How To Make Bubble Rings While Scuba Diving: Unofficial Skills

There is no better way to spend a safety stop than to sharpen your bubble ring skills. If you ever wondered how to make bubble rings while scuba diving, then please continue reading…

Blow Bubble Rings While Diving

This is usually the first method divers attempt to make a bubble ring. When done properly, these bubble rings are impressive. In a still ocean, they rise and expand all the way to the surface.

Blowing bubble rings requires good buoyancy control. You need to stay still laying on your back in full scuba gear. As we all know, the most important rule in scuba diving is to never hold our breath. This is why buoyancy is very important while blowing bubble rings. We do not want to ascend while blowing bubble rings!

How It’s Done

First we get into a horizontal position looking up at the surface. Furthermore you need to tilt your head slightly back, so that the air that you release has a chance to travel up to the surface in a straight line. Once we have established good buoyancy and can stay comfortably on our back, we take a breath and remove the regulator and hold on to it, still blowing small bubbles.

To create the bubble ring, fill your cheeks with some air, stick your tongue out and quickly pull it back, releasing the air in your cheeks. You don’t want too much air, just enough while slightly pushing it out using your tongue. Too much pressure will create a normal bubble.

A successful bubble ring starts small and with enough rotation in the air released from your mouth, the bubbles join up as they expand on their journey up.

Don’t forget to put your regulator back in when you stare at your first ring in awe! When you breathe out make sure those rising bubbles don’t destroy your newly created piece of air art!

Two-Handed Bubble Rings While Scuba Diving

Another method divers use to make bubble rings while scuba diving is to manipulate smaller bubbles from their exhale using two hands. This is a preferred method for professional divers as it allows us to keep an eye on our students! My instructor did this on my Open Water Course and I proceeded to practice in the pool on days off during my Divemaster Training. We spend half a dive sometimes trying to perfect this art!

How It’s Done

First, we tilt our head to the right and while exhaling, smash those bubbles using our left hand. The key is to create a nice cloud of smaller bubbles that slowly rise up in front of us about half a meter away. Then you make two fists and press your knuckles together. With a forceful flick of your wrists you create a vortex in the water that collects the small bubbles and puts them in rotation. This is what creates a bubble ring that travels horizontally! Very cool!

Once you master the art of a two-handed bubble ring, you should be able to bust out several of them in a row.

Pro Tip: Experiment with different distances, amount of bubbles and bubble size. Even the distance of where you create your vortex seems to be a personal preference. Practice these down current.

One-Handed Bubble Ring

Time to graduate and move onto the one-handed or “Ninja” bubble ring! Since diving is a lazy sport, using two hands might sound excessive.. So, let’s try with one hand. The concept behind these ones is very similar to the two-handed bubble ring, apart from creating the vortex with one hand.

How It’s Done

Start out the same as a two-handed bubble ring. Create a nice bubble cloud in front of you (smaller bubbles seem to work better here). Two create the vortex, close all your fingers of your strong hand, pull your knuckles slightly back to create a small arch in your hand. Collect some of the bubbles in your hand and then in one forceful motion forward push the bubbles away from you. The forward motion is only about 10cm, no need to use your whole arm or elbow.

This needs to be a forceful push and a stop at the end, as opposed to following through. Some divers find it easier to have a straight hand and some like to add a slight rotation when they push.

Tiny Bubble Rings!

Now these ones are very fun as normally you can do several in a row quite easily. We use our thumbs to create a much smaller vortex, meaning we also need much smaller bubbles.

How It’s Done

Create a bubble cloud in front of you. This time we will need to push the bubbles down a little lower. Furthermore we really need to break them up to create very small bubbles that rise up slowly. Then, make two firsts, bend your thumbs back and push your thumbs together. When you have a nice stream of small bubbles between your fists, flick your thumbs quickly to tough your index fingers’ knuckles. No need to push forward or create any other force.

This one is tough to master. Once you can do one-handed bubble rings and tiny bubble rings while scuba diving, you can push a few smaller ones through the bigger one! Now that looks pretty awesome!

A Final Thought

Bubble rings are super fun! Even if they are not part of the standard diver training curriculum, at Sairee Cottage Diving we love a good bubble ring. We love to teach our students the art of making bubble rings while scuba diving!

On 24/05/2019   /   Scuba Diving Tips & Tricks   /   1 Comment