hqduong
Contributor
Just out of curiosity, How many dives did it take most people here to get to a comfortable level?
Did you need to take the AOW?
Did you need to take the AOW?
How many dives before people got their buoyancy at a comfortable level?
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Its an ongoing process and starts over to some degree with major equipment changes.
Blue Sparkle
Contributor
Without going to dig out my logbook for a precise number, I would say it took me around 25 dives to get to the point where I felt somewhat comfortable. By "somewhat comfortable," I don't mean excellent or amazing or even good -- but rather just that I got past the total "OMG!" bumbling stage and felt like I had a modicum of control if I was mono-tasking.
I did take AOW around that time, but I would not say it was that much of a help for me, in terms of buoyancy (including the PPB day). But then there is a great variety in AOW classes.
I think what worked the best for me was a combination of the following:
1) Getting my own gear that fit, and that I was able to make controlled experiments with (i.e. it was consistent from dive to dive unless I changed something). This was huge for me.
2) Practicing real diving tasks (compass, writing on slate) and and playing buoyancy "games" (limbo, etc.) while diving (not around coral or anything we could harm by contacting it). If we had a camera along on the dive (after we gained some control), we filmed each other, which was helpful to watch later to see what we were doing (not always the same thing as it felt like to ourselves!). Another practice thing we would do is, after our safety stop, see how long we could take to get to the surface. That helped with our control.
3) Reading Scubaboard. There are a lot of experienced divers here with good information.
4) Watching videos of good divers on sites such as YouTube (I don't have any mentors or anyone "live" to observe except my usual buddy, who learned to dive at the same time as I did).
I'm thinking that I'd like to learn to drysuit dive, and I know it's going to be like starting over. Not that I'm "there yet" even without a drysuit - far from it - but I mean that I know I'll probably be giving up what little I've gained. Temporarily, I hope!
Oh, which reminds me: The dive trip on which I felt like the very basic buoyancy comfort started to come to me was a summer trip in Florida. Not only was it my first trip with my own gear (hallelujah), but being summer I was able to dive with no exposure protection. I think that really helped as there were basically no variables in terms of personal/body buoyancy. I imagine that dive number would have been higher if I were diving someplace more challenging in terms of cold water or other situational difficulties. Shallow, warm-water reefs with adjacent sand are a really nice, "easy" place to learn. My first OW cert was in 58º water with loads of 7mm neoprene and about 5' vis. That was more complicated.
Blue Sparkle
I did take AOW around that time, but I would not say it was that much of a help for me, in terms of buoyancy (including the PPB day). But then there is a great variety in AOW classes.
I think what worked the best for me was a combination of the following:
1) Getting my own gear that fit, and that I was able to make controlled experiments with (i.e. it was consistent from dive to dive unless I changed something). This was huge for me.
2) Practicing real diving tasks (compass, writing on slate) and and playing buoyancy "games" (limbo, etc.) while diving (not around coral or anything we could harm by contacting it). If we had a camera along on the dive (after we gained some control), we filmed each other, which was helpful to watch later to see what we were doing (not always the same thing as it felt like to ourselves!). Another practice thing we would do is, after our safety stop, see how long we could take to get to the surface. That helped with our control.
3) Reading Scubaboard. There are a lot of experienced divers here with good information.
4) Watching videos of good divers on sites such as YouTube (I don't have any mentors or anyone "live" to observe except my usual buddy, who learned to dive at the same time as I did).
I'm thinking that I'd like to learn to drysuit dive, and I know it's going to be like starting over. Not that I'm "there yet" even without a drysuit - far from it - but I mean that I know I'll probably be giving up what little I've gained. Temporarily, I hope!
Oh, which reminds me: The dive trip on which I felt like the very basic buoyancy comfort started to come to me was a summer trip in Florida. Not only was it my first trip with my own gear (hallelujah), but being summer I was able to dive with no exposure protection. I think that really helped as there were basically no variables in terms of personal/body buoyancy. I imagine that dive number would have been higher if I were diving someplace more challenging in terms of cold water or other situational difficulties. Shallow, warm-water reefs with adjacent sand are a really nice, "easy" place to learn. My first OW cert was in 58º water with loads of 7mm neoprene and about 5' vis. That was more complicated.
Blue Sparkle
chs8084
Contributor
I agree that it is an ongoing process. The peak performance buoyancy class really helped in terms of awareness.
Probably 20-25 for me before I didn't think about it so much. Adding the drysuit (around dive 150) made things stressful again for a bit.
In my own case, I think about 20 dives. I did the AOW at about 30 dives because the Night Diving module was required at the shop I was diving with at the time in order to do any night dives, and the Night module just morphed into the whole AOW, which since I did it with NAUI, didn't include a buoyancy module. I worked hard on on buoyancy on my own with no instructor or mentor support at all (not even tips during my AOW), and by the time I decided to ask a PADI instructor to give me a buoyancy class, he refused, saying that I had already nailed it. But I think it would have been quicker and easier to achieve if I had taken a class or had a mentor help me with it.
So the short version:
1) It took me maybe 20 dives to feel "competent" regarding air consumption and decent control.
2) I did the AOW when the op required the rating for a particular dive I wanted to do, and since it was convenient for me to do it.
So the short version:
1) It took me maybe 20 dives to feel "competent" regarding air consumption and decent control.
2) I did the AOW when the op required the rating for a particular dive I wanted to do, and since it was convenient for me to do it.
krawlings
Contributor
I would say that between 20 and 25 dives I felt that I could stay off the bottum . But still struggled with holding my depth and not fight the hole dive keeping off the bottum
I use this method to zero in on neutral buoyancy but it doesn’t sort out trim, respiratory cycle, and rotational balance: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/344735-minimum-diving-weight.html
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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)
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