Diving is an amazing adventure. However, wanting to make it as successful as possible, you need to take care of every detail. Of great importance in this case is the proper preparation for the diving expedition. In today’s entry we will deal with the issue of ideal buoyancy.
Buoyancy is the ability of a particular object (or person) to maintain itself at a certain depth. If buoyancy is neutral, then the object is somehow suspended in the water. It does not go to the bottom, nor does it float to the surface of the water. This issue is extremely important from the point of view of the diver. People exploring the underwater world often want or need to stop for a moment in stillness. This feeling can be compared to a state of weightlessness in space. The question arises, however, what needs to be done to achieve perfect buoyancy? Is it a matter of practicing the appropriate skills, or rather perfect buoyancy depends on the optimal choice of diving equipment?
Everyone who wants to start adventure with this sport, should enroll in a course for divers. Independent experiments with diving are not a good idea and may end in tragedy. Only experienced instructors can guarantee the safety of the students. A scuba diving course is the next level of initiation, during which the course participants learn both the theory and the practice of scuba diving. The goal of every diver should be to strive for perfect buoyancy. Such a skill, which allows you to freely hover under the surface of the water, will benefit safety during the dive, as well as make the diver will have more fun going underwater.
Buoyancy is affected by various issues, including equipment and breathing. The former can be properly selected. The latter needs to be practiced. Breathing under water should be mostly steady. Thanks to the breath you can control buoyancy (e.g. prolonging the inhalation will contribute to a slight rise in the water).
In technical diving perfect buoyancy is essential…
Published by Xdivers – Your Diving School Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Each person has a different body structure. The more you weigh, the more weight you will need. The amount of weight is also influenced by the weight and type of equipment that you take underwater, as well as in which wetsuit you will dive. If you decide on a wetsuit with a thick insulator, you will have to think about a slightly bigger weight.
The weight is placed on the weight belt. It can be a strap or a special belt with pockets. As a weight divers use very often tiles made of lead. Such lead tiles have different weights, which allows to choose the optimal ballast to achieve the ideal buoyancy. Some divers prefer bags with lead balls. This option is only for people who have a weight belt with pockets. It is worth to place the weight in several places, not only in the belt. This tactic allows you to increase the safety of the diver.
At first it may be difficult, but every training brings us closer to achieving the goal. The more often you dive underwater, the more likely it is that you will quickly achieve ideal buoyancy, which you will learn to control by regulating the length of inhalation and exhalation.
Before you start diving, you need to make sure you have the right amount of ballast to achieve ideal buoyancy. When determining the optimum weight of ballast, you must let air out of all sources of buoyancy. Only then will you be able to determine the correct weight.
However, this is not the end of the story. To determine the amount of weight, you need to add the weight of the air in the cylinder to the previously obtained result. The longer you are underwater, the less air there will be in the cylinder. If you don’t balance this value with ballast, you may end up surfacing too quickly because you won’t be able to hold on to the decompression stop.
Featured photo: Pixabay
