak or something?
p.s.
I guess more weight would have at least insured I would have sunk quicker and wouldn't have had the problems with the first few feet of descent. I don't know if it would have solved the problems I had with the surge when the waves were bad, would it?