New diver help--I can't stop floating to the surface!

[asag]

Hello all! I'm a newbie diver working on my OW cert.
I have some buoyancy issues for my OW dives. I weight 116 pounds, dive in the Pacifics, 7mm wetsuit, steel tank full, started the dive with 16 pounds weight.
First OW dive, I can't descent at all with 16 pounds weight and fully deflated BCD. So I was given 2 more pounds, but floats back to the surface right after I let go of the descent line. We added 2 more pounds, then I was able to descent. At the bottom, without inflating BCD at all, I can't swim around with out uncontrollable ascend.
Then I was added 2 more pounds and 2 pounds of ankle weight (22 pounds total). I was able to descend and stayed at the bottom. When I tried to stay neutrally buoyant, inflated my BCD over 10 times (according to my instructor it was >70% inflated) but I can't stop hitting myself back to the bottom of the ocean. Can't hover at all.
We removed the ankle weight on the next dive (20 pounds now). Descending ok, tried hovering by adding small amount of air to BCD, with the BCD ~50% full, I can successfully swim around with neutral buoyancy. Then we stopped to turn around. I stopped swimming, tried to wait for my team at a vertical standing position. Without touching my BCD or kicking, next thing I noticed was I started flying back to surface. Thankfully we were only 14' below, ears hurt, no injury.
20 pounds seem like the right amount of weight, but even my instructor can't figure out why I started shooting to the surface without swimming/kicking or inflating my BCD. Someone told me it's because I'm carrying too much weight that I have to inflate my BCD so much to compensate that, a slight movement messes up my buoyancy and takes me back to the surface. :depressed:
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance!

 

[lemke]

Are you holding your breath at all? Seriously, some people don't realize they do.

 

[cannon fodder]

I had this sort of problem. Breath out to go down and breath in to go up, that seems to be the secret. I started with 20 pounds in the Caribbean, and thought I was good at 18. My last dive I had 12 pounds on and am double your weight, not muscle. To go down, relax and empty your lungs slowly and then breath in slowly, but not too much. Once you are down, you do not have to put as much air in you BCD and can move up and down by your breath. If you start to feel yourself pulled up, breath out. I found myself getting startled when I felt like I was going up and realized I was breathing in, which makes things worse, just relax and breath out. If you are stuck on the surface, don't get frustrated. You will start breathing harder and never get down. Give it a minute, relax and breath out.

 

[Minion_Diver]

I had some similar issues with buoyancy whenever I was in training. After I learned to relax and control my breathing better, my buoyancy control underwater became a lot better. Also are you in the same gear that you were in while doing your pool training? That can have an issue with your buoyancy too, every gear set up is different in one way or another and can affect your buoyancy.
I would ask the instructor on the next dive to do a good buoyancy check before the dive to make sure you have the good amount of weight on you. Also if you are still having trouble afterwards, I would recommend to spend time in the pool and work on just staying at depth and not touching the bottom of the pool or go to the surface. Try and keep it within +/- 1-2' of starting depth.

 

[divin'dog]

I would say that you need to stop diving and do a buoyancy check right at the surface with about 300-500lbs of air in your tank. Make sure you get out all the trapped air in your suit and BC. Keep a neutral breath (as if holding your breath after a normal and relaxed exhale). Try to float at eye level. Once the weights are set, it's a starting point to add or subtract as you fine tune your buoyancy.

Is your exhale from previous dives going into your suit or getting trapped in your BC somehow? Sometimes an exhale will get trapped in your hood (or possibly find its way from your hood into your suit?). Your instructors need to work a little bit more with you on your proper weight before taking you for a dive.

 

[spectrum]

Apparently your instructor does not believe in making an objective weight check. That would get one variable under control and let you look for the rest of the story if weighting isn't the whole issue. More on weight checks here.

Unless someone is messing with puppet strings or bungee cord there's an assignable cause to your lack of control.

One thing to note is that buoyancy adjustments are not instantaneous. If you are normally dropping and keep adding air until you stop dropping you will be overinflated and cork as soon as you stop dropping. Add air slowly as you drop to slow the rate and give it a careful shot at the end. The first few times you may need to touch of with a finger but eventually you can stop a few feet off the bottom like Tinkerbell in flight. One technique is to inhale deeply as you approach the bottom. Your expanding lungs are natures own BC. As you exhale give the BC a shot of air and voila you are neutral. It all takes a little practice but it's perfectly doable.

At 14 feet you are still in a shallow depth where buoyancy swings are sudden. Each foot represents a high percentage of depth change and the corresponding lift change from your BC and neoprene. This is probably compounded by a nice spongy and buoyancy wetsuit. If you reach bottom a little overly buoyant you will rise. As soon as you rise a little the air in your BC and your neoprene both swell and cause more lift. If you don't dump air PDQ you are going up. Diving in 14 feet is a non issue with some practice. As a training depth it will keep you on your toes if 7mm neoprene is involved.

Pete

 

[tanksforthememories]

The deeper you go the easier it will be to achieve neutrality. The 7mm suit adds lots of buoyancy due to the trapped air bubbles. If it is a new suit it will loose some buoyancy with some dives. Don't overweight and never hold your breath. Be sure to know how to ditch weights if you need to and spread the weight around so you can ditch in increments if necessary. Stay safe.

 

[TMHeimer]

Lot's of good ideas. I was up and down during my OW checkout dives. We didn't do a weight check for each student, presumably because it was November in Nova Scotia with all diving wet (7 mil farmer johns). Once I did a proper weight check I was 100 times better and improved from there. Peak Performance buoyancy course didn't hurt. I wasn't there, but from what you say there was a lot of adding weight here and there. A simple buoyancy check at the beginning is the norm. Good trim is of course advisable so you can swim horizontally, thus work less and consume less air. But poor trim shouldn't mean rocketing up if you have the right amount of weight.

 

[kafkaland]

One odd thing that can contribute to difficulties with buoyancy that I came across recently is the wet suit. Make sure it's one intended for scuba diving, not a surfing wet suit. The suits for diving compress much less than the surfing ones. The latter are made to give you tons of buoancy near the surface, but compress very easily as soon as the pressure increases. My surfing 3/2 wet suit gives me a buoyancy swing of almost 4 lbs depending on depth. I didn't believe it at first, but then I took it into the pool and measured it.

 

[dmoore19]

A new wetsuit can cause problems, I had a new 5MM on my last trip. I was able to drop 4 lbs after the first 15 dives. The first dive of a trip usually means an extra 2 lbs until it gets good and wet.