Something's wrong with my bouyancy?

[BlueTrin]

Thanks! I'll try these tomorrow!

One question about empty lung. How do I equalize if I keep my lung empty? (I have this irrational fears of ear pains, so I always equalize as soon as I feel any pressure change, even if it doesn't hurt yet)

I think the previous poster meant for you to make sure you don’t accidentally keep your lungs full: often people fin a bit or don’t keep their lungs a bit on the empty side.

But about equalising, just wanted to say you are 100% right: you should equalise frequently when going deeper and definitely not wait until it becomes uncomfortable …

 

[Angelo Farina]

One question about empty lung. How do I equalize if I keep my lung empty? (I have this irrational fears of ear pains, so I always equalize as soon as I feel any pressure change, even if it doesn't hurt yet)

Using the Marcante-Odaglia or Frenzel equalization methods. Much better than Valsalva, and not requiring any air from your lungs!
It is a good habit to equalize very frequently, not waiting you feel any pressure.
With Frenzel you still have to stop breathing for equalizing, with Marcante-Odaglia you can even equalize while breathing.
Didn't your instructor explain you these advanced equalization techniques, not relying on your lungs?

 

[alex_can_dive]

Update: in a shore dive today, I was able to descend with 10lbs in the pockets + 1lb on each leg - I stayed completely still and just let myself sink. I found that the weight on the legs help me stay vertical (before, with 12lbs total in pockets, I tend to flip on my back due to the heavy tank + weights sliding to the back of the pockets - and once i'm on my back, I'd just keep floating up.)

Much more comfortable at the bottom with less weight. However, it was a bit tiring to kicks with heavy ankles ...
maybe I could move them up to my thighs hmm....

 

[alex_can_dive]

Using the Marcante-Odaglia or Frenzel equalization methods. Much better than Valsalva, and not requiring any air from your lungs!
It is a good habit to equalize very frequently, not waiting you feel any pressure.
With Frenzel you still have to stop breathing for equalizing, with Marcante-Odaglia you can even equalize while breathing.
Didn't your instructor explain you these advanced equalization techniques, not relying on your lungs?

Interesting - never heard of Frenzel before. But I've just googled it + testing it out and it seems like a better alternative! Thanks!

 

[ginti]

Update: in a shore dive today, I was able to descend with 10lbs in the pockets + 1lb on each leg - I stayed completely still and just let myself sink. I found that the weight on the legs help me stay vertical (before, with 12lbs total in pockets, I tend to flip on my back due to the heavy tank + weights sliding to the back of the pockets - and once i'm on my back, I'd just keep floating up.)

Much more comfortable at the bottom with less weight. However, it was a bit tiring to kicks with heavy ankles ...
maybe I could move them up to my thighs hmm....

Ankle weights in some cases are an optimal solution, but usually, there are better options.

Let's move a step back. If you tended to rotate backwards, probably your weight distribution was far from being optimal. Try a weight belt, with most of the weights in the front. Having the weight in the front should counteract the heavy tank.

Another point: your feelings/sensations at depth are obviously important, but a proper weighting should prioritize two other aspects:
1 - your ability to surface in case of catastrophic failures of buoyancy devices, especially if you do not have redundancy (dry-suit or double-bladder bcd); usually, if you have ditchable weights, this isn't a major issue, but you need to consider it;
2 - your ability to hold a stop at 3m with your tanks almost empty.

Did you do these tests?

 

[OTF]

It's okay to bring as much weight as you need. 14lbs is NOT that much for a 8/7 suit. I used a lot more than that.

Over the winter I was trying to minimize the weight I needed and had a lot of very frustrating dives fighting floatyness while doing so. Then I finally accepted that 36lbs really is the correct amount of weight needed to sink my drysuit and thick undergarments even if it's a bit heavier than other people use. And the dives got much better and more relaxed after that. No downside to being properly weighted, and no shame in needing a lot of lead. A lot of guys who dive drysuits and aluminum tanks use 40+ pounds.

Go do a proper weight check. Go out into about 10' of water with some extra weights and a buddy. Empty your tank to 500psi. Add or remove weights until you can stay on the bottom but aren't sinking like a stone. (Best to do this at the end of a dive since you have to empty the tank.) If you can't hold a depth comfortably with an empty tank, you don't have enough weight. It's good to re-do this weight check process with any major gear change.

As for trim, experiment with raising and lowering the tank in the strap on your back. You may need heavy fins. Maybe ankle weights. In a thick wetsuit I found that I needed ankle weights at shallow depths, then as I went deeper the suit would compress and my legs would get less floaty so I would unclip the weights and move them to a BCD D-ring at 50 or 60 feet.

If you're going to buy weights, solid lead weights are better than the beanbags for many reasons.

 

[Angelo Farina]

Interesting - never heard of Frenzel before. But I've just googled it + testing it out and it seems like a better alternative! Thanks!

remember that Frenzel is mostly used by free divers, as you have to hold your breath while doing it, usually with the mouth closed. so you have to remove the reg from your mouth...
The Marcante-Odaglia is an Italian variant, developed specifically for scuba divers using the ARO (a closed-circuit pure oxygen rebreather, which was the most popular scuba system here up to the seventies). With Marcante-Odaglia you do just a "partial" Frenzel, not involving the mouth and leaving the glottis open, so you can continue breathing normally from your reg while equalizing, You still need to close your nose, indeed.
Most scuba divers who claim to be using Frenzel, are in reality using Marcante-Odaglia. On the other side, free divers who are using the real, more powerful Frenzel manouvre, have problems using it when scuba diving, as the pure Frenzel require to use also the tongue, closing your mouth.
There is a third method, developed in France, the one I use mostly, called BTV. This does not require to close your nose, you simply use specific muscles inside your skull, which open the eustachian tubes. It is not easy to get control of these muscles, but as you learn doing this, equalizing will never be a problem, as, if you want, you can keep the tubes open indefinitely.
And, for completing the panorama on equalizing techniques, there is a fourth one, called Toynbee, which is done closing the nose and swallowing. This is particularly effective for solving a reverse block, which happens when air is trapped in the medium ear and does not come out through the Eustachian tube while ascending.
Toynbee stays in between Frenzel and Marcante-Odaglia, as swallowing you need to close your glottis, but you can keep the reg in your mouth, suspending breathing while swallowing.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Update: in a shore dive today, I was able to descend with 10lbs in the pockets + 1lb on each leg - I stayed completely still and just let myself sink. I found that the weight on the legs help me stay vertical (before, with 12lbs total in pockets, I tend to flip on my back due to the heavy tank + weights sliding to the back of the pockets - and once i'm on my back, I'd just keep floating up.)

Much more comfortable at the bottom with less weight. However, it was a bit tiring to kicks with heavy ankles ...
maybe I could move them up to my thighs hmm....

I'm not an instructor but my memory from being a new diver is still fairly clear for some reason.

I'm thinking that there's a couple of things going on here. First, whether you're aware of it or not, you've been moving your legs and fins during descent. Now that you've got weights on your ankles, you've become quite conscious of your legs, feet and fin placement, as you descend "feet first". You're probably even looking down at your feet as you vent, equalize, etc., whereas before the ankle weights, you may have been looking at the surface to see if you were venting well enough, to see if you were getting further from the surface, as you also concentrated on your ears.
I hope that you can train yourself away from ankle weights as soon as possible.

Ask your dive buddies, if it's possible that your tank is set a bit too high on your bcd. If the tank can be lowered without impacting your dive, that will help with your trim.

I don't know at what depth, in a horizontal position, that you begin to notice your upper body dropping despite breathing in. Your suit is compressing at depth. You should have some air in your bcd at that point.

Beyond this, I'm of no use to you since I have became a warm water diver, within a couple of years from beginning diving, almost 30 years ago.

Hmmm, perhaps I'm of no use to you in any event.

 

[gqllc007]

My wife is 5'3" and 123 pounds. She is shapely but thin. We had to ditch the regular BC as the weights were too high up as she has a short torso. We went with a SS DGX BP, single wing and ditchable weight pockets. We also dive cold water so she will wear a 7mm wetsuit, hood, boots and gloves. With a hp steel 80 in the beginning of the dive she has to wear 14 pounds including the added 5.5 extra pounds of he SS back plate. She can't do a 15' SS any other way when the tank is at 500 psi. This is in FRESH water and in SALT water you have to wear more.
I believe you are underweighted and your BC is keeping your weights up too high. You have wetsuit compression at depth so that feels like you are overweighted. It is most important that you can be at 15-20' safely and it doesn't seem like you have done this at all??? Are you shore diving at the Fort in RI?

 

[alex_can_dive]

My wife is 5'3" and 123 pounds. She is shapely but thin. We had to ditch the regular BC as the weights were too high up as she has a short torso. We went with a SS DGX BP, single wing and ditchable weight pockets. We also dive cold water so she will wear a 7mm wetsuit, hood, boots and gloves. With a hp steel 80 in the beginning of the dive she has to wear 14 pounds including the added 5.5 extra pounds of he SS back plate. She can't do a 15' SS any other way when the tank is at 500 psi. This is in FRESH water and in SALT water you have to wear more.
I believe you are underweighted and your BC is keeping your weights up too high. You have wetsuit compression at depth so that feels like you are overweighted. It is most important that you can be at 15-20' safely and it doesn't seem like you have done this at all??? Are you shore diving at the Fort in RI?

I haven’t done any SS for shore dives. I’ve only done SS with boat dive, but I tend to grab the anchor line . (My max depth is always 40’ or less and bottom time is usually 41 mins or less)
But you have a point. I’ll have to try this.

Re: "diving at the Fort" (Fort Wetherill? ), no I haven't. I dive at Rockpock- Backbeach or sometimes Old Garden. Why do you ask? Is it an easy site for noobs? I could convince my buddies to do a trip