getting horizontal for those with no natural buoyancy

[dorsal]

There's been lots of talk on the board recently about buoyancy. Here's my challenge - I have pretty much zero natural buoyancy and I'm still trying to find a way to get horizontal in scuba. I can hold depth for stops pretty much motionless, but just not horizontal. For me to float on the surface (swimsuit only), takes serious contortions and a full breath to keep my nose out of the water. Way back when I was a lifeguard instructor, we had to demonstrate a 10 minute float, which for me was a huge challenge and none of the instructors had seen that before. I was quite jealous of the folks that just laid back and floated with their toes out of the water.

I've tried suggestions I read here, and from other's. Trim weights high on the BC helps, but I think I'm at the point I have too much non-dumpable weight at my shoulders to feel comfortable. I keep futzing with weight distro on every dive, and I'm about 30/70 (trim, waist) percent weight distribution now. Tank as high as possible without knocking into my head. Neutral buoyancy fins. I don't yet own a BC and have some reservations on a back inflate as that would seem to move the center of buoyancy even further up.

 

[RainPilot]

Try to take slightly shallower breaths which will help reduce the floaty volume of your chest (technical term)

I've found a student or two with the same issue, instead of a weight belt I put weight pockets on top of the shoulder. Still dumpable but helps.

The backplate won't shift buoyancy up much compared to a jacket. A plate also helps to get weight over your lungs. Most jacket bcd are positively buoyant so they are not going to help you.

Positive fins like the Deep 6 Eddy are also helpful

 

[Diver0001]

You're saying you have a buoyancy problem but when I read your post I don't think you do. I think you have a trim problem. You probably need some help getting that sorted out.

R..

 

[fmerkel]

Before I got a BC with higher position trim pockets I put leg weights around the tank valve. Leverage the weight. I little as high as you can get it makes more difference than more moved only a little.

This is for tropical kit. For cold water + drysuit there are a lot more variables to play with.

 

[DiverDownD3]

Yeah I agree with @RainPilot. I think a BP/W would help you get in proper trim. If the wing causes you to get out of trim, at that point you are likely overweighted or have too much of your weight concentrated on the hips and you are overcompensating with the wing.
You should only need a few puffs of air in the wing at depth

 

[Kevo88]

I have the same issue and have been working on it as well. In a rash guard I'll sink with no lead. One thing I've found will help me stay in trim is breathing into my stomach instead of my chest. It moves my internal buoyancy closer to my hips and helps keep my shoulders down.

 

[KevinNM]

It's pretty clearly a trim problem.

I wouldn't get too worried about how much non droppable weight you have. The key is can you swim up from as deep as you want to dive without inflating your BC? And by swim up I mean without crazy exertion. If you need to drop weight to do this then you need to have that much weight to drop.

So unless you have reached that point I'd keep shifting weight up towards your shoulders until you trim out. But if you use random models of BCs when you dive this will be at best hit and miss. Many of these are highly buoyant and not in the same way as other similar looking BCs.

I usually use a pair of weight pouches high up on my tank when I dive a single.

 

[ronscuba]

Are you diving fresh water, salt, what thickness and size wet suit are you wearing, how much total weight are you using ?

I ask because you say to float in a swimsuit and keep your nose out of the water takes a full breath breath. This should translate to not needing much weight. Using too much weight can cause all kinds of trim problems.

 

[rongoodman]

Posture has a lot to do with it too. You just can't just let your back and hips relax and your legs drop -- no amount of moving weight around can compensate for that. I remember TSandM making a point of good posture, and it has helped me a lot.

 

[HantsDiver]

Why do you care if you are not perfectly horizontal when stopped? There are reasons for wanting to be - but if you don't own a bcd you are probably not considering shut down drills yet.

You can worry about none problems or just enjoy diving. With more time in the water you will work things out.