Learn to hover underwater: horizontal position, breathing as fine control and a depth band you hold without hands or fins. A practice ladder for beginners.
How do you hover motionless in one spot underwater without waving your hands or fins? The honest answer: you need neutral buoyancy and fine breathing control. The jacket only provides the basis, the hovering happens in your lungs.
Why this is more than a show-off skill: poor buoyancy costs air and energy and raises the risk of injury, as a medical reference work sums it up [1]. In a measurement of 959 recreational dives, problems occurred on 129 dives. In 45 percent of those cases it was about buoyancy, which is roughly 6 percent of all dives [2]. In an analysis of 126 fatal diving accidents in Australia, poor buoyancy control was among 14 percent of the disabling agents [3]. And among 947 fatal diving accidents it was 13 percent [4].
That does not mean hovering saves lives. It means: whoever holds depth reliably has the most frequent source of problems under control. A guide does not replace an instructor, but it shows you what you work on.
This must be in place beforehand (training practice):
On the bottom or just above it: with a medium lung volume you hover at eye level with your reference. Breathe in deeply and you rise slightly. Breathe out and you sink slightly. That is your steering lever.
Milestone: you hang in balance with the jacket and react to every breath with a small movement.
Lie flat in the water. Knees slightly bent, fins a bit higher than your body, arms relaxed in front of your chest. That way your centre of gravity does not move and your steering stays calm.
Milestone: you lie horizontal with your hands in front of you, not on the bottom and not on the line.
Now comes the test: stop waving hands or fins. If you sink, breathe in more deeply. If you rise, breathe out for longer. Start with ten seconds, build to 30 seconds, then one minute (experience from training, not study figures).
Important: keep breathing evenly, with no pause between inhale and exhale. Anyone who briefly holds their breath to "lock" the depth saves nothing and risks a lot. Your rhythm is the control.
Milestone: for one minute you stay within about half a metre of depth without hands or fins.
Glance now and then at the dive computer or depth gauge. That shows you whether the line you see in your field of view is really standing still.
Milestone: your depth reading varies by only a few decimetres in a minute.
Only now does hovering become useful: hold your depth while you give a signal, watch your buddy or read the computer.
Milestone: you complete a task without your depth noticeably changing.
Do not look at the computer, find a line in your field of view: a reef edge, a sand ripple, a knot in a rope. The line shows you every small movement earlier than the depth display. When the line "wanders", you react before the display reports anything. Your eye is the faster sensor.
That is individual. Many manage short phases in their first dives, and it becomes really stable after several dives of deliberate practice (experience). Calm breathing and the right amount of weight are the lever.
With breathing as fine control. Breathing in more deeply lifts you slightly, longer exhaling lowers you. The jacket only provides the basis. Anyone who constantly adjusts it loses air and calm.
Poor buoyancy costs air and energy and raises the risk of injury [1]. In fatality analyses buoyancy problems were among the factors that disabled divers: 14 percent in Australia [3], 13 percent in a DAN analysis [4].
In a pool or calm shallow water with a reference on the bottom. There you see every movement at once and can stand at any time. Practice with an instructor. On reefs or in current it is needlessly hard.
Safety Stop: Holding Depth for Five Minutes, Done Right