Are trim and buoyancy fundamentally related?

[Bob DBF]

Some higher-level overhead and sidemount training requires skills like inverted (upside down) and vertical (head down) mask clearing and remove/replace. It's a heinous skill to complete... you'll flood your sinuses for sure. But it does help one get used to having the claustrophobic sensation of water up your nose. It's my least favorite skill to demo LOL.

Sounds like DIY waterboarding.

Bob

 

[dmaziuk]

When inverted water will get up the nose and into the sinus. It shouldn't go down the throat or interfere with mouth breathing.

Nonetheless, it is unpleasant. It can sting and it can make a diver feel panicked. It can also leave you vulnerable to nasal infections.

I recommend a sterile saline nasal flush/spray whenever you get water up your nose. That's a good idea anyway as a pre-dive habit.. as it helps clear the sinuses well.

Or just grow an immune system and learn to use it. I promise you every swimmer gets pool water up their nose and out the mouth at least once per practice, and into the sinuses: occasionally, and nobody does saline nor nasal infections.

 

[Joneill]

Or just grow an immune system and learn to use it.

How, exactly, does one "learn to use" their immune system?

 

[HantsDiver]

I saw your original post which sparked this question. The more alarming thing that I read in that original thread was the comment that buoyancy and trim are just "a nice party trick and not the most important thing in the world".

Why is it alarming?

The idea that you need to be able to do all skills in trim whilst neutrally buoyant before you can do any more courses is wrong in my opinion. I don't dive with ditchable weight but if I did I can't think of any situations where I'd feel I needed to take my weight belt of in trim and put it back on again. Nor can I think of any situation where I'd do so with my bcd/wing. Those are party tricks - and quite frankly they are grossly stupid things to do. There can be no justification for any instructor telling students to do them in my book.

Let's make an assumption that lot's (more than half) of all divers are perhaps not in perfect trim with perfect buoyancy on all dives. And let's assume they dive because they enjoy it. Do the accident and fatality statistics indicate this is a huge problem? I'd say they did not. Which means people are enjoying theirselves safely. Hence why it's not the end of the world.

 

[DevonDiver]

Or just grow an immune system and learn to use it. I promise you every swimmer gets pool water up their nose and out the mouth at least once per practice,

No sh#t....chlorinated pool water, you say?

Luckily most divers are always in a swimming pool; and not out there in that horrible unsanitary 'natural' water... or there might be some concern over ear infections and the like...

I was patently stupid to consider the unlikely scenario of a diver NOT leaving the swimming pool environment... my apologies.

 

[DevonDiver]

Sounds like DIY waterboarding.

I frequently wonder what the drama is about regarding water boarding...?!?

 

[RainPilot]

I've had water in every orifice imaginable underwater while diving so I thought waterboarding wouldn't be a big deal.

Yeah.

I've never been more wrong about anything in my life.

 

[dmaziuk]

Luckily most divers are always in a swimming pool; and not out there in that horrible unsanitary 'natural' water... or there might be some concern over ear infections and the like...

I could swear I just saw a thread here on SB where everyone agreed pool water was way fuller of infectious unsanitary horrors than any 'natural' water... No idea what you mean by 'ear infections': I'm sure I never heard the term "swimmer's ear" and don't have a bottle of neo/poly/cortizone otic living in my medicine cabinet.

 

[MichaelMc]

Why is it alarming?

The idea that you need to be able to do all skills in trim whilst neutrally buoyant before you can do any more courses is wrong in my opinion. I don't dive with ditchable weight but if I did I can't think of any situations where I'd feel I needed to take my weight belt of in trim and put it back on again. Nor can I think of any situation where I'd do so with my bcd/wing. Those are party tricks - and quite frankly they are grossly stupid things to do. There can be no justification for any instructor telling students to do them in my book.

Let's make an assumption that lot's (more than half) of all divers are perhaps not in perfect trim with perfect buoyancy on all dives. And let's assume they dive because they enjoy it. Do the accident and fatality statistics indicate this is a huge problem? I'd say they did not. Which means people are enjoying theirselves safely. Hence why it's not the end of the world.

Few are claiming all divers need to do mid water weight remove/replace or BC ditch and don in perfect trim. Just that good trim and buoyancy will increase their enjoyment and safety, and so are key points of early training, and a way to increase what you learn from and enjoy about later classes. Things like mid water ditch and don in rough trim are good tests for advanced divers and leaders as a show of comfort in the water and with their gear.

 

[Nasser]

Hmm. To extend that line of reasoning: buoyancy is related to weight, and weight distribution is related to trim. So, 'proper weighting' (how much and where) influences both buoyancy and trim.

Yes.