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How to Control Your Buoyancy   

What makes a good scuba diver from a hundred so-so ones? Your buoyancy control makes all the difference.

Good buoyancy control keeps a diver from the dangers of over-exertion and experiencing ear problems, lung damage, decompression sickness, or drowning as a result. It keeps one from going to the bottom or the surface too fast.

And what does good buoyancy control comprise?

There are many factors that can affect your buoyancy in the water. The longer you stay underwater, for instance, the lighter your scuba tank becomes, because more air would have been breathed out of it. Your wet suit as well becomes thinner as you go deeper. Since thin suits do not require the weight-belt load thick suits do, you become negatively buoyant at a certain depth and tend to sink. This negative buoyancy makes it difficult for you to swim to the surface, and thus, you hit the bottom frequently.

On the other hand, if you become too buoyant, you would have to fight to keep yourself down. And if you can’t fight, then you end up speeding up to the surface. What if a boat passes by at the precise moment that you surface? Or what if one of your lungs gets damaged as a result of surfacing too fast? Or what if you get decompression sickness?

Being able to keep neutrally buoyant in the water is what all divers should aim for. Not only because it allows you to control your movements underwater but also because it keeps you safe.

To put it more simply, divers should start to float on the inhale and should sink on the exhale. If you can do this without any hitches, then you have achieved good buoyancy control.

But there is more to buoyancy control than simply exhaling and inhaling. In fact, there are three specific skills you ought to learn before you can keep your buoyancy in the water neutral – buoyancy compensator, breath control, and body control -- the three BCs of buoyancy control.

Buoyancy Compensator

First of all, it is a piece of scuba device and also the first thing that people think about when discussing buoyancy. Just as what its name suggests, the buoyancy compensator allows a diver to adjust their buoyancy underwater.

The buoyancy compensator has two major components. First is the inflatable bag, which is attached to the scuba tank and then to the diver. The second component is a button, which controls the flow of air from the scuba tank into the bag, or what is termed as the “bladder.”

How is it used?

The diver will use the button to inflate or deflate the bladder, depending on the circumstances.

Thus, if you feel like you are getting heavy, then all you have to do is to press the button to allow the air from the scuba tank to inflate the bladder. The inflated bladder will counteract the effect of your negative buoyancy and return it to neutral.

On the other hand, if you feel like you are getting too light, a separate button will remove the air from the bladder. This will stop you from heading to the surface and thus, maintain neutral buoyancy.

The primary purpose of the buoyancy compensator is to compensate for changes in buoyancy due to factors like suit compression and tank air removal, things that are normally beyond a diver’s control. It is not (and we emphasize) an elevator that you can use to go up or down. It is used to maintain neutral buoyancy at all times during the dive.

Here is how you use your buoyancy compensator properly:

• Add a little air to your buoyancy compensator before entering the water.  

This allows you to return to the surface immediately after hitting the water – important when you are only moderately experienced as a diver. You can use your time in the surface to make sure that your mask strap is still in place, that your weight belt is not sliding down, and that you are with your buddy. This also lets the boat crew know that you are okay.

• Start your descent by letting all the air out of your buoyancy compensator. 

Use either a line or a surface dive to begin your dive. How you make your dive is a matter of preference. What is important is to make your descent in a manner that is not too fast and in a manner that allows you to stop your descent immediately.

• Clear your ears and add a little air to your buoyancy compensator as you go deeper. 

Again, this is important. Most people would wait until they reach all the way to the bottom before adding air. However, this would mean that you would have to add a lot of air to get it right. Remember that making big changes can mean making big mistakes. Whereas, making small changes can mean making only small errors, which are easier to correct.

• Start letting some air out of your buoyancy compensator as you make your ascent. 

The purpose is, again, to maintain neutral buoyancy. As you move closer to the surface, the air in your buoyancy compensator will start to expand, speeding up your ascent. In addition, your wetsuit will also start to recover from compression. This will cause your move back to the surface even faster. So to compensate, let some air out of your buoyancy compensator.

The whole thing is delicate. Too much air let out and you will start to sink down. Too much air added and you will start to surface too fast. That is why it is important to make only increment changes. That way, the delay will allow you to notice things that you would otherwise miss and correct the error before it becomes out of control.

This is the essence of buoyancy control.

Body Control

This is the second BC of buoyancy control. When it comes to body control, remember this rule: Your body is apt to move in the direction the top of your head is pointed.

To illustrate, remember when as a kid you used to hold your hand out the car window to “ride the air waves?” When you tilt your hand up, it goes up, but when you tilt your hand down, it goes down.

This is how your body acts when in the water. So when you point the top of your head up, your body goes up. But when you point the top of your head down, your body goes down. This behavior of your body is also the reason why you never dive with your feet first. It is always head first and let your feet propel you downwards.

A problem in body control arises from the way we wear our equipment. Or more precisely, we have difficulty controlling our bodies underwater because of where we wear our weight belt.

Where do you usually put it? The “normal” place should be around the waist. But this is actually wrong, because you are in effect adding weight to your legs, forcing your head to tilt up.

The right place should be the center of buoyancy, which is probably eight to ten inches above the waist for most people. However, it is not practical to wear a weight belt around your chest area, so how do most people compensate? By wearing the weight belt lower, which of course worsens the problem by making our legs sink even more. And this goes on and on until we come to a point where we have added so much weight that no matter where we point our heads, our bodies do not go up.

All this excess weight will force us to add more air to the buoyancy compensator to keep us from bumping against the bottom. But, of course, this air only goes around the top half of our body, thus, compounding the problem.

This is not body control and certainly not buoyancy control. Our body is now at an angle that is not the streamlined head-first position. What is more, we are pushing our buoyancy compensator through the water half full of air, which is not advisable for a good, controlled dive.

In short, the amount of weight you use corresponds to your body position as you push it through the water.

Breath Control

The final BC in buoyancy control, breath control is similar to body control in that you need only to remember one rule: When you inhale, you go up and when you exhale, you go down.

Based on this, your breathing, therefore, affects your buoyancy, which goes without saying that once you gain control over your breathing, you also gain control over your buoyancy.

To illustrate how breath control can help improve your buoyancy control, answer this question – What is the first thing you do when you notice that you are too buoyant?

Most new divers would quickly reach for their inflator hose and bring it up above their heads to dump air. If you do this, two things will happen at the same time.

First is that you will go into a head-up position. Second is that you will now move even shallower precisely because of this head-up position. Then, compound the problem by dumping too much air in your hurry to compensate your increased buoyancy, and you sink down. Way down.

Remember the first rule of making only small changes. To achieve that, you must be able to accomplish all your three BCs before you are on your way to proper buoyancy control.

So how can breath control help you in the situation illustrated above?

Well, first, you do not resort to your inflator hose immediately. Instead, quickly exhale and hold that breath out. Yes, hold your breath. However, it is not enough to just hold your breath. You must hold your breath out. Doing this will allow you to buy a little time to get a hold of your inflator hose and let some air out.

Again, remember to let only a little air out. Do not dump it all out, or you will sink like a rock. Let out enough air to keep you a little off. Additionally, make sure that you use the rapid exhaust at the top of your inflator hose, or in the alternative, the dump on the back of your buoyancy compensator to dump some air.

Now, you know how breath control can help you control your buoyancy.

There are no hard and fast rules to buoyancy control. So long as you master your three BCs and practice them together in your next 25 dives, then your buoyancy control becomes much easier to manage.

When you reach that level where you do not even have to think about it, then you will have become one of those divers that everyone admires, because you make it look so easy.