Fun Pool Scuba Review

[Gidds]

I just went diving in the pool! Lotsa fun! The instructor did not run screaming from the building, try to drown me or himself so I think I did pretty well. I even did the dreaded evil, horrible, rotten, no good, awful MASK SKILLS :11: without freaking out or gagging. Did some basics; put your gear together correctly, which I did and managed not to put the tank on backwards etc., did regulator recovery, CESA, and some bouyancy stuff. Basically the instructor just sat there and watched me because I pretty much remembered everything from 8 YEARS AGO :11: I am really pleased with myself for not being a freak about my mask skills.

I rented a weight integrated SeaQuest BCD that I really liked because it didn't squeeze me and was otherwise comfy. He had be put on 19lbs when I usually wear 16lbs to snorkel and I feel that I was a tad overweighted because I was in the deep end attempting to fin pivot and my stupid feet were floating so I decided to see if I could just hang in mid-water sort of kneeling and I REALLY had to inhale to go up and sank like a rock when I exhaled. I found that I could achieve close to neutral bouyancy with a little air in my BCD which also makes me think 19lbs is just a bit much for me. After I did my skills to the instructor's satisfaction I just swam around the pool for 45 minutes. I have decided that maybe I want a BCD like that one and that I do NOT like my current mask. Does anybody else ever get the feeling that thier head is floating? I think it's from the air in my mask but who knows. My body was unamused when I first got in the water and did the whole "you are a mammal you are NOT supposed to be breathing under here" thing but it went away pretty quickly. All in all very fun and worth the time and money.

Now yer all in trouble because I'm back in the water!

 

[dlndavid]

Hey Gidds,
Nice pool report, I like the part about "the whole you are a mammal" part. Very true for beginners.

 

[Gidds]

Fortunately the fish in me told the mammal to get lost after about five minutes I wish I had a closable nose like a seal, that would make my life much easier. I don't recall having the mammal problem the first time I dove though. I think I was in far too much awe to be scared or anxious.

 

[m3830431]

Just keep diving and it will become second nature.

 

[STUEY2]

Hi Gidds,
8 years no practice and you still pulled it off, good work!!! Yep i know what you mean by instructors wanting to run from the building i have wanted to on a number of occasions when doing requallies. Keep up the good work!!!
stuey2

 

[spectrum]

Good work Gidds. You're being smart by going back through the training after 8 years.
For what it's worth my skin and scuba diving weights are very close. I'm diving E-7-80s which give me just enough extra negative buoyancy to make the difference.

Pete

 

[DandyDon]

Cool experience...!

Your head is pretty negatively buoyant, and your mask doesn't hold enough air to offset that much. Why did you think that exactly? I've noticed that many newbies swim at a head-up angle.

I had an easier time than most, perhaps - accepting the mouth-only breathing. Decades of hay fever while farming taught me mouth-only acceptance. If I ever had a problem with the water in my mask, or removing my mask completely, I don't remember now. Practice, practice, practice is what I hear the big dogs say here.

Oh, and you do need to be a little overweight at first to stay down when an AL80 tank becomes buoyant at 500psi. If you use 16# SW snorkeling, I'd think about the same or a little more FW diving with BC & tank, but then I am far from an instructor.

Keep having fun. :banana:

 

[Gidds]

I thought you were supposed to wear LESS weight in FW? :06: I know 20lbs is too much for me in SW so I don't think 19 is any good for FW. I wasn't using an AL80 since I was just in the pool (although I normally do), I think he said it was a 45? :06: My head only feels highly positively bouyant when I kneel on the bottom and I'm in an upright position, I don't notice it when I'm swimming horizontally. I still think I was overweighted because I kept face-planting on the bottom of the pool when I'd go fully horizontal and stop kicking. A little air in the BC stopped the face-plants. Why do my feet keep floating? It's really annoying, I don't want to swim around in trumpet fish position.

 

[DandyDon]

I thought you were supposed to wear LESS weight in FW? :06: I know 20lbs is too much for me in SW so I don't think 19 is any good for FW. I wasn't using an AL80 since I was just in the pool (although I normally do), I think he said it was a 45? :06: My head only feels highly positively bouyant when I kneel on the bottom and I'm in an upright position, I don't notice it when I'm swimming horizontally. I still think I was overweighted because I kept face-planting on the bottom of the pool when I'd go fully horizontal and stop kicking. A little air in the BC stopped the face-plants. Why do my feet keep floating? It's really annoying, I don't want to swim around in trumpet fish position.

Yes, a few pounds less in FW than SW, true. But add some pounds for the BC and the trapped air that happens more to newbies, and some to compensate for a buoyant tank at end. I don't know offhand about the 45, or more likely - 65 cf?

Proper weighting is a skill to be acquired in time. I have a couple of 1# weights cable tied to bolt clips I can hang from lower D-rings, and easily take off at the end of a dive to see if I could shed that much and still get down with a 500psi tank.

I also carry a couple of 1# soft weights on every trip or outing. They help with fine tuning weighting. I was a guest at a training session recently where the instructor had nothing but 2# weights. If I wanted to stay balanced left-right, I'd have to add or remove 4# at a time - 2# on each side. With my 1# weights, I could add 2# at a a time and stay balanced. That left-right thing may not be all that important, but still, they are handy for fine tuning.

For "...head only feels highly positively buoyant when I kneel on the bottom and I'm in an upright position," I suspect that is a feeling that will pass easily with practice. I doubt that there is anything to it. Maybe someone else will correct me here...?

 

[alibee]

Having relatively recently completed my pool sessions, the reason you need more weight than you normally would in FW for pool stuff is because you are usually working in shallow, shallow conditions, so it's a little harder to keep yourself on the bottom of the pool. They usually overweight folk during pool sessions because there's not much chance for negative bouyancy there.