Dry suit and sinking feet

[RPanick]

When I'm horizontal its not a problem. If I go vertical it moves on me, or if I roll over to look for students or dive budies it can move. Rather than play games with the bubble I'd like to get it set properly and be done with it.

 

[sambolino44]

Man, I have this problem, too. Real bad. And I've tried everything, Dr. Bronner's soap, epsom salt, corn starch, Dr. Scholl's powder, Gold Bond powder, Odor Eaters; nothing seems to work.

Oh, you said SINK!

 

[RPanick]

Now that was funny

 

[dave4868]

I've tried just about everything except the weights around the neck. I may try them around the neck of my cylinder.

When I frog kick its not a problem, but if I stop and change orientation, the air floods out of my legs and I have to put it back in my legs. Not difficult, just annoying.

I dive with an integrated Zeagle BC which lets me move the BC around during the dive to tweak, but the amount of movement isn't enough to move the weight far enough to be effective. The old leverage problem, my feet have more leverage around my center of mass than my weight belt does.

It sounds like once you get the air back into your legs, your trim is fine and your feet aren't tending to sink.

Maybe the problem is that you have to shift a large amount of air back into the legs to keep them from sinking, and perhaps you're just barely able to reach that balance point.

That could be annoying.

Are you using the bcd for buoyancy control? If so, could you look at this more as a case of your torso floating than your feet sinking?

How's your trim when you have a near-empty tank and the bcd near empty? Easier to keep your feet from sinking? That might tell you something.

Here are some more suggestions.

Add more insulation to the legs.

Besides adding buoyancy and counteracting your sinking feet, this will fill out the legs of the suit better and slow the "flood" of air, since more of it will have to pass through the material rather than around it.

For less than $40, there's Cabela Polartec underwear drawers (about 100 weight):

http://tinyurl.com/2e74qv

There's also the 200 weight Polartec pants:

http://tinyurl.com/32j6tp

Also, as you and others have mentioned, shifting your center of mass will help.

In the winter, with heavier insulation around my torso, I often add up to 8 pounds of tank weight, either on a cam band and/or attached around the neck of the valve.

The drawback is being top-heavy and tippy.

There are lots of different ways to approach this problem of your sinking feet. More insulation on the legs will help.

Also, looking at it as a problem of your torso floating you'll want to shift weight further toward your head.

And you might stop using the bcd for buoyancy, if that's what you do. That will let you move more buoyancy to the feet.

Then again, if it's only a slight annoyance, maybe it's pretty normal it's not worth tweaking.

Dave C

 

[paulwlee]

When I'm horizontal its not a problem. If I go vertical it moves on me, or if I roll over to look for students or dive budies it can move. Rather than play games with the bubble I'd like to get it set properly and be done with it.

If you need the bubble in your feet to stay horizontal, it still IS a problem. With proper weight placement you shouldn't have to compensate using air bubbles in your suit.

There were many suggestions, but weight pouches on the cam band should work. If you already tried it and it wasn't enough: If your particular BC has only one cam band and it isn't high enough, then get a separate cam band, put the weight pouches (or keel weight) and place it high on the tank. That should be a lot more secure than putting ankle weights on the tank neck.

 

[RPanick]

I hadn't thought about increasing the underwear in my legs, that might work. Thanks, downside is more lead.

I guess I should have put new boots on rather than switching to socks and rock boots. Oh well, live and learn.

Shame I can't use my Henderson Hyperstretch boots (too small with dry suit sock), those things have so much buoyancy its not much of an issue. Maybe I can find someone in the area that stocks them in a larger size to see if they would be comfortable over my dry suit sock.

 

[Web Monkey]

Okay, I've got a problem that seems to be the opposite of everyone else. In my dry suit my feet sink if I hover motionless. I'm using fins that have positive buoyancy, and I'm wearing two pairs of heavy socks.

I can't beleive the thread went on this long with nobody guessing this:

I'll bet you're overweighted and have to add a bunch of air to the DS to compensate.

This give you a big comfy bubble that's almost impossible to control. If you're tilted at all "head up", It will move to your shoulders which will keep your head up and your feet down.

Try doing a buoyancy check with an almost empty tank, and see what it takes to sink you, with just enough air in the suit to eliminate the suit squeeze. This should make things much better.

Terry

 

[RPanick]

Nice theory, but I'm not overweighted. The only bubble I, have its not that big is the one I put in my feet. My preferred diving I have no bubble, generally I hit neutral at the safety stop with no air in the BC. I only put enough air in the BC to compensate for the weight of the air in my tank when full.

Until I changed the boots I didn't have any problem at all. Likely its only a couple of pounds difference, but it keeps me from being perfectly trimmed and its annoying me.

 

[Web Monkey]

Nice theory, but I'm not overweighted. The only bubble I, have its not that big is the one I put in my feet. My preferred diving I have no bubble, generally I hit neutral at the safety stop with no air in the BC. I only put enough air in the BC to compensate for the weight of the air in my tank when full.

Until I changed the boots I didn't have any problem at all. Likely its only a couple of pounds difference, but it keeps me from being perfectly trimmed and its annoying me.

Too bad. I liked my guess.

Good luck moving stuff around.

Terry

 

[paulwlee]

So did you try the weight pouches on the cam band? Moving the BC up and down the body won't work. You have to take some of the weight out of your integrated weight pouch and move it to a different position.
I for example put six lbs on my top cam band, and that is on top of a 6lb stainless steel backplate and 6lb weighted single tank adapter. My weight belt holds the rest.