Frog Kick: The Cleaner Way To Get Ahead

[OE2X]

Yesterday was spent diving with some buddies from this board. Total of five divers all trained to frog kick.

We had a longish dive of 73 minutes with an average depth of around 65'. Most of us where swimming a foot or so off the muddy bottom. Looking back behind us there wasn't a silt cloud. I was left thinking, that I was glad to have buddies who know how to frog kick.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this technique, it is reasonably simple. Both knees are bent at a 90 degree angle with the bottoms of your feet facing the surface, you bring your fins out to your sides and push away with your fins with insides of your your feet coming together at the end of your kick. What this does is move the water column backwards and up. No water is thrust down, thus keeping the silt from being stirred up. It is the accepted method of kicking amongst many tech divers and universally used in caves.

Almost all new divers are taught the flutter kick. This up and down movement forces the water into the silt, thus blowing out any sort of visibility. It is the most common mistake that a new or uninitiated diver can make. It is a detriment to anyone else who has to follow behind them. It is also much less efficient because their feet and legs move out of the water column creating excess drag. This in turn means that they breath more gas.

We have an area in Seattle called Cove 2 that gets daily dives from all sorts of divers. From the newly certified to highly skilled. It always amazes me to see divers rototil the bottom with their fins and wipe out any sort of vis. that this dive site had.

While this kick may not seem to be applicable in all situations to some, you may want to try it out for yourself. To see a demo video of this technique check out the following link
http://www.gue.com/classroom/propulsion/index.shtml

 

[wcl]

Hi!

I learned to frog kick for my wreck class (sorta approximated it sometimes before, but really began to use it and be comfortable with it then).

I now use it a lot, though not exclusively ... whenever silting or finer control is an issue.

I do still flutter, but never did a hard flutter, I was always gentle (basically going slow and lazy, but I never silted up the joint, and never breathed heavy, so not a problem to me).

Before frogging, I did tend to be often a bit head-down to keep the fin tips clear of bottom. I expect frog will be better than that when I get into drysuit diving this month, and frog will win more of my locomotion.

Takes different muscles for sure that I have only figured out to excersize diving ... guess I hafta dive 3 times a week for a workout (hmmmm ... if only!).

Cheers,

Walter

 

[eponym]

I polled "frog only" although I will sometimes use the flutter (or even dolphin) while maneuvering in mid-column. But frog does rule, whether in wrecks or over silt or when just being kind to the coral.

New divers: when you're passing along near the bottom, drop your head from time to time and look back (past your chest) to your fins. See what's going on back there and whether you're leaving a trail.

Best practices always,
Bryan

 

[SeanQ]

I am trying the learn the frog kick but my fins are a bit too long to use effectivly. (Not to mention they both have a big cut down the centre which seemed like a nice feature at the time). I use a modified flutter when in silty/fragile enviroments.


The moral of the story? Donating an old pair of Jets/Turtles to me creates a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you're helping save dive sites.

 

[Mo2vation]

But frogging it in the kelp sucks - so I go to mod frog or most often, mod flutter. Mod flutter really is the narrowest profile and best kick in the kelp.

Back kick to hold position to photograph or just slow my approack, but in the open water, or when I need to motor, its all Kermit all the time.

---
Ken

 

[ShakaZulu]

This doesn't work to well when you are in the ocean and being moved around by the current......but yes, where applicable, please use it.

 

[miketsp]

Missing choice - use whatever is appropriate.

 

[RP Diver]

I find that for anti-silting, it is at least as effective to just stay a very tiny bit bouyant and swim in a slightly head down attitude. As mentioned, it can be difficult to maintain headway into a current with a frog kick. Also hard to use when you want to cover ground, as it's not the most efficient or streamlined form.

I use the frog kick at times, I use the flutter, and I use the dolphin. Whatever seems appropriate.

BTW, didn't vote as there weren't any options that seemed to apply to me.

 

[eod]

The best thing with the frog kick is that you can balance yourself easily by allowing just enough air in you boots to stay horizontal. Much harder to do when using the flutter kick. Thats why I use the frog kick exclusively when in my dry siut. In the pool I can do all weird kinds of kicks, but I still use the frog kick as the primary mean of propulsion.

 

[Derek S]

I alternate between frog and modified flutter. I've been holding off on really doing the frog kick as I don't want to learn how to do it improperly. Fundies will take care of that soon enough though. :14: