Bouyancy problem

[sai]

I'm only doing indoor diving (fresh water) at the moment, wearing a 2mm suit without any weightbelt. Still I have the problem to get negatively bouyant at the surface if I do long exhales. Needless to say it's impossible to relax if I constantly have to worry to sink below the surface. A thicker suit is not really an option because of the water temperature. Is there an easy solution to this?

 

[guybly]

grab yourself a diving buoy or two of those pool spagethi things.

or a car tyre intertube will also work if you inflate it to 60%

hope this helps,
Guy

 

[Simos]

This might sound a bit silly but perhaps also don't worry too much about long preparations and a lot of relaxation before the dive. Just a thought... There is a concept called the 'spoilt freediver', it's an interesting point of view...

 

[Siku]

'Spoilt freedive'? Can you elucidate Simos?

 

[Simos]

'Spoilt freedive'? Can you elucidate Simos?

I could explain it in more detail but dug out a couple of articles that explain it better than I could:

THE MENTAL – PART 2 – The Freedivers

Divas in Dubai » How to gain depth:

In my own words, the basic premise (which I agree with) is that a lot of people misunderstand the concept of relaxation/oxygenation needed before the dive and without realising, they start building a mental barrier through conditioning themselves to dive in 'perfect conditions'.

The emphasis should be able on being able to relax at will and dive with very little preparation instead of needing perfect silence, no one bothering you, no splashing in your face, long breath up and so on.

So my point relating to this thread that although getting a noodle is probably a good idea in terms of being able to achieve more relaxation before the dive you could also instead take advantage of the 'non-ideal' conditions in this case and train yourself to be able to deal with such a situation and dive effectively despite it.

If you think about 'real world' diving, you have 0 time to prepare - I remember being in the Maldives swimming along and all of a sudden a manta ray or some other exciting creature appears out of nowhere and you just have to dive with no preparation to take a photo. Or you have to literally have to swim front-crawl for a bit to catch up and then dive.

Being able to deal with such situations and switch from a non-relaxed state to total relaxation as soon as you are under the water is a sign that you are advancing more with your freediving...

Hope it makes sense.

 

[Andrew the fish]

just a thought... it is not anything about being spoiled, one really can't relax in a freshwater, it is like a continuous swimming against the current. So, grabbing onto something helps a little bit, but still not very relaxing either. I think it is a freshwater thing, you need to dump a truckload of salt into that pool.

 

[watts]

I used to dive in a fresh water lake a lot and would also struggle keeping myself up whilst i exhaled. My solution was to get a fat pool noodle and i also got a thick water skiing vest to wear in between dives which would keep me warmer and afloat.
Worked well for me.
Nat..