Peak Performance Buoyancy

This will be your most important skill.

Ever wonder how a turtle can remain suspended in midwater chomping away at a sponge growing on a pillar, without holding on to anything, without flailing around?

They achieve this graceful levitation just like a human diver would–by breath control. Of course they practice every day their entire life from the moment they make it into the water right after hatching, so obviously they become quite awesome at it, but we can at least strive toward the same goal.

Besides giving us ninja status among other divers, buoyancy mastery is also vital if you are planning on doing anything besides just swimming around under water. Taking pictures, for instance, untangling fishing line from fragile corals, helping a novice diver descend, negotiating a narrow gangway on a silt-covered wreck are all examples where struggling with your buoyancy might get you in trouble–from not getting one decent picture of a beautiful encounter to getting other divers in trouble by erasing their visibility while sucking up too much air, poor buoyancy control only has disadvantages and even some dangers.

Even though there are some techniques related to buoyancy control that can be practiced while on land, sitting in your cubicle even, most of the mastering will have to happen under water–unless you are an astronaut and have access to a zero-gravity chamber. So your number one road to success is to dive dive dive.

But while you’re at it, it will be extremely helpful to become more aware of how you are trying to control your buoyancy, what works, what does not. This skill is closely related to your physiognomy, your equipment of choice, your fitness, the size of your lungs, your comfort level, your natural rhythm of breathing, your understanding of current and surge, your experience. Notice how it’s all about you? We can teach you to become better at listening to your body to be able to manipulate what’s going on in there, but you’re the one who will have to do the listening, the manipulating, the practicing. And what could be more fun than that–going diving at every opportunity?

If you come on a Peak Performance Buoyancy adventure dive or take a whole specialty class with us, we will give you the tools for your training towards the zen of buoyancy mastery. So what are you waiting for?!