Getting Horizontal Trim

[Agility]

You can do a weight check at the beginning of a dive, especially in a trilam drysuit.
see to it that you sink when exhaling with empty BCD and drysuit but are able to stay afloat without finning or inflating either suit or BCD just by inhaling. Once you have reached this you add the weight of your breathing gas (1.2 kg per m³air at 20°C) in lead, this will keep your air bubbles small and you can adjust the position of your lead to achieve best possible trim.
btw I feel getting correct trim easier in my drysuit than when diving wet.

 

[bongabonga]

I used to have exactly same problem with you. I'm also Single tank diver, SS backplate, Hollis F1 fins, naturally feet heavy.
You have two options, either put weight on your top cam band, or change to lighter fins.
Both option works for me, but I preferred the latter. I changed to OMS fins.

 

[Locus]

You can do a weight check at the beginning of a dive, especially in a trilam drysuit.
see to it that you sink when exhaling with empty BCD and drysuit but are able to stay afloat without finning or inflating either suit or BCD just by inhaling. Once you have reached this you add the weight of your breathing gas (1.2 kg per m³air at 20°C) in lead, this will keep your air bubbles small and you can adjust the position of your lead to achieve best possible trim. btw I feel getting correct trim easier in my drysuit than when diving wet.

You find trim correction easier in a dry suit? I've done only one wet dive and found trimming out was outstandingly easy compared to drysuit, not to mention being able to flip around, invert, and maneuver in and out of just about any position. That was with a bare-bones wetsuit I used when my drysuit was in the shop, but I'm definitely putting together a proper wet setup for summer diving.

I used to have exactly same problem with you. I'm also Single tank diver, SS backplate, Hollis F1 fins, naturally feet heavy.
You have two options, either put weight on your top cam band, or change to lighter fins.
Both option works for me, but I preferred the latter. I changed to OMS fins.

Thanks for the tips. I'll have to switch the fins out anyway, as the foot pockets on the cressi's are too narrow for my boots, making them an exhausting chore to don and doff in the water. If I switch to lighter fins, I was thinking about seawing novas, as my buddy loves hers. I'll go back to my atomic splits for now.

I've had two dives since my last post, and I tried moving the ankle weights onto my valve and putting my tank in its lowest possible position. As soon as I got in the water to put my fins on, I found I was turtling noticeably onto my back, so at the suggestion of a more experienced diver I moved one ankle weight back to an ankle. It didn't feel as goofy as I thought it would, and despite still being a bit floaty-footed my trim felt pretty good. It still needs some tweaking, but I had an excellent couple of dives.

 

[boulderjohn]

You find trim correction easier in a dry suit? I've done only one wet dive and found trimming out was outstandingly easy compared to drysuit, not to mention being able to flip around, invert, and maneuver in and out of just about any position. That was with a bare-bones wetsuit I used when my drysuit was in the shop, but I'm definitely putting together a proper wet setup for summer diving.

Your profile lists 0-24 dives, and I will assume it is accurate.

IMO, when you are first learning to use a dry suit, trim is easier in a wet suit. Once you get adept at it, the opposite is true. That is because you are struggling to learn to manage the air bubble when first learning, but later on it gets to be so automatic you don't realize you are doing it. Once that happens, you have more control over your trim than in a wet suit, with which you have no bubble to manage.

 

[victorzamora]

^That. I don't know how to describe it, but once my drysuit "clicked" it became much easier to dive than a wetsuit. You learn to use the bubble to add stability.

 

[tomfcrist]

Agree with all above......Trim in a drysuit is fairly easy....when switching back to wetsuits, you really need to put a couple dives in adjusting the location of your ballast weight to really get dialed in again.

 

[Locus]

Your profile lists 0-24 dives, and I will assume it is accurate.

IMO, when you are first learning to use a dry suit, trim is easier in a wet suit. Once you get adept at it, the opposite is true. That is because you are struggling to learn to manage the air bubble when first learning, but later on it gets to be so automatic you don't realize you are doing it. Once that happens, you have more control over your trim than in a wet suit, with which you have no bubble to manage.

^That. I don't know how to describe it, but once my drysuit "clicked" it became much easier to dive than a wetsuit. You learn to use the bubble to add stability.

Agree with all above......Trim in a drysuit is fairly easy....when switching back to wetsuits, you really need to put a couple dives in adjusting the location of your ballast weight to really get dialed in again.

That's excellent to hear. I hope that as my drysuit skills develop I come around to the same way of thinking. Hopefully I will get there before next summer. It would be nice not to have to invest in a wetsuit, having just put so much money into my drysuit.

 

[bongabonga]

Try OMS slipstream before you decide to purchase new fins. If you love F1 you will love slipstreams

 

[divad]

You are head heavy and dropping your knees to compensate. I know you think you are foot heavy, but you aren't. Switch to an ali plate and put the lead necessary on your waist (which is close to your CG). (Note that even if I'm 100% wrong, you will still need an ali plate in order to move weight around on your cam bands.)

This seems to be the best answer.