Help with floating to surface

[RRbbb]

I've been diving for a few years now and I still seem to have trouble on/towards the surface.
Sometimes I am unable to descend on the surface and I often float to the surface and can't descend if I'm above 10ft even though my lungs are empty (exhaled) and BCD is empty. I usually end up swimming/diving down like a freediver instead of the proper way to descend.
I have the same problem when I'm ascending sometimes, usually around 9ft, I end up floating to the surface.
I'm 5'3" weigh 150lbs, 7mm wetsuit, usually saltwater, 18lbs weight but will sometimes use 20lbs because of this issue. I really don't want to just add more weight to help myself descend, so any advice is helpful.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Aluminum tank? If so, then you are certainly under weighted. I use steel tanks and need 6kg (say 14 lb) and are comparatively thinner than you, so less natural floatation. Aluminum usually needs another 2.5 kg (6 lb).

 

[Jafo19D]

Maybe a different BCD? Some are more buoyant than others because of the materials or air getting trapped. I recently got a Hydros Pro which is nearly neutrally buoyant and already shed 2 lbs and I believe I can shed more.

 

[mc42]

If you're near the surface, say less than 10 feet, with a tank at 500psi, and no air in the BCD, and neutral breath in your lungs, you should be neutrally buoyant. This will be the most buoyant you'll want to be on a dive - at the end of the dive/safety stop and about to surface under control - so you should be neutral or very slightly negative. Then add or subtract weight as needed. This is the way I like to do a proper weight check - more precise than trying to do the float at mask level thing.

Make sure you can get all of the air out of the BCD by being vertical when you deflate. Have a buddy check to see if your BCD has any air trapped in it, and possibly help you squeeze more out as part of the weight check. Maybe pulling on the dump valve(s) to see if there's any air trapped.

It sounds like you're underweighted, though. Also, your wetsuit will compress a bit and lose buoyancy as you descend, so that may explain why diving down past a certain point works for you and why you start having problems as you near the surface. The extra weight should get you past that point. At least see if that works and then you can start refining your weight using the technique above.

 

[GF99/99]

If your wing is empty and you have to kick your way down and the start of the dive and at the end of the dive your floating up you need more weight. 7mm wetsuit in salt water is very floaty, yes 18lbs is alot but at the same time its not under your circumstances. Throw on another weight block or two and give that a go.

 

[Damselfish]

While you don't want to be overweighted, sometimes people get too hung up on using as little weight as possible. But if you're doing everything else right, you just need what you need. Struggling to stay down is just as counterproductive as being overweighted, maybe more so.

 

[chillyinCanada]

You may not have all of the air out of your bcd.

 

[Divectionist]

The issue is obvious but if you are troubled by the idea of a heavier weight belt:
- get a stainless steel backplate (and wing) setup, with single tank adapter
- dive steel tanks

This will simplify your setup by integrating the weight into your rig, placing it in a much better spot. If you need a couple weights on top of that, they can just be cam band trim weights to perfect your trim and that's it.

 

[Julius SCHMIDT]

I usually end up swimming/diving down like a freediver

Plenty of divers swim down, it's what divers do, why wait to turn tumble or face the direction you are going until you have struggled to submerge, I can't do it, so duck diving is good

instead of the proper way to descend.

instead of the way you were taught, in order to keep the student level and manageable during the course
after which you start developing your own systems

Much of the time when good folk offer advice about overweighting, they are their only reference so reply having considered only their own weighting and what they hear and read that conforms with their learned thinking

No consideration is given to the other divers size, which governs how much neoprene is required, natural buoyancy, and wetsuit thickness


Being unable to control the up for whatever reason is an immediate one for adding weight

 

[rx7diver]

... I usually end up swimming/diving down like a freediver instead of the proper way to descend.

Plenty of divers swim down, it's what divers do.

+1. Some scuba instruction used to teach surface diving techniques, including a couple types of fin-first surface dives and a couple types of head-first surface dives. Wetsuited divers use these efficient surface dives to relatively easily descend down far enough quickly enough for the wetsuit to compress enough that the dive can be continued without the diver having to struggle to get down or stay down.

However, as someone mentioned already in this thread, you have to plan for the end of the dive, when your cylinder is less negatively buoyant and your wetsuit will gain back a lot more of its positive buoyancy as you ascend.

rx7diver