Neutral Buoyancy for a safety stop

[Aanderson81]

My answer may be woefully inadequate but had the same issue even in a wetsuit. The advice I was given completely solved my issue. Dump all air before starting ascent and once you get to the SS or what ever depth you want to maintain, then bump the inflator as needed to get neutral. This solved my issues with the big pressure swings at the shallower depth causing me to have struggle staying at the desired depth.

This is my approach. I still consider myself a newer divers, but I have never had any real issues with safety stops and this is what I do. I tend to let the air out and slowly swim up rather than ride my BC up. if it takes anything more than a gentle effort to be heading up i may add a touch of air (very small bump) and then when I am at my stop generally I am good with minimal effort to maintain. This was what was taught to me early on in my OW training dives as I tended to over rely on the BC and was causing quite a bit of yoyo'ing in general. Basically being a pilot as well I was told to think of the BC as trim on the plane. Its not there to control the plane, its there to balance the controls to make it easier. So you should be swimming first and using the BC to take the effort out of it.

 

[tcphil]

Something else to consider, particularly at the end of the dive is if your undergarments are affecting your ability to vent. If I am pretty squeezed towards the end, my undergarments sometimes block the valve, making it harder to get that last little bit out. Have to kind of pinch the area around the valve and move my arm to open it up, and as said above, give it a little more time/anticipation.

 

[BRT]

If you keep the dump valve open and are trying to control buoyancy with your suit how do you control the amount of air in your suit? Your suit will be dumping based on small changes in depth and body position and you will be adding the air back in to compensate.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

When you get shallow and have trouble getting the air out of your suit get in a feet down position and shimmy for a few seconds. Trapped air will ascend. Keep your dump valve at the highest point. Most importantly, don't use your suit for buoyancy.

 

[tcphil]

BRT - With practice, even with the valve completely open, you control whether it vents or not by your arm position and angle.

There are two sides to the discussion of using your suit and/or BCD for buoyancy. Tech divers in particular push just using BCD. The thinking seems generally, BCD are designed for buoyancy, dry suits are not. Get to depth and just add enough that you aren't squeezed. A search on here will probably provide lots of discussion. The issue with this approach it that no matter how little air you add at depth, you still end up with two bubbles to manage on the way up, with the last 30 feet the biggest change. Hundreds of dry suit dives, trying both methods, I prefer to adjust my drysuit only.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

When you get shallow and have trouble getting the air out of your suit get in a feet down position and shimmy for a few seconds. Trapped air will ascend. Keep your dump valve at the highest point. Most importantly, don't use your suit for buoyancy.

LOL a shimmy could look like a seizure . If I see a drysuit diver doing that I will just have to investigate, is it air or oxtox?

 

[BRT]

BRT - With practice, even with the valve completely open, you control whether it vents or not by your arm position and angle.

There are two sides to the discussion of using your suit and/or BCD for buoyancy. Tech divers in particular push just using BCD. The thinking seems generally, BCD are designed for buoyancy, dry suits are not. Get to depth and just add enough that you aren't squeezed. A search on here will probably provide lots of discussion. The issue with this approach it that no matter how little air you add at depth, you still end up with two bubbles to manage on the way up, with the last 30 feet the biggest change. Hundreds of dry suit dives, trying both methods, I prefer to adjust my drysuit only.

I prefer to use my BCD for buoyancy too. If you are hanging on a safety stop body position will affect how much air stays in your suit for a given valve position. With the valve open every time you go head up or left side up you will vent air and your buoyancy will change. Then you will add air. Then you will move and vent air. If you are trying to use your suit for buoyancy control you can't have the valve all the way open.

 

[NAM001]

I use the suit for buoyancy.. I I will try to use the bc on my next dive.

I think that alone will change the whole picture. use just enough air to keep off the squeeze and use you wing for lift. So many of your issues will change or go away.

 

[claymore]

If you are using your BC for buoyancy and just enough gas in your dysuit to keep the squeeze of when you asended rising the inflator to dumpi gas from your BC will also put the bump valve on your dry suit in the position that will be dumbling gas also.

 

[sheeper]

easy answer is come take my drysuit class

keep enough air in the suit to avoid squeeze. keep the suit air bubble situated in the middle of your body when ascending in a horizontal, neutral, trimmed position. Use your BC to control buoyancy....not the drysuit.

Also, check your weights. You'll generally need more than you think with a drysuit. With my wetsuit I need zero weight to be totally neutral. With my drysuit, I need 16 pounds.