Bouyancy in shallow water...

[Arubandi07]

I normally weight for expected average depth(8-10lbs) at which I'll be taking pics, but in situations where I'm light for shallow water shots(6-14'), this approach has so far worked quite well for me: set cam, solid breathe-up, after final breath partial exhale(20-30%), creating a slow sinking descent in upright position, legs tucked in, to desired depth. In my case that gives me a 20-30sec window to take a couple of pics, which is usually plenty of time to get the shot, and descending without movement doesn't spook the fish as easily. The only drawback with this technique is longer recovery between dives. In my albums you can check out some pics(chain moray, harlequin bass), that were taken this way. Any thoughts on this?

 

[smellzlikefish]

Most people have their own dive technique, but yours is really out there. Unless I'm missing something, you are going down via negative buoyancy alone and in a cannon-ball posture, which slows your descent even more. You might do better to get comfortable being in a head-down position. This way you can remain streamlined and in control of your descent by keeping your fins in a useable posture, and when you get down your head is on the bottom, where the wildlife is. Furthermore, you don't need to release 20-30% of your breath, you just go.

 

[Arubandi07]

smellzlikefish: while sinking, I'm actually in a kneeling position w/fins at an diagonal downward angle, which allows me to level out horizontally at any point by slowly straightening knees and hips without any significant finning involved. Re lung vol./breath control, as an ex professional sax player my situation is probably a bit different from most snorkel divers, so to me the whole thing is quite comfortable.

 

[smellzlikefish]

As a guy who has been paid for his freediving ability and experience and an ex-trombone player myself, I think you would benefit from learning proper freediving technique before experimenting with other less conventional ways of doing it. Playing a saxaphone might increase your lung volume a little, but it does nothing to help with your in-water posture. You want your fins behind you so you can use them to propel you downward to the bottom faster. This gives you more time on the bottom, as does going down with 100% lung volume. Right now you are sinking, you want to be swimming. You don't usually see seals, dolphins, or fish sinking butt-down to descend, they nearly always descend in a head-down controlled fashion. There's a reason for it.

 

[Arubandi07]

Thanks for your input. I execute about 95% of my dives the conventional way, so that's not a problem, the alternate method is only used in certain situations and as I said, it works well for me. Please keep in mind, the objctive is setting up for a good shot, not to get down fast and scare the fish. Anyway , it's nice to meet a fellow hornplayer in this context, used to do Jazz and Latin, how about you?

 

[derek b]

There is NOTHING wrong with exhale diving, also referred to as frc or negatives. Most marine animals dive this way, and there is a growing number of competitive freedivers. The reason for this is its safer on the body( compared to lung packing, with less of a chance of a blackout ( due to a lesser amount of co2 buildup) as well as a greater dive reflex...etc .etc.

as for my shallow (6-25') freediving I maintain the same weight(2lbs/3mmsuit) as my normal depth(70-100'). I just do an exhale dive to where I am barely negative at my intended depth. My dive time remains the same and sometimes greater then on my normal deeper dives .
this was on an frc "training" dive to six feet.

The only problem I see is with your descent. I dont see how it would be more practical then with a normal duck dive.

 

[Arubandi07]

The advantage, even though excruciatingly slow, is getting into position for shooting pics with absolutely minimal movement and better stability once I straighten out horizontally. The only context, for which I occasionally use this approach, is photography. By the way, got the idea to try this after watching a docu on crocs and seeing them dive by partial exhale. Also experimented with starting in a horizontal position, found it harder to initiate sink.