How long to master buoyancy?

[LenC]

Had to laugh at the discussions of "never really mastering it".

Add something new or try to do something unfamiliar and pretty much all of us will look like a rank beginner pretty fast.

Was taking pictures of a school of fish in a ball - trying to get the perfect shot up through the centre while the ball swirled around. Swimming upside down under moving fish looking through a viewfinder in a mild current. Managed to totally lose my place in the water column and crash into the bottom. Never did get the shot:depressed:

I feel your pain. My first dive with a rebreather I took a nice deep breath as I came toward the bottom and crashed into the mud. A very humbling experience.

 

[Epinephelus]

...how many dives did you do before you felt 100% in control of your buoyancy...

26¼


e

 

[TexasKaren68]

26¼


e

well I guess I have 22.25 to go

I did my second two open water dives today in a local river (first two were in Cozumel). I'll do two more tomorrow in the river.

I actually felt like I was getting the hang of it after a few minutes. I found that by taking deeper breaths before exhaling, and not exhaling as much I could go up a little, and experimented with breathing out more fully to go down. I guess that's just basic, but being new it was an interesting learning experience. I didn't get to work on buoyancy in Cozumel (as evidenced by sea urchin spines still in my fingers three weeks later)

One thing I found is that to get off the bottom at all I had to put a few puffs of air in my BC and experiment with that a bit to avoid surfacing. I'd wanted to have less weight than in the pool, because the river is fresh water and the pool was salt (and because I sank like a rock in the pool with 16 pounds) but my instructor wanted me to keep the same weight because it would be harder to stay on the bottom for skills with the current, and because I was wearing a full wetsuit. Fair enough. When I can go back there and not worry about having to stop to perform skills, and just dive, then I'm going to drop four pounds and see how I do. The worst that'll happen is I can't stay below and just float along with the folks tubing along the river.

I was proud of myself for not using my hands to move around and I even managed to get myself of the bottom a couple times without using my hands.

 

[knowone]

I would be getting those wounds checked or spines removed or
broken up before they calcify, grow and decide to set up house
forever like some kids.

Especially if your punctures are near joints.

Even if they appear to be healing.

Far easier than self lubricating and digging them out
a year or two down the track.


The buoyancy came with the page on anticipation.

 

[scubajim 1]

For those of you who've been diving for a while now, how many dives did you do before you felt 100% in control of your buoyancy?

I finished my pool dives today. At one point during the class, we (three students) were kneeling on the bottom of the pool getting ready to perform a skill. Our instructor came swooping down from above, went in between two of us without touching either of us (and we were only about three feet apart) and came to a halt about four inches from the bottom of the pool, turning himself to face us without touching the bottom or sides and then just hovered in front of us. I was completely awestruck

I want to be able to do that

I know I'm probably overweighted. I was wearing 16 pounds in freshwater (I weigh about 160 and was wearing a 3mm shorty) and if I let all the air out of my BC I sank like a stone. However, with less weight I couldn't stay on the bottom. I was awful at doing the fin pivot and trying to hover. My normal above water breathing is taking very deep slow breaths and then long slow exhales. Maybe I should breathe a little shallower under water but it feels very unnatural. When I was trying to hover, I would put a little air in my BC to get me off the bottom but then when I took my usual deep breath I'd go hurtling towards the surface and letting air back out of the BC was the only way to stop the ascent. I know I'm new but I'm worried that I'll just never "get it". :depressed:

I've been diving for 40 years...100% control no, but I can put myself into an imaginary chair and "sit" for as long as I wish. I always work on bouyancy...every dive, and I do a fin pivot on every dive I'm able (bottom allowing).
Give yourself time and keep on using those long slow breaths...at depth you'll find you won't rise or sink nearly as much as you do in the pool.

 

[TSandM]

Karen, sounds like you had a good day in the river.

Doing basic skills in current is a challenge for instructor and student. The decision to overweight you to allow you to remain stable is understandable, but unfortunate; unfortunate in that you didn't get to demonstrate anything in a normal diving position, but understandable because a river is not an ideal place to do an OW class's dives. You are right to think about how you will adjust your weight for the next dip!

 

[ggunn]

Then, when near neutral with scuba gear on near pool bottom, experiment with how large your breathe is, and the effect on buoyancy. You want almost no air in your bc...just enough to compensate for when you exhale.

When you take a full breathe to go positive on buoyancy and make yourself lift up, be aware in a shallow pool you can't hold a full breath for more than a foot of climb without overtopping your lungs from expanding air....but at 45 feet down, you could take a full breathe and let it rise you up several feet safely before a significant expansion of air in the lungs occurs.
For safety sake, don't take full breathe to mean jamming your lungs absolutely full...

The main thing is never to close off your airway with a full breath.

 

[teejay58]

I'm kinda having the same issues as the OP. And I have a LOT more than 25 dives in my log. An interesting thing that happened last Christmas... I went diving in Sydney. My usual tank is steel. But of course I had to rent an aluminum tank there. I was worried about the buoyancy thing and stuffed a sock full of lead shot to put under my BP/W. Then stuffed as many of their 3 lb blocks as I could fit into my weight pockets. When all was said and done, I had 30 lbs of lead in my pockets and 9 on my back. Wore a 7mm one piece suit with the aluminum tank.

I was the most surprised human being on the planet when it turned out that my buoyance was absolutely perfect. It's a damn good thing too. My partner pointed out a stonefish right away, directly underneath where we had started descending. I resolved at that point, when I had difficulty seeing the fish she was pointing out, that I would NEVER touch the bottom there!!!

I wonder if salt water is easier when it comes to buoyancy. I find fresh water to be very very touchy. A puff of air makes me ascend. But without it i sink. Stuff like that. Has anybody else had that experience? That salt water provides some kind of buffer or something so that minor adjustments in weight or air don't have a huge impact on your neutrality?

 

[neilcp]

Well, I got certified in March 2010 and have been diving regularly (weekly) ever since. After about 26 - 28 dives I did a Buoyancy & Trim Workshop and got a Silver grading which is +/- 1 mtr. So I guess it is time, practice and a constant awareness of what one is doing.

 

[Den7]

Buoyancy is one of those things that some will get faster than others but as TS&M said "mastering" it would indicate that you never lose control of it and that is just not reality. Even the best divers have their days when some little niggle will throw a wrench into things. Starting to achieve "some" control and comfort should begin the first night on scuba. It begins with a proper weight check and continuing those shecks throughout the class. By the time my students hit OW they have done at least 6. They have also adjusted the amount they use at least once and maybe more depending on their comfort level.

By the end of the first session they are doing basic skills horizontal and in midwater with perhaps just fin tips on the pool slope. Most are experimenting with breath control by session three and actively using it for the remaining 3-4 sessions. We do 8 pool sessions with 7 on scuba. But other instructors here (on Scubaboard) have their students doing it without so many sessions. Our class contains many skills not included in other programs which requires the increased amount of sessions. This gives them more chance to practice at the end of each one. This results in much better control when we hit open water. As a result no skills are done kneeling on checkouts but during swims or hovering. There is no reason that this cannot be done with nearly every new diver if the instructor will take the time and use the methods to achieve it.

End result is that feeling of being in control, neutral, able to move at will with a flick of a fin, or change in breathing pattern comes much quicker.

Agreed! Did you read my mind, Jim? We think absolutely alike. Aren't you happen to be my twin brother or something by any chances?

I am also in favor of extra sessions for better buoyancy control. Unfortunately, I had to do these extra sessions in a pool on my own as I was sold real short during my very first OW course. I was smart enough to realize that I needed more practice before going out there for "real" open water dives. Practice makes perfect and it's fun too so the more your practice it in your pools the more you invest in your safety and skills when you hit open water.