How long should you practice buoyancy per dive without burning out

[Tigerpaw]

I am planning on a series of 10 - 15 dives where I will be practicing my buoyancy and kicks. I'll be diving 15 - 20 ft deep and in a lake. The dives will be carried out over a 3 week period so they will be spread out.

I am looking for advice as to how long per dive can I spend practicing and not get burnt out or it be counter productive. I'm thinking 20 minutes per dive, 4 dives a day would be a good start? Once again I will be practicing both buoyancy and various kicks. I mainly want to make good use of my time and get the most of it.

Also, is there an issue floating on my back during the surface interval. Wading to shore and taking off/putting on gear is a bit time consuming, I'm estimating at that at 20ft a 10 - 20 min surface interval is what I will need between dives and enough time to rest.

As always, thanks for the input!

 

[svs]

Plan looks good and it looks like you are in control and you can always adjust. Is anything else in this lake to see or is it business only dives. What is water temperature. Do you expect to stay comfortable?

 

[Cheizz]

4 dives without changing tanks? What does your gas planning look like? And like @svs said: will your in-water surface intervals be comfortable enough? I would imagine that takes quite a bit of energy compared to a surface interval on land. Or maybe do a drift surface interval between dives 1 and 2, an actual longer surface interval on land between dives 2 and 3, and then a water-surface interval between 3 and 4.

On the other hand: you can (and will implicitly) be practicing buoyancy, propulsion (kicks), streamlining, and breathing on any single dive, no? Just have your buddy give some feedback on how things look underwater (video helps!) so you know how you're doing/progressing. I'm sure people on here would be happy to give some feedback too if you provide some video.

 

[Compressor]

I am planning on a series of 10 - 15 dives where I will be practicing my buoyancy and kicks. I'll be diving 15 - 20 ft deep and in a lake. The dives will be carried out over a 3 week period so they will be spread out.

I am looking for advice as to how long per dive can I spend practicing and not get burnt out or it be counter productive. I'm thinking 20 minutes per dive, 4 dives a day would be a good start? Once again I will be practicing both buoyancy and various kicks. I mainly want to make good use of my time and get the most of it.

Also, is there an issue floating on my back during the surface interval. Wading to shore and taking off/putting on gear is a bit time consuming, I'm estimating at that at 20ft a 10 - 20 min surface interval is what I will need between dives and enough time to rest.

As always, thanks for the input!

I don't think we can ever stop practicing. Every dive you make, you should be optimizing all the factors that make the dive enjoyable and optimum and this includes having good buoyancy.

 

[CWK]

Hmmmm…… Is this a trick question?

Unless I specifically want to be negatively or positively bouyant (and there are times during each dive when I want to be negatively or positively buoyant in order to fall or rise in the water column) I remain in neutral buoyancy, so I guess I practice buoyancy throughout each and every dive and have practiced for more than a thousand dives.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Feels a bit like you’re trying to pad your dive count. At those depths and as long as you have gas, why are you ending the dive at all and floating on the surface? Why not do one long dive?

As far as ‘practicing’ buoyancy, trim & kicks … that’s every dive for the entire dive. You can’t really dive without also practicing all of those skills. It’s just diving! You should be working on all of that stuff constantly. I’ve got a modest 750 or so logged dives and yet I work on that stuff every minute of every dive.

 

[Edward3c]

Hmmmm…… Is this a trick question?

Unless I specifically want to be negatively or positively bouyant (and there are times during each dive when I want to be negatively or positively buoyant in order to fall or rise in the water column) I remain in neutral buoyancy, so I guess I practice buoyancy throughout each and every dive and have practiced for more than a thousand dives.

I agree. Buoyancy is something you control on every dive, either consciously or not. The moment you don’t deal with buoyancy changes dives become uncomfortable.

 

[rick00001967]

i am sure someone has said this already but.....you are naturally already "practicing" your buoyancy on every dive you do. same goes for your basic kicks as well. the only kick you may want to set aside specific time for might be if you are trying to learn how to move backwards. this can def take some time.

 

[Cthippo]

Why did you learn to dive? Fish? Wrecks? Treasure? Exploration?

Go do those things (within your comfort level) and the skills will come naturally. Diving IS practicing, and unless you are in a class or some sort of working dive, every dive should be fun!

 

[Eric802]

Just go dive. You’re “practicing” every second you’re underwater, unless there are times when you find yourself randomly crashing to the bottom or rocketing to the surface. “Whups, forgot to practice there for a sec”.