Buoyancy question how do you maintain a sitting hover?

[Blackcrusader]

For those that have a body type that gets you close to weight balanced with a standard setup, count yourself lucky.

This 300 pound fat fella has no problems getting his horizontal trim worked out. It does not matter what body shape you have you can always get into being properly weighted and balanced so you can dive comfortably in any position and being horizontal is dead easy. So is sitting like Buddha in the water.

Your issue is that you said you sink when not moving which means you are perhaps either over weighted or not using your BCD for what it is designed to do. Add more air. You need to put weights in your hands and dive with them in front of you and let that counter balance you to horizontal so you are not at that 45 degree angle.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Of the 4 core principles of diving, trim should be a principle that everyone should get. But it may need the instructor to throw a couple of ankle weights over the cylinder neck to achieve in many people. This is the order of gaining proficiency in the 4 core principles for me.

1. Propulsion. I've been swimming since childhood and had already been a snorkeler. I know there is more to it like frog kick, back kick, helicopter, but most people know how to flutter kick.

2. Buoyancy control. Started learning this the first dive, and progressed rapidly to proficiency. Always room for improvement.

3. Breathing. This is hard. First 35 dives was an air hog. Had to work hard at diaphragm breathing and dive a lot to reduce anxiety.

4. Trim. Yes this is the last skill to be mastered. Should be more of a surface demonstration of how to distribute weight by an instructor including more than moving weights around in weight belts, integrated weight belts and trim pockets. Really not an in water skill. In water is just to verify whether your surface weight distribution was effective. I don't see this being taught properly.

First time in the pool for this student for their OW course.

Philippine Scuba Diving Skills Training & Experiences

 

[Atlantic Explorer]

Recommend a class with a GUE instructor. It will help you out and answer all your questions.

 

[The Chairman]

Chairman, with all due respect, and I love your Jenga game, but try that with a bunch of 45 degree divers and see how it works out for you.

Trim always, always comes first. I've said this over and over, but I can't stress it enough. Trim must come first. Once you've established trim, everything else becomes simple. Very simple.

I'm guessing trim is 75% setting up your kit properly and 25% altering your body position.

It's easy to learn how to adjust your trim.

They are heavily task overloaded by just staying alive. (joke)

They arae heavily task loaded from not being in control. Correct the trim. Teach the buoyancy. Watch the task loading be reduced considerably.

Are new divers aware about options for moving weight up? Like tank neck weights,

Mine are.

And i wonder, how an owd can improve without adding much time.

It takes a lot less time, in the long run, to teach a student right rather than having them kneel and then trying to break that habit.

 

[Raphus]

I like the idea.
As i said before: i am dm in training. But eventually i will become an instructor sooner or later.

@The Chairman is there any article/thread about how you/or others exactly teach the owd neutral buoyant?
Like, how many pool sessions? Which skills first? Is the training in line with padi standarts?

I dont want to be an instructor, that teaches how to sit in water. I want to teach how to dive. But i have problems understanding, how to do it in the limited time we got in standart padi owd.

 

[The Chairman]

I'm not a PADI instructor. I'll see what I can come up for you.

 

[VikingDives]

I like the idea.
As i said before: i am dm in training. But eventually i will become an instructor sooner or later.

@The Chairman is there any article/thread about how you/or others exactly teach the owd neutral buoyant?
Like, how many pool sessions? Which skills first? Is the training in line with padi standarts?

I dont want to be an instructor, that teaches how to sit in water. I want to teach how to dive. But i have problems understanding, how to do it in the limited time we got in standart padi owd.

The, "how do I do this, given the time constraints I have" problem is one I've struggled with. It's why I've started teaching on my own... In my experience, there's a time in the pool to student ratio, but I'm not sure exactly what it amounts to... For example, when I had 10 students in the pool for 6 hours, I could get about 2 to neutral buoyancy by the end of the course. 6 students and six hours, and I'd have 4-5 in place where I liked what I saw. 4 students and six hours and every one would look like good divers. 2 students in six hours, and they can do a full gear exchange with a DM candidate...

This is not to say I'm some kind of awesome instructor, I'm not. It has much more to do with the amount of individual time that an instructor can spend with a student than anything else, in my experience.

 

[TMHeimer]

The, "how do I do this, given the time constraints I have" problem is one I've struggled with. It's why I've started teaching on my own... In my experience, there's a time in the pool to student ratio, but I'm not sure exactly what it amounts to... For example, when I had 10 students in the pool for 6 hours, I could get about 2 to neutral buoyancy by the end of the course. 6 students and six hours, and I'd have 4-5 in place where I liked what I saw. 4 students and six hours and every one would look like good divers. 2 students in six hours, and they can do a full gear exchange with a DM candidate...

This is not to say I'm some kind of awesome instructor, I'm not. It has much more to do with the amount of individual time that an instructor can spend with a student than anything else, in my experience.

Good points. And valid for teaching anything (ask any classroom teacher). Thus one on one scuba lessons cost more, and private clarinet lessons away from school carry a fee.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Recommend a class with a GUE instructor. It will help you out and answer all your questions.

My BSAC instructor would not pass any student if they had not mastered buoyancy and horizontal trim. I've seen instructors pass students what still bicycle kick and are near 60 degrees from OW. It's just poor standards from agencies that have instructors passing students. They ask the student how was your instructor? How would they know until they get trained with another instructor on all the things they were not taught. PADI has a peak performance course? Why? Because padi courses and instructors do not teach people properly to be correctly weighted, weight balanced and know about trim.

 

[The Chairman]

Because padi courses and instructors do not teach people properly to be correctly weighted, weight balanced and know about trim.

Why single out PADI? They have some great instructors doing things the way they should be. I've seen them. I've also seen bad instructors in just about every agency, including BSAC.

For example, when I had 10 students in the pool for 6 hours, I could get about 2 to neutral buoyancy by the end of the course.

I would never do a course that large, even with help. I prefer two for the reasons you stated. I limit myself to four. There's no need for me to exceed that limit.