PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy - worth doing?

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cpri

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Hi! I'm a new diver (just did my OW last July) and was wondering whether it is worth doing the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy course? My buoyancy is appalling at the moment. Everyone else in my OW class seemed to have a much better grip on it. It's affecting my air consumption and I always have to surface before everyone else. I talked to a friend who's a DM and he said PPB was a waste of money. But how else can I learn to control my buoyancy expertly? Has anyone done PPB? Did anyone find it useful? What other options are there?
 
Cpri,

The PBB class can be a very good class to take, obviously it will depend on your instructor´s ability, but it will do a couple of things for you. You will be in the water with an instructor who will be able to give you attention on the finer points of buoyancy control. They should spend time with you getting your trim better in the water and go through some exercises that will help you set the foundation for better control. Great buoyancy takes practice and there are few ways better to get feedback than from a good instructor.

It takes some people more time to feel in control of their buoyancy, others have a natural awareness of what their bodies are doing in the water. To that end, when I teach the class, I have an assistant (who is not directly involved in the management of the class) film the open water dives. We then review the film with the student after each dive and make adjustments.


I have found that giving students a visual aide is very helpful when it comes to visualizing what one looks like in the water. Speak with the instructor before you take the class and see what approach they take and explain your goals to them.

Good luck!
 
Hi! I'm a new diver (just did my OW last July) and was wondering whether it is worth doing the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy course? My buoyancy is appalling at the moment. Everyone else in my OW class seemed to have a much better grip on it. It's affecting my air consumption and I always have to surface before everyone else. I talked to a friend who's a DM and he said PPB was a waste of money. But how else can I learn to control my buoyancy expertly? Has anyone done PPB? Did anyone find it useful? What other options are there?
ive thought about taking ppb course after i do the aow course but then i think to myself i can just read and watch as many tutorial videos on the inter web aas i can nd just practice what ive learned. my bouyancy isnt as bad as yours seems to be , no offence, but it could certainly be worked on but basically inside of all that crap i just put on the page i would just do as much reading and video watching and note takin in these winter months and then when it warms up apply what youve learned
 
As in all things, it is all about the instructor. PPB in and of itself is neither good or bad. If the instructor is good at teaching buoyancy control then PPB would be good to take. However, even someone who has great buoyancy control might be horrible at teaching it to others.

I know a lot of divers have horrible buoyancy control and air consumption when they start. Most get notably better around 25 to 35 dives. Some never seem to get it. The fact that you care is probably pretty good start. I'd recommend asking your friend the DM for some tips on how you can improve your buoyancy control. Improving this will improve your air consumption. If you still feel you need more help after 25 dives then maybe re-think PPB.
 
ive thought about taking ppb course after i do the aow course but then i think to myself i can just read and watch as many tutorial videos on the inter web aas i can nd just practice what ive learned. my bouyancy isnt as bad as yours seems to be , no offence, but it could certainly be worked on but basically inside of all that crap i just put on the page i would just do as much reading and video watching and note takin in these winter months and then when it warms up apply what youve learned

I thought PPB was a great class and it definitely improved my diving. Parts of it were hard and unpleasant and I don't think I would have learned as much, or improved as quickly, without it.

Reading and watching video only gets you so far in any activity. If research was all it took to be the best at something then Tiger Woods wouldn't have a swing coach.
 
All about what you put into it and skill of instructor to communicate objectives and how to meet them.
 
Hi! I'm a new diver (just did my OW last July) and was wondering whether it is worth doing the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy course? My buoyancy is appalling at the moment. Everyone else in my OW class seemed to have a much better grip on it. It's affecting my air consumption and I always have to surface before everyone else. I talked to a friend who's a DM and he said PPB was a waste of money. But how else can I learn to control my buoyancy expertly? Has anyone done PPB? Did anyone find it useful? What other options are there?

I agree with your DM friend. Your best bet is to ask you DM friend to take you out on a confined water dive and help you nail down your weighting and trim. Buoyancy will come quickly once you get those nailed. It sounds by your description like you are over weighted.

I have done several outings with OW certified students to work on buoyancy and trim. There is usually a dramatic improvement in just the first dive.

Hope this is helpfull.

T.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
To achieve PPB the first thing you'll need to do is get your weighting dialed in.
To do this you must do a full length dive (if in a wetsuit) and at the end of the dive when you have 300 to 500 PSI in your tank (or your favorite ending PSI) you should be able to hold a 15 foot safety stop with no air in your BC and control your buoyancy with your breathing alone. When you can achieve this it means your weighting is right on.
If you are in a drysuit then add just enough air to the suit to take off the squeeze and also no air in BC for the 15' stop.

After that just work on positioning yourself in the water column flat so you are in line with the direction of travel. Many times new divers are never taught proper weighting out of OW or even AOW and therefore they continue to dive way overweighted and a s a result they tend to go around at a 45 degree angle and use up tons of air, not to mention dragging around a ton of extra weight they don't need.
Work on adding short shots of air to your BC when you decend to avoid getting heavy too fast. With proper weighting this will be minimized.

I personally think PPB is a waste of time and money. It's possible the instructor you get may not know a damn thing because his instructor didn't know a damn thing and so on. It also makes me mad that these agencies teach students wrong weighting from the beginning so they can pay to take another class to straighten that out, if it ever does get straightened out. Sometimes they just teach you to be a better elevator diver.

It's not that complicated, a little practice and you'll have it figured out in no time, but the key is to get your weighting down first.
 
I am one of those that did the Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty right as soon as I got my OW certification. Like you I felt that there was something wrong with my posture/buoyancy/air consumption and the PADI store suggested that as the natural progression. I watched a little video and I really thought that after some training dives I could flow in the water like a mermaid... After two years of diving non-stop and 160 dives I can tell with certainty that the timing to take such a class was 100%wrong. The class in itself is useful but probably most useful after diving for a while...

To start as I understand now , I was grossly over weighted as part of the instructor's strategy to keep me on the bottom. Somehow I think that is standard practice by instructors to overweigh OW students. I was 20 lbs overweight going into AOW when my instructor commented on my posture and ability to maintain depth at my safety stop. That was about 30+ dives after OW and completion of a PPB class. Being overweight I never understood or felt the concept of REAL neutral buoyancy and ability to control it using simply your breath. So the second problem is understanding how it feels when you are neutrally buoyant something hard to explain to new divers.

My recommendation is to be patient, skip the class for now, and dive often with focus on fine tuning your diving weights. Study a little about buoyancy on your own and if you can watch the UTD Extreme Scuba Makeover videos which you can rent and watch online on Amazon for a couple of buck each. These two DVDs explain buoyancy like nobody else. Practice some of their concepts in a pool or in the ocean and watch your buoyancy change by itself. Remember the most important concept in perfecting your buoyancy: use your breathing and your lungs to maintain depth, not your BCD. If you cannot then you have too much weight. Personally that was the part that took me the most to understand.

When you have figured out what buoyancy is all about, then maybe you can invest in the PPB class to perfect what you already know.

My two cents...
 
I took the course after about 100 dives. I think it helped me tremendously. As others have said, the result depends totally on the quality of the instructor and the ability of the student to learn and adapt their skills and diving style.

I had ok bouyancy, but was foot heavy and had buoyancy issues. I learned better breathing rhythms , better finning techniques , proper weighting and learned to redistribute my weight.

I had a great instructor and he helped me a lot. My diving improved overall as well as my buoyancy and air consumption.

I'm not sure that a totally new diver would benefit as much as someone who has more dive experience-maybe 25-50 dives. One of the most important ingredients in good buoyancy is relaxation. that requires total familiarity with your gear, what you need to do and how to do it. It takes diving to become a better diver. You can't learn everything from a book or video.

I have encouraged several diving friends to take the course and without exception, they felt like it was a worthwhile course and their overall diving and buoyancy improved.

I would recommend the course as long as there is a good instructor and you are willing to learn.

Vann Evans
 
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