SCUBA DIVING BUOYANCY TIPS: BUOYANCY FACTORS

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

What Factors Affect Buoyancy Control?

1. Buoyancy and water salinity

2. Scuba Gear and buoyancy control.

3. Buoyancy control and air consumption

4.Buoyancy control and physical condition

5. Buoyancy control and Breathing

6. Buoyancy control and Depth.

7. Buoyancy Control and Multilevel Dives

1. Buoyancy and water salinity:

salt water consists of more particles and is denser, comparing to fresh water. More particles are pushing our body upwards. That means that when scuba diving in salt water we tend to float more in comparison to fresh water diving.

Find out how much weight you need in fresh/salt water here.

2. Scuba Gear and buoyancy control.

Essentially every scuba item contributes to our buoyancy, as different volume and weight contribute to your ability to float or sink. There are three major contributors to our buoyancy:

A. Exposure suit: skin rush, wet suit, or dry suit, their different length and thickness. The thicker and longer the wet suit you use, the more buoyant you get.

B. Buoyancy Compensators (BCD) and their volume. Higher gear volume simply means more water dispersed, and results in increased tendency to float.

C. The amount of weights we carry. Estimating the weight amount needed for diving is an important step in buoyancy control. When carrying extra weight we affect buoyancy in two ways:

-We force our lower buddy downward as our upper buddy, supported by the inflated BCD, elevates. The outcome is increased drag and less efficient swimming technique.

- By having to inflate our BCD to support our weight we increase the BCD’s drag too. That also means that changes in depth will result in more dramatic changes in the BCD’s volume, as will be discussed later.

Find out how to estimate the weight you need for scuba diving here.

3. Buoyancy control and air consumption

The longer we dive the less air we have in our tanks. It’s hard to imagine, but our compressed air we carry can be quiet heavy. An emptied scuba tank can weigh about 2.5kg/5Lbs less than a full one. That means you’ll be more buoyant at the end of your dive.

4. Buoyancy control and physical condition:

We all have different physical aspects, contributing to our buoyancy differently. Fat tissues are considered more buoyant, and the bulkier we are the more water our buddy disperses. That’s why heavy set divers need a lot of weight to drag them down.

The previous four factors are handled before the dive. It’s all about getting ready for the dive, knowing your needs, getting familiar with your equipment. The last factor is the one that scuba divers struggle with the most, and it’s all done underwater:

5. Buoyancy control and Breathing

Once you’ve estimated your weights, taking under considerations the previous factors, you’ll need to learn how to control you buoyancy underwater. As we’ll discuss this topic fully soon, lets just sum it up quickly now: Basically the more air you’re holding, either in your BCD, Dry Suit or lungs – the more buoyant you become.

Learn more about the effects of breathing on buoyancy control here

6. Buoyancy control and Depth.

Changes in depth affect our buoyancy in two ways:

A. The deeper we are the more compressed the wetsuits we wear. Tiny bubbles in the Neoprene compress as we descend deeper making us less buoyant than at shallow water. Same thing happens to the air already trapped in your BCD. If you have air in the BCD’s bladder, remember you’ll need to vent it out as you ascend or add some more upon descent. This is why excessive weight carrying isn’t recommended when scuba diving; you’ll have to inflate your BCD in order to compensate on the increased weight and every change in depth will have to result in change in BCD’s volume.

7. Buoyancy Control and Multilevel Dives:

Most dives we dive are multilevel dives, starting at the deepest depth with a full tank, we slowly work our way up to the shallows towards the end of our dives. Problem with changing depths is we also need to change air volume of the BCD. As we move to shallow water the water pressure around us decreases. Air volume in our BCD increases in return, and our wetsuits, to some extent become more buoyant. When ascending to shallow water we need to remember to vent out some of the air trapped in our BCD. This is crucial in shallow water where changes in pressure are more dramatic and every meter or a few feet can lead to significant changes in air volume.

When carrying extra load of weights, we are forced to inflate our BCD to stay neutrally buoyant. When ascending to shallow water we have more air than a properly weighed diver does therefore have more adjustments needed to make. As mentioned before, being properly weighed for scuba diving is a key element in pre dive buoyancy control preparation.

Related search terms:

• buoyancy control
• how to improve buoyancy
• scuba diving improving bouyancy
• ways to improve your air consumption during SCUBA diving
• how is buoyancy controlled in scuba gear
• how to improve your scuba diving skills
• hree as of buoyancy control

Related posts:

1. BUOYANCY CONTROL WORKSHOP