Mastering Buoyancy skills

[3rdEye]

Originally Posted by cummings66

Because constant finning will use more air than will a simple change of breath. Look at it this way, your leg muscles use a lot of O2 and if you push them all the time you're going to use more air to support the movement.

When you get to dive with a great diver like I've been privileged to, you'll notice two things. First they don't fiddle with their inflator(s) and second they seem to do things without apparent effort. That lack of effort comes from good buoyancy control which your lungs help control. Keep in mind this is for short excursions, not a 10 minute trip down 50 feet.

The other key IMO to good air consumption is to stay horizontal, by using your lungs to help buoyancy and not finning you maintain that horizontal orientation. If you're finning down you head is low causing more drag, if you're finning up the same thing occurs. The faster the motion the worse the drag, and the worse the drag the more energy you put into maintaining it and to output that energy level you need to burn O2 and that means you're going to breathe more air. It's a cycle.

when I dove in Coz, my DM was a 67 yr old guy who's been diving there probably every day for the past 35 yrs, dove with Jaques Cousteau back in the day.

needless to say, his control was effortless, and you're right, he rarely fiddled with his inflator...in fact, he inflated his BC orally!

anyway, good points, I am quite an airsucker....need to work on that, it's horrible.

[3rdEye]

Originally Posted by BSea

if/when you go on a drift dive, all you need to do is get neutral, use your fins to steer, and use your lungs to go up or down. It's like flying. Breath in to go up over objects, then exhale to cruize back to the bottom.

Before BC's divers would use their lungs for BC's. They would have to be optimally weighted so they didn't sink or float. Those guys in the late 50's & early 60's knew what buoyancy was all about.

my first dives after certification were drift dives in Coz (as i mentioned above)...i was pretty much finning around like a doofus the whole time, first dive in the ocean, etc etc....just trying to get my bearings, and of course in awe of everything around me. anyway, a lot of the dives there was a lot of stopping and swimming to see cool things, a few of the dives were just relaxing drifts like you said....of course i was still finning too much.

[Dive-aholic]

Don't forget how fish do it. They don't fin up or down. They use buoyancy bladders to control their depth. Our buoyancy bladders are our lungs.

[skdvr]

I am by no means buoyancy control expert but this is how I feel it out on the descent. When I am diving a AL 80 I just let all the air out of my BC and let my breath out to start the descent. I recently started diving a HP 130 and I no longer let all the air out of my BC because the 130 is so heavy when it is full and then if I am descending in a deep spot I will hit the inflator on the way down as I start picking up speed. I do not want to end up planted in the lake bottom... I really do everything that I can to keep myself from having to touch anything while I am down there, and I give my wife some dirty looks when I see her reach her hand out to stop her self from hitting the bottom. She is getting better now because she is tired of hearing it from me.

Like I said I am no master but I just go by feel. You just have to remember that the changes are not sudden but you will begin to notice when they are happening as you are coming up or going down and can add air or release air accordingly...

Phil

[namabiru]

Originally Posted by Dive-aholic

That could be the case. It would depend on the depth. You're going to have great buoyancy changes at shallow depths. If you were anywhere deeper than 30', I'd say you were just being bouncy. If you were shallower than 30', it could be the wetsuits. It shouldn't even matter that it's 2 wetsuits, it's probably not being used to that combo.

Yeah, but I dove two wetsuits at Lake Pleasant and I wasn't bouncing off the bottom like that. I honestly have no clue what was going on. It was bad, though. Usually I can rely on lungs, but I was having to inflate and such. Perhaps it was a new dive environment too. But I kinda looked like a horse's patoot, I'm sure. I used the same weight I used at Lake Pleasant too.

Would altitude ever affect buoyancy, by chance? The water was also a bit warmer, although only by 10 degrees at the most.

[mwhities]

I just read all the posts and by NO means am I an expert but, I didn't see one thing mentioned anytime. (Unless I read to fast and over looked it. ;p).

When you work on your buoyancy, you are in a horizontal position. At least you should be for diving. I'm not sure if your lungs will work for you in a vertical position. I know I constantly finned when I dove like that. (That's why an al80 only lasted 20+- minutes per dive. Now it's up to 35 or 40. )

When you are horizontal, you are using much less O2 than you would vertically and constantly finning. So, with all of this advice that's been giving, they should be referring to your buoyancy in a horizontal position.

Michael

[cummings66]

Good point, always strive for a normal dive position being horizontal, but that's not always a suitable orientation. Take a wall dive where you're taking photo's, a vertical orientation could be more comfortable then.

Yes, the lungs work in that position. You don't move horizontally when you're vertical, you move up and down and the lungs work for that. It's just when you're horizontal you can move in any direction easily.

[namabiru]

Originally Posted by mwhities

When you work on your buoyancy, you are in a horizontal position. At least you should be for diving. I'm not sure if your lungs will work for you in a vertical position. I know I constantly finned when I dove like that. (That's why an al80 only lasted 20+- minutes per dive. Now it's up to 35 or 40. )

Michael

There you go. And getting horizontal comes back to adjusting trim, distributing weight as need be, moving tank location--whatever you need to do to get yourself horizontal-able.

Before I moved my tank, my legs drug like crazy. I was hitting my tank with my butt, and disliked it very much. Now the tank bottom sits at the small of my back or just below, and I love it!

I think my next task is to work with the integrated weight places on my BC. Who knows--I may go back to a weight belt with minimal weight in the back trim pockets. It seems I'm getting drug down there too, as most the weight almost hangs down.

[3rdEye]

Now that I have my own back inflate BC, achieving a horizontal position is fairly easy, I had a lot of problems with that in a jacket style.

I'm going to be going up to the lake tomorow for some diving, they have a giant helicopter suspended at 50' in 70' of water, so I figure that will be a good place to hone these skills around something interesting that I can hover all around and over, etc.

[skdvr]

Let us know how it goes...

Phil