On of the things you learn after diving for a while is how to perfect your neutral buoyancy (balance).  Perfect neutral buoyancy basically means your balance is neither positive (going up) or negative (going down) your just floating in the water.  It’s hard to get mastered and even with as many dives as I have (not that many really), I still struggle.  You can pretty much tell you got a handle on it when you take a breath in, you become slightly positive and slowly start to rise.  When you exhale you become slightly negative and slowly start to sink.

If you can imagine, in order to be really good at your neutral buoyancy – you need to know all your gear, how it’s

Diving With The High Def Camera Setup

balanced and how much weight your going to carry for either fresh or salt water, and how much you weigh.  Once you get all those factors mastered you can pretty much hover anywhere in the water you wish.  It’s a great feeling to be neutral in open water!

Lately I’ve been diving with a high definition camera and monstrous Gates underwater housing for it.  It’s forced me to recondition myself and readdress my neutral buoyancy skills (kinda of rusty).  The setup must weigh an additional 20lb but it in the water it’s fairly positive.  When I’m holding on to it, it tries to lift me to the surface.  I’m sure with a few more dives I’ll have my neutral buoyancy back.  On this particular dive, my friend Jennifer took her still camera setup along and snapped a few photos including this one of me with the monster setup.