Create Circular Bubbles While Diving
Skilled divers can blow bubbles that grow as they go up, to end in an elegant swirl. This article will show you how to do it safely. With practice, you'll produce a series of rings, receiving silent but enthusiastic applause from spectators underwater or on the surface.
Steps
- Lie still on your back on a sandy bottom with the depth varying from {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}. If you go deeper than {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}, this trick becomes more difficult.
- Take a normal breath from your regulator (if SCUBA diving) and tip your head a bit back so your mouth is parallel to the surface. (It is not recommended that you try this trick without a regulator unless you are an expert free diver.)
- Start with a closed mouth. Make a short and decisive air burst, coming from your swollen cheeks (not from your lungs as with cigarette smoke rings), opening your mouth with round lips. To give you an idea, try to say the word “PUH” with swollen cheeks. Do NOT do anything with your tongue. The amount of air is of less importance. Using less air makes the rings thinner.
- Watch the bubbles and adjust your technique. At the beginning you'll see normal bubbles coming out of your mouth. Some will start to form a ring of small bubbles and that means you're on the right track. Soon you'll create your first intact ring!
Tips
- This is a great alternate activity to entertain you and friends if you weren't able to see any fish during the dive.
- Try this in calm water. Water turbulence makes it difficult. Often turbulence is caused by people close by, or by moving hands or fins. It is possible, however, to do it with a slight current, but you'll need to adjust the direction of your mouth slightly in the direction of the current. Look at where the previous bubbles have gone to have an indication of the right direction.
Warnings
- Make sure you hold your regulator in your hand, so you can get to it if you need it.
- Be sure you've gained a bit of experience before and feel comfortable under water (let's say 20 dives minimum). Practice it in a pool first.
- Scuba diving is a safe sport, but only after adequate training, using the right equipment and following the rules you learned, all related to the conditions you dive in. The vast majority of accidents happen for not respecting these basics.
- Don’t count the time bubble making as part of a safety stop. You don’t have exchange of breathing gas, so you don’t get rid of the excess nitrogen (off-gassing), thus reducing the effectiveness of your safety stop.
- You've got to be negatively buoyant (sink) on a sandy and flat bottom. In any other situation you risk a lung burst or you could damage coral. Don't attempt this if you find yourself too light, like with a nearly empty tank at the end of a dive.
- If you put in practice what is described here, it will always be at your own risk. If you explain it to anybody else, include the mentioned risks.
- Between one try to the other, give yourself a rest. Don’t continue for more than a few minutes. You disturb your normal breathing pattern, having influence on the body's oxygen supply. If you become lightheaded or have any disturbances in your vision, STOP immediately!
- Using compressed air (scuba diving) can lead to a lung over-expansion injury (lung burst or pneumothorax) if you ascend while holding your breath. Never try this while swimming or with high waves. This "trick" requires though to hold your breath momentarily. Fill your lungs only partially, not completely. It gives you some safety margin. Do not ascend while holding your breath. Not even a bit. The lungs do not sense pain when over-expanded, the diver receives no warning to prevent the injury.
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