BCD management to descend to dive
Some of my students feel confused the first time they go underwater, what to do with the BCD ? When to inflate the BCD, when to deflate? Here is a short summary on how to manage your BCD when you descend to dive 🙂
On the surface, before you go down
You want to be safe at the surface, effortlessly. Your BCD is your buoy.
- Inflate your BCD, either with the inflate button, or orally.
Start to descend to dive
You do not want to float anymore, you want to see what is down there! Your BCD is your buoy, you need to deflate it. Deflate your BCD slowly and just enough so you start to go down:
- Elevate your inflator hose,
- Press your deflate button slowly.
While descending
Keep controlling your descent. As you go down, pressure increases, so, your BCD is smaller, so you float less, so, you go faster down. You want to slow down descent because your want time to equalize and you do not want to damage the bottom.
Inflate your BCD slowly and just enough to slow down your descent:
- Press bit by bit your inflate button.
Close to the bottom
Keep controlling. You want to stay away from the bottom, in order:
- To protect corals and you,
- To avoid raising mud and sand and waste visibility.
- Give a last push to your inflate button.
As a summary, when you descend, you will keep control by first deflating your BCD to start descend. Second, you will inflate, bit by bit your BCD to keep a nice and slow pace to equalize and keep away from the bottom.
More details on our beginner course here. We can teach you to better control you buoyancy during Advanced Open Water Diver course or as a specialty (ask us).
There are detailed information about the various organization our instructors are certified to teach: PADI TDI IANTD