BEST SCUBA Buoyancy
scuba buoyancy control
hawksbill ~ chiminea ~ xcalak
photo: maureen miller
scuba buoyancy skills
"No Performance Requirement in SCUBA Diving is more poorly defined or less often achieved than....Buoyancy Control."
SCUBA Buoyancy SKILLS....are the most neglected of all FUNDAMENTALS
SCUBA Diving FUNDAMENTALS: are the basic skills that are needed in order to operate in an alien world. They are the foundation that supports everything else that a diver will ever pursue or accomplish.  Buoyancy Control, underwater propulsion skills (fin kicks) and a horizontal profile with streamlining are as basic to underwater pursuits as walking and running are to terrestrial activities.
Underwater skills do not equal surface swimming skills. This author has seen magnificent surface swimmers who were hopeless divers and has know some truly spectacular divers who had surface swimming skills that were barely sufficient to keep them alive  in an emergency.
Equating good swimmers with GOOD SCUBA DIVERS is a profound mistake that has been perpetuated by the "Status Quo" because they are unable to agree upon or recognize a standard for truly exceptional foundation skills. These are the  same people, many of  whom never bothered to perfect their own fundamental dive skills, who share their less than remarkable buoyancy control talent and the culture of substandard SCUBA Skills continues to prevail and dominate the sport.
EVEN WITH THE BEST INTENTIONS: ability
that has not been mastered, cannot be shared with someone else. Awarding plastic recognition is very different from sharing real competence. This is true regardless of the credentials that are held or the reputation that has been established.  A reputation  that may exist mostly on paper or plastic and that may or may not be deserved. Leadership level divers who can not or do not share talent in order to maintain or protect their own status....are not mentors.
john noftall
DO YOU REALLY LOOK AS GOOD UNDERWATER AS YOU LOOK ON PAPER OR PLASTIC?
DO YOU LOOK LIKE THE DIVER THAT ANYONE ELSE WOULD WANT TO BE

WHO REALLY WANTS GOOD BUOYANCY?



Most divers are much more interested in collecting more C-Cards and more fancy dive gear, and even more T-Shirts, than they are in perfecting foundation skills. Like it or NOT, SCUBA Diving is an EGO Sport! "Bragging Rights" and "STATUS" , are more prized  than actual diving ability.


Moving pictures are all that is needed in order to evaluate dive skills. Any use of hands for steering and propulsion is too much! Seeing a diver through the face plate of your mask is even better than watching video. Danglies can be seen in still photos. In fact, photos of danglies are a regular feature of dive magazine pictures. Both SCULLING (using the hands) and DANGLIES (hanging consoles, slates, octos and retractors) are all  "hallmarks of a substandard diver".
best scuba buoyancy
DON'T
SCULL WITH YOUR HANDS: sculling is the Hallmark of Substandard Diving
WEAR GLOVES IN WARM WATER: just wear a sign saying your Buoyancy SUCKS!
EXPECT YOUR EQUIPMENT TO MAKE YOU INTO A BETTER DIVER!
HAVE DANGLIES: try to have a silhouette without any light holes in it while diving.
HAVE HOSE HALOS: shorten or re-route your hoses and reduce your girth!
DON'T
IMITATE any instructor who does any of the ABOVE!

  • 13 DIVES IN A WORLD CLASS DIVE DESTINATION.

  • CAVE DIVER SKILLS WITHOUT THE TECH IMAGES.

  • A MENTOR WHO TEACHES ONLY FUNDAMENTALS.
  • NO CERTIFICATION CARDS & NO  RETAIL SELLING

  • A "FUN" DIVE TRIP WITH A DIVE SKILLS BONUS!

  • CLICK THE PHOTO TO LEARN MORE >>>>>>>>




cave-diver-profile
"LOOK....NO HANDS!"
( HAS ALWAYS BEEN OUR MOTTO )
BECAUSE:

  SCULLING IS THE SIGNATURE OF POOR BUOYANCY SKILLS
THERE'S NO NEED....to dress up or pretend to be a cave diver in order to learn or demonstrate GOOD  SKILLS!
GOOD Buoyancy Control SKILLS are not just for TECH DIVERS!
best scuba buoyancy
best scuba buoyancy
best scuba buoyancy
best scuba buoyancy
best scuba buoyancy
STILL PHOTOGRAPHY: only records how good a diver was for a fraction of a second....VIDEO IS BETTER!
WATCH OUR VIDEOS....CONTACT US: with your questions & comments.   BuoyancyQuest@comcast.net
"STOP SCULLING!"

"LEARN TO FROG KICK!"
"Meet us in MEXICO!"
YOUR CRAWL STROKE is a poor indication of your Fundamental SCUBA Skills!
THE STATUS QUO has failed, for 70 years, to establish a STANDARD for "Neutral  Buoyancy Control SKILLS".
SO surface swimming skills....HAVE BEEN SUBSTITUTED i.e. "watermanship" ~ "POSITIVE BUOYANCY SKILLS"
WORKSHOPS
TRAVEL
PRICES
CONTACT
LEARNING SCUBA FUNDAMENTALS [ buoyancy control ] "FIRST"....IS LIKE LEARNING TO WALK OR RUN "FIRST"
 "WE AREN'T AFRAID TO LET YOU SEE WHAT WE LOOK LIKE UNDERWATER!"
Compare how you look underwater to how we look underwater.... you decide, if you think there's a gap!
  If there is a gap....ask to meet us in:MEXICO
"WE SELL ONLY SKILLS....if you have nothing to learn....we can't help you!"
best scuba buoyancy
AS MOST BUOYANCY CONTROL SKILLS CLINICS
YOU WON'T wear doubles.  YOU WON'T get a C-Card.  YOU WILL improve your buoyancy. YOU WILL learn to frog kick.

WE WON'T DRESS IN CAVE GEAR TO SHOW YOU HOW....AND YOU WON'T NEED TO DRESS THAT WAY EITHER
www.BuoyancyQuest.com
ABOUT SWIMMING
We agree that swimming is a good thing to know....and not just for divers. This author conducted beginner classes through a local dive center for nine years and certified almost 600 divers of different levels up to divemasters. The training agency required a "swim test before certification" but, because they did not want the test to appear to be a condition for taking the course, they suggested waiting until the end of the confined water (the pool) sessions to apply the swim test. IF the reader has not already guessed, there were no less than five students during that time that failed the swim test on the 5th night of confined water training AFTER performing well on SCUBA in both the shallow and deep ends of the pool. The first thing that this brings to mind is the comfort level that must be required to pull that off. This defies imagination if you are a swimmer. This is followed by the realization that , if a non swimmer could out perform a swimmer on SCUBA, and in some cases this was true, then surface swimming becomes  "only" a test of surface skills, without equipment. We agree that there should be a test for minimal surface survival. What we object to is the use of superb swimming skills being substituted, under the moniker "watermanship" that is used as a substitute for  a "real standard" for Buoyancy Control Skills [neutral buoyancy skills]. Better still.....we would prefer to see and hear an encouragement to exceed any and all standards for FUNDAMENTAL DIVE SKILLS.
john noftall

MY FIRST DIVE MASK
My first dive mask was an "Adolph Kiefer" signature model from Sears Roebuck. It was triangular in shape, blue in color and included no option for pinching the nose to aid with equalization of the ears. Adolph was a champion swimmer from the 1930s & early 1940s. Nobody in the United States had ever heard of Jacques Cousteau  or Mike Nelson [ both were still years* away from  their TV  impact ] so  "a swimmer" was chosen to endorse a dive mask.  I'm not suggesting that this was the beginning of substituting swimming skills for dive skills but I think comparisons can be drawn  as to why  so many  current  "elite divers" are forgiven their  less than  spectacular fundamental dive skills "IF" they are good swimmers!
john noftall
*not that many years....it was 1953.

STOP!
"THINK"....THEN ACT!
This is good advice in a DIVING EMERGENCY
AND good advice if you are seeking SCUBA Training!
DON'T LIKE OUR ATTITUDE?                 THINK we are too critical or combative?
We're offering to mentor "ONLY" the skills that we do best; "Buoyancy Control SKILLS".....
Nothing else in Recreational SCUBA Diving is more "HUMBLE" than that!

TRY NAMING: all of the other Cave Divers who "only" mentor Buoyancy Control....TRY NAMING ONE MORE!
BE MORE:
than just a tourist with a C-CARD in your pocket!

Acquire exceptional buoyancy control skills "FIRST"....then build on that foundation!



copyright: BuoyancyQuest,LLC. 2012    all rights reserved