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Scuba Tips: Fine Tuning Your Buoyancy

Scuba Tips: Fine Tuning Your Buoyancy

Written by Noreen
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Published on August 22, 2010

In past posts we’ve discussed the fundamentals of buoyancy control, looked at tips to achieve neutral buoyancy and even shed light on how to perform a weight check in order to determine the correct amount of weights one should wear when diving to achieve that buoyancy. But buoyancy still remains and issue for many divers, plus there’s always room for improvement for those more comfortable with their buoyancy when scuba diving. So, whether you’re a diver struggle to perfect that buoyancy or you’re just looking to polish on your already good skills we have a few points for you to consider to fine tune your buoyancy control.

Breath Control

Now it’s already been said everywhere and a lot of times, but is worth mentioning again. It’s important to learn controlling your buoyancy not with your BCD inflate and deflate but rather with your breathing. The only adjustment you should need is to release a bit of air from your BCD to compensate for the air you use and definitely not as an elevator. When you inhale, you increase your displacement and buoyancy and automatically tend to rise slightly while when you exhale you tend to sink. Now this way of buoyancy control doesn’t require you to hold you breath, it’s a matter of timing your breathing and paying attention to how full or empty your lungs are to ascend or descend a little. With a little practice it becomes second nature and you can ascend or descend a few feet solely by breathing in or out as a lung full of air can add as much as 10 pounds of buoyancy!

Weight Distribution

Whenever we talk about buoyancy it’s stressed that you need to be wearing the right amount of weights. But, distributing that weight correctly is just as important as it can make a difference to your buoyancy. The distribution of weight however, depends from diver to diver and also according to the dive. For instance if you’re into underwater photography and want to take pictures along a wall, a head up position may be preferred. But if you’d like to take pictures on the sea bed a head down position might be a better option. Typically though, for the horizontal swimming position which is always recommended to reduce drag, you want to weight forward, towards your sides and stomach to help maintain that swimming position. Weight distribution is not just limited to the weights you wear, it also includes the all the scuba gear and equipment you use on a dive and how it’s worn. To check how well all your weight distributes on you hover in shallow water in a neutrally buoyant state and relax completely to allow your body to turn naturally if it’s heavier on any side. You’ll be surprised that you can even end up on your back or even upside down with this little test. However, that’s how you can determine how you need to redistribute the weight around.

Streamlining

Streamlining not only minimizes exertion and reduces air consumption by improving your hydrodynamics, but it also plays a part in improving your buoyancy. Believe it or not it helps your diving skills quite a bit when your dive equipment is not poking out, hanging off you or getting dragged by you. When you’re tight and streamlined you’ll notice an improvement in your buoyancy. (Read our Scuba Tips on Streamlining to Reduce Drag.)

Physical Fitness

Physical fitness is often overlooked as important for diving but actually it can make a big difference even in buoyancy. It’s the simple fact that lean mass sinks, while fat tissue floats which makes fitness important. When you’re fit, you’re sleeker and more naturally streamlined which makes it easier to control your buoyancy and trim. So, what are you waiting for- you want to be a better diver? Then hit that gym! (wink!).