Diving Knowledge

Buoyancy Control

One of the hardest skills to master in scuba diving is buoyancy control. Often, you missed out things that your friends told you after the dive. "No, I didn't see the goby, the cleaner shrimp, the blennies, nudibranch or any of the tiny wonders that the others are talking about on the dive boat. You always wonder how the dive master or instructor or the other divers who seem to be able to swim and hover like fish, staying still and going upside down with perfect ease, while you are struggling to inflate or deflate your BCD to keep yourself steady and trying to avoid crashing into the corals.



There are a few reasons why you could not swim weightlessly in the water:-

1. Carry incorrect weight
2. Wrong finning method
3. Breathing inconsistency

Due to those reasons, you are not seeing as much down there because you are preoccupied with the inflator/deflator buttons trying to keep yourself down/up in the water. A lot of divers have trouble with that, including myself. To those who have really good buoyancy control, they tend to see a lot more, probably because they're not so distracted.

In the beginning, my buoyancy control was lousy as well. I carried 4kg of weight, and constantly need to inflate my BCD because I was sinking all the time. I was wondering why till one instructor helps me to fine-tune it. First he reduced it to 3kg, and then to 2kg. That is the weight I carry each time I dive now. Even at 2kg, at time I still feel a little heavy, but anything less than that, I will be floating at the surface and could not go down. So, correct weighting would allow you to dive effortlessly and forget about your buoyancy. You will begin to enjoy yourself and dive like the pros.

Buoyancy Check

Carrying the correct weight - deflate your BCD completely at the surface, add or subtract lead until you float with a full breath and sink when you exhale. If you float at eye level while holding your breath, that's about right.

Keep your fins slightly above your body, as if the fins are lower than your body, kicking to go forward will make you go up and like wise, if the fins are higher than your body, it will make you go down. Once you are exactly neutral with the right amount of weight and fins position, test by holding your body absolutely still with your legs stretched out behind you. You should be able to hover and stay still in the water. If your legs sink, you should move the weight belt from your waist to a point higher on your body, and check again.

Lastly, use your breathing to further fine-tune your buoyancy. You should breathe in slowly and deeply. As you breathe in, you will tend to float a little (this is normal), start exhaling slowly once you feel you are about to float. And as you breathe out, you will then tend to sink, start breathing in once you feels that you are sinking. The process will continue, but never ever hold your breath as many may have told you before. Happy diving.