How long to master buoyancy?

[Martini]

You most certainly need to get your weighting squared away and put some focus into how your breathing is affecting your buoyancy. One important aspect I haven't seen mentioned is using visual references. When trying to hold position pick a visual key to help focus on ie: a spot on the side of the pool, a mark on the ascent line, even your buddy if there buoyancy is good. As for mastering buoyancy, you don't. All you can do is strive to improve each and every time you hit the water. Sounds like you are already doing that so keep up the good work.

 

[TexasKaren68]

Well, I learned a few things today.

I went to my dive shop and spent about 45 minutes in the pool. I decided to start with 10 pounds to see if I could submerge with that (after having 16 pounds for OW class). Well I let all the air out of my BC, and sank, but not like a rock. I went down rather slowly with the 10 pounds (wearing a 3mm full in salt water). Rather than get back out and mess around with my weights I decided to stay down for a while and check out my new computer, practice hovering, and monitor my air usage just to get an idea of how fast I suck air

I ended up staying down near the bottom of the pool for 33 minutes and with one puff of air in the BC I could hover OK. I could swim around a couple feet off the bottom with zero air in my BC. I did have a tendency to hit bottom if I exhaled too much and stopped swimming but overall my buoyancy was better than with the 16 pounds on.

I did notice a couple things though. If I tried to hover horizontally, with my legs straight out behind me, my fins would sink and hit the bottom of the pool. If I tried to "sit" in an imaginary chair a few feet off the bottom, with my ankles crossed, I would tip backwards and end up on my butt on the bottom of the pool. I had a hard time breathing in enough to get myself up off my rear end with just lung expansion - I'd either have to add air to my BC, or maneuver myself with my feet and start swimming to get back up.

After 33 minutes I decided to take out one pound and see if going from 10 to 9 made a difference. By this time, my air had gone from 2800 to 1000psi and it was much harder to go down with only 9 pounds - I did it though but couldn't stay on the bottom as well. I would have tried 8 pounds but by then there were six other people getting in the pool to start a refresher course, and what looked like a junior diver course, so I got out and came home. I've just been scrolling through my dive computer history, trying to figure all that out.

Before I left the shop, I mentioned to one of the sales guys that 10 pounds was apparently enough to sink me in salt water and he said that it might be different out in Hawaii, and that I might need to go back up to 14 pounds or so.

Why?

 

[haumana ronin]

percent salinity?

well oxygenated water air due to the surf break?

up-currents over reefs?

...some SWAGS :zen:

 

[spectrum]

Before I left the shop, I mentioned to one of the sales guys that 10 pounds was apparently enough to sink me in salt water and he said that it might be different out in Hawaii, and that I might need to go back up to 14 pounds or so.

Why?

The pool was almost surely fresh water. If it was a "salt water" pool (unlikely) it was probably only 50& typical ocean salinity. Salt water is denser so you displace more weight hence to be neutral you need to weigh more.

It sounds like you found a good freshwater weight 10 LB since you want to be in control down to 500 PSI or even less. For salt water an easy way to calculate the extra is 1 more pound of lead for each 40 pounds of total dry diver weight. (what you weigh just before splashing)

Example:
120 Lb diver
80 Lb of gear
200/40 = 5 extra pounds.

This assumes all identical gear of course.

Enjoy HO!

Pete

 

[TexasKaren68]

The pool was almost surely fresh water. If it was a "salt water" pool (unlikely) it was probably only 50& typical ocean salinity. Salt water is denser so you displace more weight hence to be neutral you need to weigh more.

The pool is salt water, but I don't know what the salinity is. I'm sure it's different than the ocean, so I'll take that into consideration. I'll be wearing the same wetsuit/boots/fins/mask in Hawaii but a different BC since I'm not taking mine along on the trip.

My first dive in Hawaii will be my Peak Performance Buoyancy dive, so hopefully I'll get this pesky weight issue all squared away.

 

[danvolker]

Well, I learned a few things today.

I went to my dive shop and spent about 45 minutes in the pool. I decided to start with 10 pounds to see if I could submerge with that (after having 16 pounds for OW class). Well I let all the air out of my BC, and sank, but not like a rock. I went down rather slowly with the 10 pounds (wearing a 3mm full in salt water). Rather than get back out and mess around with my weights I decided to stay down for a while and check out my new computer, practice hovering, and monitor my air usage just to get an idea of how fast I suck air

I ended up staying down near the bottom of the pool for 33 minutes and with one puff of air in the BC I could hover OK. I could swim around a couple feet off the bottom with zero air in my BC. I did have a tendency to hit bottom if I exhaled too much and stopped swimming but overall my buoyancy was better than with the 16 pounds on.

I did notice a couple things though. If I tried to hover horizontally, with my legs straight out behind me, my fins would sink and hit the bottom of the pool. If I tried to "sit" in an imaginary chair a few feet off the bottom, with my ankles crossed, I would tip backwards and end up on my butt on the bottom of the pool. I had a hard time breathing in enough to get myself up off my rear end with just lung expansion - I'd either have to add air to my BC, or maneuver myself with my feet and start swimming to get back up.

After 33 minutes I decided to take out one pound and see if going from 10 to 9 made a difference. By this time, my air had gone from 2800 to 1000psi and it was much harder to go down with only 9 pounds - I did it though but couldn't stay on the bottom as well. I would have tried 8 pounds but by then there were six other people getting in the pool to start a refresher course, and what looked like a junior diver course, so I got out and came home. I've just been scrolling through my dive computer history, trying to figure all that out.

Before I left the shop, I mentioned to one of the sales guys that 10 pounds was apparently enough to sink me in salt water and he said that it might be different out in Hawaii, and that I might need to go back up to 14 pounds or so.

Why?

If this salesman had been reading the bp/wing thread, he may have figured that all the "hot air" coming out of Hawaii would cause divers there to have "issues"

 

[dmoore19]

I don't know if this has been mentioned or not. My instructor spent the time with me to get me weighted properly with proper weight placement for trim. I don't think a person can get both bouancy and trim perfected without the help of another person who can see how you position yourself in the column. It may be worth spending a few dollars with a good instructor to get you trimmed out and weighted right. Once you know what it feels like, it is a lot easier to make adjustments as required by a different wetsuit or some other piece of gear.

 

[haumana ronin]

Oh yeah, I forgot: waves. You would definitely feel the effect of waves as you are nearing the surface at the end of the dive, even a little at your safety stop. This might cause a tiny bit of stress causing you to keep your lungs fuller or inhale quicker than normal until you got used to it.

But this is still more SWAGing... :zen:

 

[dmoore19]

The pool is salt water, but I don't know what the salinity is. I'm sure it's different than the ocean, so I'll take that into consideration. I'll be wearing the same wetsuit/boots/fins/mask in Hawaii but a different BC since I'm not taking mine along on the trip.

My first dive in Hawaii will be my Peak Performance Buoyancy dive, so hopefully I'll get this pesky weight issue all squared away.

The LDS I use also has a so called saltwater pool. I don't know about the pool you use. The salinity is about the same as the salinity of the tears in your eyes. Seawater is around 35ppt or 3.5% salt. Tears are 9ppt or around .9% salt. Not the same. The water in the pool is even less.

The difference in density is seawater averages around 1.025 Specific Gravity, the pool water will have an SG of around 1.0022. really not that much different than freshwater density wise. Freshwater has a density of 1.000 SG So you will still have to compensate for the seawater.

Saline Pool Systems - Salt water, 'natural' chlorination for any water. Never use 'pool chlorine' again! Free SYSTEM DESIGNER, quotes.

I really think the peak buoyancy dive will sort it out for you, it did for me. But then from talking to others, buoyancy is something that you will be working on constantly for the rest of your diving adventures, the rest of your life. It is always something to work on. It just gets easier and you are always close to start with, so I am told by others far more qualified to say than me.

 

[deepsky62]

As a new diver myself, I found buoyancy the hardest of all things to accomplish. No I don't have it down, but I was convinced early that it was the hardest nuances to master. I am just like TexasKaren in that I find subtle control difficult.

My question to all is: When, and where do you practice buoyancy? Pool time until you get it right? Spend time during OW dives? Plan a distant dive trip, and practice?

All these ideas risk catching H from fellow divers, on trips, or OW events, only the pool avoids chastisement. So, how did you accomplished divers become proficient with buoyance?

EDIT

After having read more of the thread I see that many have tried many things. My best alternative is the pool, and maybe a refresher course to practice buoyance. I want to take my advanced OW this spring, and do not want to worry about buoyance issues during the entire class (like I did in basic OW). I am curious about the Peak Performance Buoyancy. What training platform is that? I was PADI certified, and frankly, shown just enough to get into trouble, so I am really wanting to learn more.