I’ve dived 6 times now with the Friday A Team. That’s one full day of four dives, and the first as a half day, since I couldn't get my physical docs’ faxed over in time to the DSO. I am currently logging all these dives, because I’m working toward my Master Scuba Diver rating, so I need documentation of them all. In doing so, I’m noticing how different they are, compared to previous log entries.

I have yet to master buoyancy in these tanks. It’s not like open water diving. Shallow water is hard to establish neutral buoyancy within, because while you don’t want to drag along the bottom, you can so easily shoot to the top. You are dealing with less than 1 atm of pressure change, so finding the sweet spot of weight to air in the BC at such tiny increments is a challenge. Your wetsuit, weights, and lungs make have a much more direct affect on your position at 10-12 feet below sea level than they would at 50-52 feet, in terms of buoyancy compensation.

Leo, a seasoned diver on my team puts it like this: “Overweighted is bad, underweighted is a sin.” And he recommends not putting too much stock in the issue—the sweet spot will appear and the aha moment will happen; don’t let it distract you too much.

Of course, there’s no real danger in buoyancy control in these tanks like there is in open water. You shot up from 12 feet? Just go back down again and calm down. On the other hand, I once saw a guy make a b-line for the surface from over 120 feet of Indian Ocean, as a result of paying absolutely no attention to his gauges and running his tank dry. That guy could so easily have been killed, and in fact, at one point I thought he had been. But nobody’s gonna get the bends diving the NAIB.

Your buoyancy control is crucial, nonetheless. Probably more so than on a recreational dive, even if it’s not a question of danger.