Need advice to maintaining level buoyancy while breathing hard

[robertarak]

All the answers are good so far and hopefully they will help you. It is not uncommon to overthink an issue. You fear now that you are going to start over breathing and become so anxious about doing it, that you start doing it. I have had students who have done this, especially when task loaded, ie; working with a buddy tying a line. The most simple technique is to reduce the task load, or simply put, stop. Just stop what you are doing, concentrate on your breathing and buoyancy and relax. Once you are relaxed and under control again you can start your task again. This will make your task easier and train you to work while relaxed and with a stable platform. In time the break periods to relax will become shorter and less frequent. I hope this helps.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I clicked a series of "likes" above for everyone who focuses on staying calm. Also note, if a planned dive is going to have physical tasks ( setting training platforms, running a navigation line, , setting out a nav course, IF NECESSARY, add a pound of weight. Better though, to just stay within your self, pace yourself, take your time. This thread points out one of the reasons I think it is important to task load as many dives in the AOW course as possible, so divers learn that hyperventilation impacts buoyancy as does breathing rhythm and depth. Mastering diving means mastering doing things while diving, whether taking a picture, plotting a course, retrieving an item from the bottom, deploying a smb, etc. It's part of growing as a competent diver, so keep at it.
DivemasterDennis

 

[BabyDuck]

another thought - i know we stress using your lungs for fine tuning, and this is a good thing. *but* - if you have a task to do, like tying a line in, pause before the task and adjust your wing so that your lungs aren't the only component in play. in other words, use them for fine tuning, yes, but not for the only tuning you can do.

that, and relax. don't know if anyone said that yet...

 

[corvettejoe]

Physics is a harsh mistress. The only way to not start rising is to maintain neutral buoyancy.

The "trick" is to be aware that it's happening. Once you figure out that you're losing buoyancy control, you can dump a little air from your BC or, or preferably relax and get your breathing under control. Even better would be to practice enough that these situations don't provoke anxiety.

Sorry, there's no magic here, aside from sharpening your situational awareness and having a definite plan for "what to do"

flots.

...That about sums it up.

To add to that though...
If you're rising up, you're also holding your breath more than you think and not exhaling as much as you should. I only say this because I can get out of breath sometimes, as in I ran a marathon chasing down a lobster, or kicking hard against flow in a cave or ocean current, etc... I'm full on breathing hard...and my buoyancy doesn't change any.
Some people tend to suck in a lot of air, then hold it and breath shallow breaths with their lungs full of air... which would cause you to rise. If you full exhale each time you take in that big needed breath, you shouldn't have this issue.

 

[TSandM]

What I can say is that, if a task makes you anxious and causes you to change your breathing pattern, the only solution is to practice the task until it doesn't do that any more. And the more tasks you practice, the easier it becomes to make your breathing independent of what you are doing.

All of us who have played with bag shoots or air-sharing ascents or line work have had the experience of losing buoyancy control. It's easy to tell someone to relax and not change their breathing, but it is far more difficult to do it in practice, because the underlying problem is that the diver is not AWARE of the breathing changes until they have wreaked havoc with his buoyancy. Practicing skills by breaking them into pieces and doing them VERY slowly, while paying close attention to one's breathing pattern, is what worked for me. Nowadays, it takes something very novel to make my breathing change -- when I had to stretch bungie to re-rig sidemount tanks in the pool, I embarrassed and amused myself by taking that huge deep breath to pull the bungie. I've learned not to do that for all kinds of tasks, but had never learned not to do it when using frank physical STRENGTH! So even when you think you have this issue solved, it can crop up again, which is why we learn new skills in shallow water.