NAUI Scuba Diver Your rate of descent should not be rapid. The recommended rate of descent is no faster than 23 meters (75 feet) per minute. When you are wearing a wetsuit and make descents in open water, you will lose buoyancy as the pressure of the water compresses your wetsuit. You will need to add small amounts of air to your BC to compensate for the compression of the wetsuit. You must never sink out of control. You should be able to stop your descent at any time just by inhaling a full breath of air. If you are wearing a dry suit, you will add air to the dry suit instead of your BC to control your buoyancy. As your wetsuit compresses, it can also loosen your weight belt if the weight belt is not a compensating type. Your wetsuit loses thickness as it compresses and causes your weight belt to become loose around your waist. When this happens, the buckle can shift position, making it difficult to locate. The weight belt could even slide down around your legs or fall off. Remember to check your belt as you descend and then check it again as you reach the bottom. Tighten the weight belt if necessary. Use your fins as little as possible during your descent. You should control your descent by your buoyancy, not by kicking. As you get close to the bottom, kicking can stir up clouds of silt, ruin the visibility and harm the environment. If you take in a deep breath of air and continue to descend, you are too heavy and you need to add air to your BC to help slow your descent. Controlled Descents Because so many things are happening at once during a descent, your first one will be a controlled descent. This means you will descend on a line or along the contour of the bottom. Doing a controlled descent will allow you to concentrate on equalizing pressure, maintaining buddy contact, and controlling your buoyancy. Free Descents Once you are comfortable with controlled descents, your instructor will introduce you to free descents. Free descents are vertical descents in open water without a line. When you can execute free descents in a controlled manner, you will be well on your way to becoming a capable diver. During the Dive During your dive, your goal is to maintain what divers call neutral buoyancy (figure 3-47). Neutral buoyancy is a state in which you neither sink nor float FIGURE 3-46. DESCENDING FEET FIRST GIVES YOU BETTER CONTROL OF YOUR SPEED, BUOYANCY, AND ABILITY TO CLEAR YOUR EARS. 74 Diving Skills FIGURE 3-47. MAINTAINING NEUTRAL BUOYANCY WHILE UNDER WATER IS THE KEY TO ENJOYABLE DIVING.
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