Am I supposed to decend all the way to touch the bottom?

[squarepants]

We did our first unescorted OW dives at Alki Beach last weekend, and the topic of raising silt was an issue.
We decended and I always would land on the bottom, and then try to get control of my bouyancy from there. I realize it raises silt, but just for a sec, then we move along. I think that it is a "practice makes perfect" situation, but if my technique is truly inconsiderate, and a bad way to decend, then I'll change it.

Any advice is welcome

 

[HarleyDiver]

There may not always be sand or something that can tolerate being landed on.
Slow down on your decent and stay in control.
You should be able to level off before you land on that 10,000 year old brain coral.

It just takes practice, go get wet.

 

[MikeS]

Touching the bottom is bad form! Not only does it stir up silt but you can also damage coral and/or vegetation. Not to mention that on a wall dive the bottom may be 300 feet down. With a little practice, you’ll be able to smoothly descend and stop before hitting the bottom, achieving neutral buoyancy; it does take practice though. It’s a good idea to practice in the pool or on a platform till you get it down.

Mike

 

[wreckchick]

I was taught that you do not want to touch the bottom if it's avoidable, which it should be. If you add little bursts of air to you bc as you descend you can slow or stop your ascent before you reach the bottom. Leaning slightly forward and adding air, a little at a time you can control your descent so you come to rest in swimming position above the bottom and then go on about your dive.

Doing warm water dives in Belize last summer we often dropped in over the reef. For obvious reasons we didn't want to go directly to the bottom before getting buoyancy straightened out.

Also, consider this, if you don't have a bottom you need to be able to stop yourself from dropping into the abyss. It's not terribly hard provided you practice and it will become second nature to keep yourself off the bottom, or stop at your planned depth.

Rachel

 

[Charlie99]

and it will be easier to get neutral while still doing your initial descent.

The fin pivot exercise often taught in OW class is kind of like riding a bike with training wheels. Use the bottom and fin pivots if you must, but strive towards getting and staying neutral at all times.

If you have any air left in your BC at the end of the dive when your tank is below 1000psi, then you are probably overweighted and you should take off 1 or 2 pounds before the next dive. Keep doing this until you have to release all of the air in you bc to stay at 15' safety stop at the end of the dive, while not finning or waving arms.

Charlie

 

[Walter]

Even when it doesn't hurt anything, why would you want to dive that way? One of the things I really enjoy about diving is the feeling of weightlessness. You only get that feeling when you are neutrally buoyant. Your goal should be to remain neutrally buoyant throughout the dive - descents and ascents included.

 

[squarepants]

Thank you for the very valuable information.

I need practice! My next dive goals will be to master that neutral bouyancy. Much more important than I was considering.

Thank you very much.

(thank you for not being too hard on me :boxing: )

 

[jonnythan]

squarepants once bubbled...
(thank you for not being too hard on me :boxing: )

How can you know if no one ever taught you?

Now that you know, go teach your buddies... then your instructor

 

[WJL]

Your weighting is really important. Most divers start off way overweighted. Too much weight makes it hard to maintain neutral bouyancy. You end up compensating for the extra weight by putting lots of air in your bc, even when shallow, and that excess air is hard to control. Try to get down to the minimum weight you absolutely need to stay neutral at ten feet with a close to empty tank.

Another thing to try is descending (and ascending) while your body is horizontal. I know this is probably different than you were taught to descend. If you stay horizontal while descending, though, you will descend more slowly than going feet first, but you will still descend just fine. By being horizontal, you increase your drag in the up and down direction. You will then find it easier to control your rate of descent by adding little little puffs of air to your bc as you go down. You can more easily maintain a nice, steady descent at a moderate pace, and you can stop descending whenever you want by adding a little more air. Then you don't have to bonk into the bottom to stop.

The same thing work in reverse on ascents.

 

[double125's]

here is a link to show you what wjl was talking about.
http://www.divetekadventures.com/Videos/Videodescents.htm