This is a reasonably common enough problem for all divers, students, and seasoned divers whose last dive was probably in a different environment. So to kickstart this post, let’s rename this tip to how to sink with control of course.

The five-point descent is a really good jump-off skill for EVERY diver and should be a scuba diving lifetime practice in every dive. SORTED Signal to go down Orient yourself (boat/shore) Regulator on and Equalize then descend. Simple enough but what if you cannot descend?

Here are reasons you can’t descend:

Air in your lungs

You are already in a horizontal position

Sculling/ finning up instead of pointing fins down

Wrong weights

1.Air in lungs- think of your lungs as your natural bcd ( buoyancy compensator/control device) and just like your bcd you remove most if not all of the air in your BCD as you should as well with your lungs.

2.Position – when you initially descend after your SORTED sop, you should be in a VERTICAL POSITION. You do not sink in a horizontal position. It would be extremely hard to remove air from your BCD when you already are in a horizontal position. And secondly you will be dispersing less water in a vertical position.

a great pose is being slightly inclined so your cylinder is pushing you forward slightly while keeping your feet behind you and when you are fairly submerged you can slowly lean forward to a horizontal position because of the weight of your cylinder and your properly weighted belt….assuming it is positioned properly (in another tip post perhaps next week) fashionably freefall like a skydiver frozen from fear beneath a skydiving instructor. kidding, just keep make sure you are not descending too fast because it would mean you are overweighted and that is cause for a discontinued descent. Inform your buddy or guide and take out one or more weight from either your integrated BCD or belt, thought more difficult. But remember best to be safe to dive another day.

3.Sculling or finning up. You may not notice this because your mind is focused on the descent and a couple of other things, but another reason why you cant seem to descend is due to our natural tendency to fin and fin in the wrong direction. Which is why a frozen position to freefall (fashionably or slowly) is the right pose. Frozen, not moving….in other words CALM like a meditative state…frozen. So try to be more conscious of what your legs are subconsciously doing and keep it slightly bent at your back or pointing down.

4.Back kick … pretty much hard to do especially for new divers. But reverse kicking can also assist you especially in a strong current dive and you are not descending despite it being a zero descent.

5.Last and more common is Wrong weights. I understand how it has always been for infrequent divers which If I may say I am also guilty of, not doing proper weight check and you either lost weight so kudos to you or your new wet suit or equipment is keeping you at the surface. So we always make sure you do a proper weight check before a difficult dive like an afternoon dive or a drift dive. If diving in the morning when waters are calm, or if the waters are simply calm, call the attention of your dive guide and inform asap. Again it is better to dive another dive than to have difficulties because you are shy to discontinue a descent.

These rules are here for a reason. I know it can be intimidating especially when diving with strangers, but I prefer that you inform me instead of keeping issues like improper equipment (which, basically, is what wrong weights are) which might end up harming you in the end.

After all the proper corrections…remember to

Relax, Inhale for four seconds, exhale for six, and look around you, you are lucky to be visiting paradise.

Watch vid of proper descent