Descent
- Thread starter Mazang
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Scuba Cobra
Contributor
When you say you are struggling, do you mean you are struggling because you are too buoyant and need the line to pull yourself down, or struggling because you descend to fast and have to hang on so you don't plummet?
In addition to the clarifications asked by the previous post, a few things.
First of all, you need to do a weight check, you should have been taught how to do it during your certification.
The mistakes I did as a new diver and many other did are:
First of all, you need to do a weight check, you should have been taught how to do it during your certification.
The mistakes I did as a new diver and many other did are:
- You need to really stop moving when descending, new divers tend to fin slightly or move their arms
- You should be able to initiate descent by exhaling completely and afterwards breathing from lower capacity of your lungs
when completely new to diving I tended to just use the same weighting I had in the ow course (maybe 3 kg too much or more) and I always struggled and made lots of depth bomb descends where I had to worry about my ears all the time.
with proper weighting it is much easier and as said the exhaling method should do if your bc is empty. when you see you start to descend you can slow it down to correct speed and already prepare for horizontal trim and to slow down before hitting the bottom.
I personally have lots of equalising problems normally and thus am pretty careful to be able to always control the descend speed. otherwise ears starting to hurt very very quickly and having high barothrauma risk. nowadays it is easy to descent at controlled speed and slowly stop about 2 feet over the bottom without touching it.
As said you will want to do weight checks and because new you may also want to do fin pivot exercises regularly whenever possible to get a better grip to your buoyancy control.
if being a holiday-only diver I would advice to dive couple of dives (or ideally even couple of dozen dives) in very easy and controlled and shallow environment to get your buoyancy under control, then it is much more enjoyable to explore the depths on the good dive sites when you can dive effortlessly and can concentrate better on the aquatic scenery instead of struggling with the basics like keeping the correct depth all the time
with proper weighting it is much easier and as said the exhaling method should do if your bc is empty. when you see you start to descend you can slow it down to correct speed and already prepare for horizontal trim and to slow down before hitting the bottom.
I personally have lots of equalising problems normally and thus am pretty careful to be able to always control the descend speed. otherwise ears starting to hurt very very quickly and having high barothrauma risk. nowadays it is easy to descent at controlled speed and slowly stop about 2 feet over the bottom without touching it.
As said you will want to do weight checks and because new you may also want to do fin pivot exercises regularly whenever possible to get a better grip to your buoyancy control.
if being a holiday-only diver I would advice to dive couple of dives (or ideally even couple of dozen dives) in very easy and controlled and shallow environment to get your buoyancy under control, then it is much more enjoyable to explore the depths on the good dive sites when you can dive effortlessly and can concentrate better on the aquatic scenery instead of struggling with the basics like keeping the correct depth all the time
Chavodel8en
Contributor
Just underlining that ANY movement of your legs or arms is essentially swimming upwards and will complicate descent.
I had a real problem with this. I didn't even realize how much finning & sculling I was doing. I took the advice of freezing my legs against each other and keeping my arms close to my body. I tried to relax, exhale (and only shallow inhale if needed), and let gravity do its thing. Once I got past the first 5-6 feet, Im good to go.
I had a real problem with this. I didn't even realize how much finning & sculling I was doing. I took the advice of freezing my legs against each other and keeping my arms close to my body. I tried to relax, exhale (and only shallow inhale if needed), and let gravity do its thing. Once I got past the first 5-6 feet, Im good to go.
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