Trim

[hedgehog47]

hey guys, I'll work on getting a video. it's very hard to find people willing to dive with me, much less film me.

I tried diving with 1 pound on each side, bottom of shoulder straps. I tried with my arms a little more out front of me and that seem to help. I noticed when holding my safety stop that I drifted into an upside down-right shoulder down position.

Maybe I can try relocating the computer or possibly making the tank a bit lower. I will switch to the middle and bottom mounting slots of my STA so I can move the tank down a bit more. Unfortunately this battle is mostly mine alone.

It's been tough finding help, those that are willing to help for one reason or another seem to be unable to dive with me. I'm not easily offended by anything you guys have said I appreciate your honesty. I like to be good at everything I do.

Except golf, I'll never be good at golf.

 

[PfcAJ]

Get at the FLUE guys. There's a bunch of them in your area and can help you get your trim squared away

 

[DocCarl]

What PfcAJ said. The FLUE folks will certainly be able to fix you up.


In the meantime, here's my observations:

It looks like you're making things a bit harder than necessary. I like to keep stuff simple, and I bet we can solve this without you having to go buy much in the way of new equipment.

So, you feel like you're foot-heavy. Have you considered the possibility that you're head-floaty instead?

If your BC is adjusted improperly, you can easily wind up with too much aircell too high on your torso. This results in your top half rotating 'up', while your bottom half (which doesn't have buoyant lungs stuck inside) will forced to rotate 'down'.

Regardless of which body part is more or less floaty, it's all fixed the same way.

1. Weighting
First, take the weights off the shoulder straps as they'll make things more complicated than necessary. Put them in a pocket for the time being.

Then, do a proper weight check and figure out how much you really need. Here's how I do mine: MerakiDiving.com - How Much Weight do I Need for Diving?

If you need the extra 4lbs of lead, cool. Put them on the lower cam strap for now. I use the tiny mesh weight pockets from Oxycheq. They're tiny.


2. Backplate & harness rigging
I'd like to see how your harness is adjusted. It sounds like the plate may be too high on your body, which is caused by the shoulder straps being too tight. Take the wing off the plate. While wearing your wetsuit, put on the harness. Try to reach back and touch the top edge of the backplate.

If you can do this easily, then the plate is too high. Lengthen the shoulder straps a little and try again. Make sure the straps are the same length. If one is much longer than the other, you might feel a little bit unstable (tendency to roll to the right or left).

Once the straps have been adjusted, verify that your crotch strap is comfortably snug, without it pulling your waist strap 'down'.


3. Tank placement
Put the wing back on the rig, and then mount the whole BC on to a tank. Position the top edge of the top cam strap just beneath the shoulder of the tank.

This positioning should allow you to be able to barely reach the tank valve when in the water, provided that you harness is adjusted properly.


That's it for equipment tinkering.


4. Body positioning.
It sounds like you might be relaxing too much.

I highly recommend looking at this .gif of a girl in yoga pants for inspiration. http://www.sparkpeople.com/assets/exercises/Superman.gif

Do that, and hold it the entire time you're diving.

You don't have to have your arms stretched way out in front of you, but start with them slightly bent and spread wide. I like to think of my arms as either "training wheels" or "gun stabilizers". "Gun stabilizers" sounds cooler to me, so I'm gonna go with that.


Spread your legs a good bit, and then bend your knees until you start to rock forward. Back them off, and see what happens. Play around with it until you find that flat plane.


It may seem pretty akward at first, but don't worry: you don't have to swim around like this forever! Think of this as being a practice tool that you'll learn to modify to suit your needs over time.

More stuff I've written on the topic:

MerakiDiving.com - Floaty Feet & Playground Physics


If you're ever up in the panhandle, give me a shout - I'll be happy to go diving with you!


Carl

 

[hedgehog47]

thanks Carl

 

[DocCarl]

You're welcome

 

[BackBite]

As usual, Carl has lots of very wise words. My first dip in saltwater was with Carl and about a dozen of his friends. Would absolutely dive with all of them again!

The buoyancy will come with practice. I took AOW very soon after my OW course. I now wish that I'd had more dives under my belt for practice. Then, on a comically bad dive (lost buddies in low vis, found new insta-buddies at 80', etc) it was like a light went off in my head. I'm sure it was partly due to my heightened sense of everything that had gone wrong in five minutes, but since that time no more ending up upside down on my safety stops. It just clicked, for lack of a better description.

And a big wave to Carl and everyone else that dove with me that first summer! Looking back, I'm sure I looked like a newbie!!

Michelle

 

[Coop42]

"(lost buddies in low vis, found new insta-buddies at 80', etc)"

may be the best parenthetical quote I've ever seen.

Well done ;-)

 

[hedgehog47]

my PADI instructor was catching lobsters on my certification dive if that tells you guys anything. Nonetheless, I've been picking up the slack myself through education and research. and also trial and error

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxayd-_KxlA

 

[The Chairman]

I can't move the tank up any farther

This is your problem. Al tanks are not intuitive. You think you're shifting weight forward, when you are actually shifting buoyanncy forward. You know the butt of an AL tank is buoyant, right? It's actually trying to lift your butt up. Now think of it as a bubble lever (moment of inertia). The longer the distance the butt is from the lower cam strap, the greater the lift is amplified. The shorter the arm (moment), the less butt lift you're going to have. Start with the upper cam strap just below the curve where it becomes the neck. If you're still butt heavy, then you have some work to do.

 

[Lefty17]

my PADI instructor was catching lobsters on my certification dive if that tells you guys anything. Nonetheless, I've been picking up the slack myself through education and research. and also trial and error

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxayd-_KxlA

they let you take a camera on your cert dives?