Peak Performance Buoyancy in the Northwest
Peak Performance Buoyancy with Seattle Dive Tours
As all divers know, one of the most important aspects of a great dive is being able to float effortlessly underwater while not feeling as if you are constantly drifting downward or floating upward. Seattle Dive Tours puts a lot of time and effort in making sure our divers have a comfortable and relaxing dive day. One aspect of this is helping our divers to achieve and maintain good buoyancy, neither too heavy and drifting down, or too light and drifting upward.
Once you book your Seattle Dive Tours dive, we’ll reach out to you confirming details and asking for your sizing information. We use this information to make sure we bing the correct gear sizes, and to calculate your estimated required weighting. We factor in the diver’s weight, cylinder buoyancy characteristics, and exposure suit. Using our standard setup and super warm 2-piece 7mm Neo Sport wetsuits, the typical diver will need 10% of their body weight plus 10-14 pounds of weight. That means a 180 pound male would use around 28-32 pounds of weight while a 140 pound female would use around 24-28 pounds of weight.
After you are fitted with your dive gear and in the water, your dive leader will conduct a buoyancy check at the surface, just like divers were trained in open water class. This way your dive leader can add or subtract a bit of weight to help our divers achieve good buoyancy though out the dive. We also pay attention to your trim, so that your body will be horizontal in the water without your fins feeling as if they are dragging on the bottom, or floating up above your body. We do this by distributing the weight between the diver’s BCD (buoyancy control device) and weight harness. We don’t use weight belts and instead use weight harnesses which are more comfortable and won’t slip off the divers waist.
Divers can also help themselves with buoyancy by remembering a few basic skills learned in open water. One is to do a pre-dive safety check on themselves and their buddy before entering the water, making sure they are streamlined by tucking in loose items such as a console and/or alternate air source. Next, when descending, remember to relax and breathe normally. Finning and sculling will create upward movement that will cause you not sink. Also try to maintain an efficient kick style through out the dive. Remember to kick smoothly and evenly with your hip flexors, and avoid a “bicycle kick” using your knees.
Our daily tours are open to both certified and non-certified divers, the non-certified version called a PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience. When you are ready, book online to start your adventure with us.