Tips to Use less Weight While Diving
Let us talk about the weight problem. When you first learned to dive, in an open water diver course, you realized that you need additional weights to facilitate your descent and enable you to achieve neutral buoyancy during diving. The local diving instructor told you about the differences between different types of environments, the effect of the equipment and tools you carry, the disparity of depths, pressure changes, and the effect of all this on the amount of air on the BCD and lungs.
You must also have read in the course book about how to check your ideal weight and how to examine weights with a semi-empty cylinder containing only 500 PSI and reached a buoyancy at eye level at sea level.
We all have been through this stage. We achieved the course requirements with the local trainer, passed the test and all training sessions, then went to practice diving as a hobby, during which we faced the real problem of adapting to the underwater environment while achieving neutral buoyancy.
For some divers, the problem starts at descending. Although they empty the BCD and carry enough weights, they find it difficult to descend. Others find it difficult to control the descending speed, which is very annoying and the diver may be exposed to injury due to their inability to equalize the pressure gradually or landing on the sea bed and causing damage to the marine environment. Many things may happen due to poor buoyancy and impede the diver from enjoying the real heaven underwater.
Do Not Leave It Unfixed
While preparing for diving on the diving boat or the deck at the shore, you used to see more experienced divers carry minimal weights. Meanwhile, you rush to find more lead to help you dive quickly and avoid staying on the surface.
It is very important to dive with the optimum weight so that you can easily adjust buoyancy parameters with depth. The greater the depth, the more pressure, the less air in the BCD, and the less size of lungs. You need too make up for all this and balance your buoyance with the air volume you need to achieve neutral buoyancy. When you ascend, the change will be reversed. The air inside the BCD will expand and increase in size and the lungs will gradually regain the natural air volume until you reach the surface. To control your neutral buoyancy and speed of descending and ascending easily, you need to find ways to know your optimal diving weight.
Diving with optimal weight is a major factor in moving efficiently underwater and you will surely have more fun and adventure when you dive with the appropriate weight.
Pressure changes and adjusting the amount of air inside the BCD is among the most common challenges in diving. Following ill-considered mechanisms and ways or ignoring the matter and continuing to dive with inappropriately-adjusted weights will lead to the diver feeling frustrated. But once you reach the ideal weight, you will discover a world of difference in performance and enjoyment.
Optimal weight is a very important factor in improving the rate of diver’s air consumption. The easier and smoother the buoyancy, the more ideal consumption rate the diver will achieve.
Know Your Level
There are many physical indicators that have many implications. The key is to start being honest with yourself and determine the reasons for your problem and take the right steps to fix it.
When you are heavy with extra weight, you will descend quickly and consume a lot of air in a short amount of time and you will definitely feel tired. However, if you set your weights correctly, you will be able to float easily and smoothly through the water.
Through experience in developing the level of divers and solving a lot of problems during and after training, I realized that one of the most important factors to evaluate good buoyancy for divers is to monitor the general body position in the water. Because of a shortage of weights, we always see other divers who struggle and do their best to fin and wave their hands to resist passive buoyancy due to excess weight.
Also, the irregular distribution and positioning of weights and lack of understanding of buoyancy affect the general body position, which is reflected in the diver’s movement in the water.
Seek Professional Help
One of the best ways to learn about your buoyancy problems is to ask your favorite local coach or even a professional for help on the next trip diving. The eyes of coaches can detect problems and provide appropriate solutions.
Professional divers can note the details of diver buoyancy problems and develop precise plans to address these problems. Working with an instructor and focusing only on buoyancy and weight for a small number of divers in customized training classes is one of the most effective ways to get the perfect buoyancy.
In Diveholics, we follow the PADI approach and the buoyancy control skills of the open water diver course, which are essential and wonderful skills and we always advise our students to continue to train and develop their level at those skills. Specializing in ideal buoyancy immediately after the open water diver course is also a good start to enter the world of diving.
Learn more about your equipment so that you can float easily and smoothly
The body, mass, fat, muscle, and air gaps make the diver’s body the most influential factor in determining their weight requirement. But diving equipment still has an important role in determining that. The wetsuit is the most prominent and clear element to determine that for everyone, although many divers miss the role of wetsuit. In fact, as a diver, you need to study the capabilities of your BCD and understand the built-in weight system and the appropriate distribution of weights very well, as well as checking the type and weight of the cylinder the amount of and distribution of weights. When purchasing a BCD, choose the types that provide an appropriate lifting capacity for you, because this factor is very necessary and effective. Some divers wear a BCD with very high lifting capacity in excess of their need, which might trap the air inside the BCD and lead to dangerous uncontrolled ascending. An appropriate BCD helps divers avoid many of these problems. BCD with a built-in weight system are also very effective at distributing air in the most effective positions to create an ideal neutral buoyancy with high efficiency.
When specializing in ideal buoyancy, a diver will learn many things related to the equipment system and its effect on buoyancy.
Learn Constantly
Following up on specialized courses is very important and effective for the diver’s level. The seniority in diving, the number of dives, or the rapid progress in diving levels through the main training courses are not necessarily the ways to develop and improve the diver’s level at specialized skills such as buoyancy, navigation, or deep diving. A diver must always set a priority list in which they identify the key points they feel the need to develop. You can see a diver with hundreds of dives in their diving record, but their level in the water needs to be taken care of and all the dives were actually done incorrectly with poor skills.
Moreover, professionals must always strive to develop their skills through exercises and development of information. No one is ever perfect. We are human beings who always need to continue to learn from the correct sources with reliable references.
Happy diving!
المدرب / عصام الجندي
