Work on frog kicking. Get someone to show you a modified frog kick and use that.
Buoyancy 101
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Texasguy
Contributor
They are different degrees of buoyancy skill.
1) When you are new to diving, all you want is to find that middle ground where you don't fight between popping up and hitting the bottom.
2) When you got about 50 dives, you start noticing more of retaining same level while swimming and effortlessly changing level to where you want, not where it takes you against your wishes. When approaching, often you cannot stop in time where you'd want.
3) Around 100 dives you start noticing that while you can maintain your level, once you start doing something out of ordinary, like shooting an SMB, you change level, you have to fight to maintain it.
4) Around 150 dives you are about in control where you want to be at all times. You even start to maintain position and level without moving for a min or so.
5) Around 200 dives, you probably getting way better at buoyancy without even thinking even when something unexpected happens, your brain levels you on autopilot.
It is all about experience and proper weighting, plus, a proper distribution of the weight. Comes with being underwater more and more. It is like driving. First you go where the car takes you, after some while you take control. Then, you don't even think about it, the car is like a glove, does exactly what your mind envisions.
Dive more. It is not like learning to ride a bicycle where you just get all of the sudden and able to repeat it. It takes time and effort. It is more of a cumulative experience where many systems learn to work together.
Each year I feel that I am dramatically better and better at it. However, I always see much room for improvement. My best times are when I solo dive and can do my own training with repeating a certain task over and over again. I am sure my buddy would get bored. Thus, knowing I have my privacy, I can fail over and over again without a second thought that I am being judged at my incompetence.
Right now I am working on finer aspects of being near an object and moving in all 3 dimensions around it with a goal to move to a specified other position with minimal kick effort. Also, I choose a line that goes from one object to another and try to swim backwards above that line (for level), I still have trouble doing it just right consistently. But I have a long summer ahead of me. Next year I'll be even better.
1) When you are new to diving, all you want is to find that middle ground where you don't fight between popping up and hitting the bottom.
2) When you got about 50 dives, you start noticing more of retaining same level while swimming and effortlessly changing level to where you want, not where it takes you against your wishes. When approaching, often you cannot stop in time where you'd want.
3) Around 100 dives you start noticing that while you can maintain your level, once you start doing something out of ordinary, like shooting an SMB, you change level, you have to fight to maintain it.
4) Around 150 dives you are about in control where you want to be at all times. You even start to maintain position and level without moving for a min or so.
5) Around 200 dives, you probably getting way better at buoyancy without even thinking even when something unexpected happens, your brain levels you on autopilot.
It is all about experience and proper weighting, plus, a proper distribution of the weight. Comes with being underwater more and more. It is like driving. First you go where the car takes you, after some while you take control. Then, you don't even think about it, the car is like a glove, does exactly what your mind envisions.
Dive more. It is not like learning to ride a bicycle where you just get all of the sudden and able to repeat it. It takes time and effort. It is more of a cumulative experience where many systems learn to work together.
Each year I feel that I am dramatically better and better at it. However, I always see much room for improvement. My best times are when I solo dive and can do my own training with repeating a certain task over and over again. I am sure my buddy would get bored. Thus, knowing I have my privacy, I can fail over and over again without a second thought that I am being judged at my incompetence.
Right now I am working on finer aspects of being near an object and moving in all 3 dimensions around it with a goal to move to a specified other position with minimal kick effort. Also, I choose a line that goes from one object to another and try to swim backwards above that line (for level), I still have trouble doing it just right consistently. But I have a long summer ahead of me. Next year I'll be even better.
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It's 100% OK to challenged and bummed: it's a tough skill to learn. The fact that you are really thinking about it and working on it is brilliant, so don't be discouraged.
As others have told you and the links will explain much better, you must be properly weighted and you must be horizontal. Most newbies ruin their chances of experiencing any success because they can't become & remain even remotely horizontal.
Good luck! You will learn it and everything will be vastly easier and more fun when you get a better handle on this skill.
As others have told you and the links will explain much better, you must be properly weighted and you must be horizontal. Most newbies ruin their chances of experiencing any success because they can't become & remain even remotely horizontal.
Good luck! You will learn it and everything will be vastly easier and more fun when you get a better handle on this skill.
I believe that is it very important to record in your log book your dive gear configuration, weight and your observations on your buoyancy (too heavy, too light, feet heavy, etc.).
This helps you to figure out your ideal weight requirement for any given configuration, and you'll never have to guess or try to remember what you used the last time you went diving.
Now when I dive in sea water with a 3mm wetsuit, hood, AL80 cylinder, aluminum backplate, I know that I need 6 pounds on the upper cam band and 4 pounds on my weight belt and my buoyancy/trim will be perfect. If I am diving double aluminum tanks in fresh water with a drysuit - there's no guessing, my log books tell me exactly how much weight I need to achieve perfect buoyancy and trim.
Getting your weight "dialed in" is one more step on the road to perfecting your buoyancy skills, and the log books help.
This helps you to figure out your ideal weight requirement for any given configuration, and you'll never have to guess or try to remember what you used the last time you went diving.
Now when I dive in sea water with a 3mm wetsuit, hood, AL80 cylinder, aluminum backplate, I know that I need 6 pounds on the upper cam band and 4 pounds on my weight belt and my buoyancy/trim will be perfect. If I am diving double aluminum tanks in fresh water with a drysuit - there's no guessing, my log books tell me exactly how much weight I need to achieve perfect buoyancy and trim.
Getting your weight "dialed in" is one more step on the road to perfecting your buoyancy skills, and the log books help.
I have seen several new divers that were taught just fine, but ruined things by their own willfulness once they were free to do things their way. They typically start it all downhill by overweighting. They think it's much easier to always be able to decend and not work to get their BCD completely empty. Esp. a drysuit newbie is tempted to overweight to make an uncontrolled acent less likely. Once you are overweighted everything is skewed for failure and frustration.
The other willful mistake is the failure to stop moving. New divers often fail to realize when their "neutral" bouyancy is only being maintained by movement, so they don't actually get neutral. This leads to divers that circle instead of stopping, or do stop, but then confinue to fan with fins or even hands, often never realizing that they are doing so. They were taught better! They just got lazy, didn't demand as much effort and attention to detail as their instructor would have and thus set themselves down the slippery slope to poor habits.
As a relative newbie, with initial certification in late 2014, I feel your pain. I know you asked about articles and this was addressed, but perhaps I can share a bit more from my side.
In hindsight, I feel that buoyancy was more touched on than really taught in depth in the OW class. Some were naturals and some like me struggled a little. Adding to the challenge was was often being over-weighted as well as having to deal with different kit among the dives (pool vs. open water, rentals post certification, etc.).
I read what I could find and watched whatever youtube videos I could find. Then I went back to the dive center and spent some time alone in the pool practicing my buoyancy and breathing. It helped but I wanted to get better. So, I took an Adventure Diver course that included a Peak Performance Buoyancy dive. This helped me get my weighting dialed in better and provided some guidance on how to control my buoyancy through breath cycles. I also decided to do a Peak Performance Buoyancy class while vacationing and found that my buoyancy got much better and my dives became much more enjoyable.
I guess my point is that it will get better with some practice and determination.
In hindsight, I feel that buoyancy was more touched on than really taught in depth in the OW class. Some were naturals and some like me struggled a little. Adding to the challenge was was often being over-weighted as well as having to deal with different kit among the dives (pool vs. open water, rentals post certification, etc.).
I read what I could find and watched whatever youtube videos I could find. Then I went back to the dive center and spent some time alone in the pool practicing my buoyancy and breathing. It helped but I wanted to get better. So, I took an Adventure Diver course that included a Peak Performance Buoyancy dive. This helped me get my weighting dialed in better and provided some guidance on how to control my buoyancy through breath cycles. I also decided to do a Peak Performance Buoyancy class while vacationing and found that my buoyancy got much better and my dives became much more enjoyable.
I guess my point is that it will get better with some practice and determination.
archer1960
Contributor
A question related to this thread: approx how much weight should I add when going from a 3mm full wetsuit, to a 7mm full suit with a hood? I used 12lb with a full 3mm in Cozumel last fall, but am going in cold water in New England with a 7mm and probably a hood. Still salt water. I realize there are no hard and fast rules; I'm just looking for a ball park estimate. Both suits were/are new.
I know this must have been asked at least 731458 times in these forums, but a search didn't turn it up.
I know this must have been asked at least 731458 times in these forums, but a search didn't turn it up.
Basking Ridge Diver
Contributor
Really hard to say without knowing any statistics about yourself - so use this at your own peril.
I use a 7mm and use 21 lbs in salt water - I am about 175lbs and 5'8" in decent shape. If I want to lay down on the bottom due to current in an inlet I may add another 5lbs to make sure I sink.
Well, you need x for the tank and y for the bcd. The rest is for the suit. 7mm is 2.3 times 3mm so it would have 2.3 times more air bubbles trapped in the neoprene per square inch. That is if both suits are new in perfect condition and all that. So take x2.3, figure out how many more square inches the hood is, then add all that to the suit part.
archer1960
Contributor
You're not too far off my size. I'm about 185lb, 6' tall. Your weights would be right in line with something I saw somewhere else on the 'net that said a full wet suit has ~2-3 lb of buoyancy per mm of neoprene. So adding 4mm would add 8-12 lb of buoyancy. So something like 20-24 lb (my previous 12, plus the added neoprene) is likely to be a decent starting point. I'm guessing I'll need to be toward the higher end of that range with a hood, and being fairly tall.
I have a new BC and some other new equipment this year too, so I have arranged to go out with an instructor friend of mine to be sure I get everything zeroed in before I get too ambitious in my diving.
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