GREAT BUOYANCY CONTROL IS ABOUT UNLEARNING SOME STUFF!

SCULLING: is for oars, not arms and hands. There is no sculling in SCUBA!  Sculling is the signature of poor buoyancy skills.  More than a few professional and famous divers do not know about that.  Watch their hands!  A lot  more than a few open water instructors don't know about that either. Chances a very good that you learned from one of them. You need to stop sculling before you begin to understand about buoyancy.  Many divers think  that diving often  will  yield  remarkable fundamental  skills (as if by magic) and that sculling is either OK or will disappear once buoyancy is mastered.  "This is ERRONEOUS!" Do not hold your breath while on SCUBA and do not hold your breath waiting for that to happen. Ignorance is the issue!  Many within the recreational diving community don't even know that sculling is wrong because they see "THE BIG SHOTS" doing it.  Diving has no shortage of experts who hit a home run (usually and mostly on paper) without  ever touching first base. GET UP OFF YOUR KNEES!  Hold dive educators to a higher standard and you will be both amazed and embarrassed by what you discover.  Begin by observing their hands ( if you can view moving images of them underwater ) and "if they scull even a little or even once in a while" they are not the example that you want to imatate.

FIN PIVOT:  Fin pivoting is not a skill. Fin tip pivoting is just a method for demonstrating the role that breathing plays in buoyancy control.  It is an instructor's teaching tool not a skill. Fin pivoting is not something that a diver continues to use throughout his career. If you always begin your dive with a fin pivot (preferably over a sandy spot) stop doing that! If your instructor planted that seed, your instructor was wrong .... so stop doing it. Fin Pivoting is an example of NEGATIVE BUOYANCY. Touching is touching!  Fin Pivoting was your "potty training" for neutral buoyancy after you were allowed to practice "only" negative buoyancy for too long .... it is time to leave it behind.

FINDING THE BEST BCD is not the answer. We think that BP&W is the best configuration for both technical and recreational diving. We recognize, however,  that a real diver (one who really understands buoyancy) could do a dive while hugging a 30 year old stab jacket that is three sizes too big.  THAT'S RIGHT...... not even wearing it; just holding it and the tank or tucking it under one arm.  That "DIVER" would still look better than most people look in an $800 (DIR Approved) gear package.   
Be suspicious!!!! The dive industry is about creating customers, not divers.   SCUBA Retailers want to sell stuff!
Here is an example of dive industry marketing that has stood the test of time: SNORKELS don't work at 40 feet below the surface or even at 20 feet yet divers are told they must have one.  Snorkels are a nuisance if you are diving a long hose and a long hose is more useful to a diver than a snorkel. Snorkels are prohibited in caves!  Selling a snorkel to every diver is good for business but  is probably only good for the customer if there is snorkeling in his future.  Brace yourself for the tap dance the MEGA International Training Agencies will do to defend their positions on snorkels but  use common sense and don't forget to follow the money trail.  Also  notice  how many  instructors wear snorkels when diving out of sight of their students. 
Remember that if it walks like a duck and quacks .... it may in fact .... be a duck!

IT'S YOUR BREATHING!  We have seen some blogs written by "big credentials" i.e. course directors and other establisment "big shots" from the MEGA International Training Agencies. They obviously understand that using respiration as a tool to fine tune buoyancy control is a huge part of the ultimate goal , as do we, but they do not understand that,  SO FAR, there is no evidence that buoyancy has improved by reading a tutorial or by following the guidence of these huge training agencies. Few, if any,  good divers evolve from cyber chatter either! We maintain that advice without the ability to provide visuals (actual moving examples) of what a good diver should look like .... is just advice. We include videos of ourselves as part of our website, we provide in water visuals,  during our workshops and we use videos of the participants as one of the teaching tools to support our mentoring. Being able to recognize what good diving should look like is the key to knowing what to  aspire to and  what to imitate. Seeing examples of good fundamental skills through the faceplate of your mask....has no equal. The majority of dive leaders within the big agencies are unable to supply an example of anything close to remarkable buoyancy control skills. They , quite simply, fail to live up to their rhetoric and credentials.

MORE WEIGHT MEANS BETTER CONTROL is another popular myth.  We hear this a lot in the Northeastern United States: "When I'm catching bugs I like to be heavy." is a common boast.  "BUGS" for those not familar with the term, are lobsters and the people who hunt them are skilled divers, "usually", only in their own imagination. Correct weighting is a very personal matter.  Some experts offer a formula for proper weighting such as starting with a percentage of your body weight. Proper weighting is a process not a formula and is the responsibility of the diver himself.  There is no shortcut or magic pill that facilitates proper weighting and great buoyancy.  There is no magic number or magic formula and no marvelous piece of gear that makes buoyancy skills a cinch.  If there is one piece of gear that makes a difference to buoyancy control it is weights but only when properly selected, distributed and managed by a knowledgable diver.  Divers who are unwilling to learn the physics related to buoyancy or who are unwilling to learn about  the variables (environment, body composition, collateral equipment, tank values and exposure protection) that determine the amount of weights to be worn .... will never master buoyancy control.

Adding insult to injury, our hero has not only become a marker buoy, he has become:

The 3rd state of BUOYANCY ( or the 1st ? )

There are 3 states of buoyancy:
How you rank them is your preference but our preference is NEUTRAL BUOYANCY, of course, because we enjoy the experience of weightlessness. We think that  bottom dwelling divers and those who go up  and down like a roller coaster don't know what they are missing. Positive Buoyancy works well for snorkeling and for waiting to get picked up by the dive boat after the diving is finished. Buoyancy Control is important to all three states of buoyancy. It enables the diver to stay off the bottom,   it insures that the diver only makes safe ascents and can maintain a positive state at the surface.  The transition that the diver makes between neutral and positive buoyancy can be crucial.  Buoyancy skills take on a new dimension once the diver finds himself inside of a BCD as is the case with diving a drysuit. Upside down and unable to vent air from his suit, the diver to the left has just experienced a drysuit diver's worst nightmare. He has transitioned from buoyancy practitioner to marker buoy. While this may seem comical at  first glance, it is truly a situation to be avoided. Most drysuit divers prefer to put only enough air in their suits to take away the squeeze and provide warmth while using a BCD to make most adjustments. Uncontrolled ascents pose a real danger to all divers and represent a valid reason to acquire the best buoyancy skills possible.