asag
New
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!
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!