A Question

[boudica69]

I went through one of the weekend classes Thanksgiving and fortunately had the instructor to myself. I had just bought my booties and fins before class. I had no problems in the pool with the checkouts but noticed when I descended my flippers rose behind me like I was going down walking on my knees. I have Seaquest Thrusters. The rest of my body is straight up and down but my knees are bent with my fins behind me. Has anyone else had this problem and how did they get over it? I plan on doing more pool time before my test dives and would like to work on this.

Boudica69 (Paula)

 

[spectrum]

I went through one of the weekend classes Thanksgiving and fortunately had the instructor to myself. I had just bought my booties and fins before class. I had no problems in the pool with the checkouts but noticed when I descended my flippers rose behind me like I was going down walking on my knees. I have Seaquest Thrusters. The rest of my body is straight up and down but my knees are bent with my fins behind me. Has anyone else had this problem and how did they get over it? I plan on doing more pool time before my test dives and would like to work on this.

Boudica69 (Paula)

Paula,

It sounds like you were just trying to balance yourself. In my case I soon found myself doing horizontal (belly down) descents. Being so new I'd just try to pay attention to it and change if it bothers you. Frankly I'm not so sure it's a big deal. The only real drawback is that if you come down too fast it will be your knees hitting the potentially hard bottom. Your instructor may have ideas after seeing you dive in person.

Good luck with the rest of your class.

 

[MikeFerrara]

You're going to have more control while you descend if you just get horizontal. Standing is a thing we do when we walk on land but it isn't mush use when diving.

Fins are made to catch water and if you try to descend like you're standing at a buss stop, they're liable to want to move off in one direction or the other.

You're lucky, lots of students taught to descend this way and up descending butt first.

 

[prthd9]

While I descend the same way MikeF does, I think until you have full control over your descent you should countinue descend feet first. You are taught do this to allow you to keep up in the event you descend too fast, which will keep you from popping an ear drum.

Once you learn to equalize on the fly and with minimal to zero effort descending while trimming out (horizontal) is much more fun and safer in my opinion.

For now just straighten your legs and give a very very gentle kick if you start to fall out of balance. If you kick too often or too hard you will never descend. The biggest thing is to keep diving you will learn something new about your personal style on each dive. I started just about a year ago and have just under 100 dives. I learn something new all the time.

 

[loosebits]

I think solving the problem of descending too fast by introducing another problem of descending vertically isn't the correct approach. I have no clue why they teach to descend vertically (and I'm not even sure if they actually teach that at all or if that's the way students tend to descend and no one corrects them).

Try descending horizontally as Mike suggests. Work on you descent rates if needs be.

 

[Scott04]

I had just bought my booties and fins before class. The rest of my body is straight up and down but my knees are bent with my fins behind me. Boudica69 (Paula)

Paula,
Yes, most everyone who is beggining has this happen to them. But in your case your booties, which are made of neoprene and hence float, most likely causes your feet to rise behind you. I encourage folks to use their fins, kick a bit, get used to them. It's no surprise or abnormality that a lot of new folks starting out hardly ever using their fins when first learning how to dive dive.

Keep up the good work and enjoy....

 

[noobascooba]

I have the same problem sometimes, it's really annoying and I end up bycling to get my legs down. I think it only happens when I'm underweighted, so check your weighting is ok.

 

[Spady]

You're lucky, lots of students taught to descend this way and up descending butt first.[/QUOTE]

-Yeah, that's EXACTLY what happened to me at first. I guess this is why they do pool dives first rather than open water, so at least you don't end up plopping down on some fire coral or something

 

[Scuba Brad]

I have two words for you .......ANKLE WEIGHTS............try it you'll like it.

If we can be of assistance please let me know.

Happy Diving

 

[boudica69]

I haven't had problems descending too fast or controlling my descent, I've just had problems with my feet floating up behind me like I was walking on my knees to descend. I am new to diving and will be taking my open water dives in May before my Barbados trip.