Feet Heavy

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CPRC

Contributor
Messages
110
Reaction score
29
Location
Raleigh, nc
# of dives
500 - 999
THis is a feet heavy trim issue…I think. So I’ve got myself down to 0 weight needed for buoyancy with my neutral 80s, 3mm full suit, no gloves or hood, 3mm boots, fins RK3’s that are positively buoyant. I’ve done plenty of weight checks with near empty tanks at the surface and at depth to feel confident that I need 0 weight to achieve neutral buoyancy. HOWEVER, I continue to feel “feet heavy”, making me want to get more weight at the top of my spine just to get my feet up. I have grabbed some small rocks and held them in hands in front of me and it feels suddenly “right” but that is not a normal thing to do. I have 4 spine pockets in my Katana2. I have recently added 3lbs to my top pocket and STILL feel “feet heavy” when in horizontal position. In other words, as I’m traveling in horizontal position and when stop to hover my feet sink, despite my natural arms forward position. Because of this feet heavy thing I find myself gently finning to keep horizontal. Any advice?
 
Are your feet dropping or are you rotating to a foot down position while your body remains flat? Do you have your legs extended or bent upwards at the knees? Have you tried a different style of tank to see what would happen? Switching to standard Al 80s would allow you to move a few pounds of weight toward your head. They're more likely to be what you'll get when traveling anyway.
 
Maybe some positively buoyant fins like the Seawing Novas would help
 
I had a similar problem and bought something similar to these ankle weights which I could wrap around the tank neck. It couldn't go anywhere and was out of the way. Since it was farther from my center it had more effect than weights on my waist / center of gravity.

Adjustable QR Ankle Weight 3.5 Lb

I didn't buy these but rather a longer weight I'm having trouble finding online.
 
Thank’s for all that. I planned to get video next week. Was just frustrated today and was hoping for miracle advice. But will get a video back here. Other items will clarify. Positive fins - yes. Legs bent at knees - yes, as much as possible. Was using a 2 lb donut weight at the 1st stage. No other weight. This was an AL80. I have it high on my back, to the point where I bonk head on. I rarely use this kind of tank but started diving with it again today to get used to it due to upcoming Bonaire trip.

To Rongoodman - my entire lower body will drop if I stop finning and hover. Within a second or so my lower will sink, even with knees bent, arms fully extended. Actually, i struggle to hover because of the feet heavy thing.

My whole point in all this was to see if I was missing something. I can’t think of anything other than add more weight at first stage or shoulder straps. Even though I don’t need for buoyancy, I sure seem to for trim.
 
This was an AL80. I have it high on my back, to the point where I bonk head on.


The katana 2 is a sidemount only bcd as far as I am aware but you say the tank is on you back. So which is it?

And also since al80's float, especially at the tail, having it as high as possible isn't helpful. you need to lower an AL80 to raise your feet.
 
if you have a dry suit it can work with a bit of air in your feet- is your bungy or d rings at the neck tight - pulling them forward as much as possible wilt pivot you - and moving the weights around will help if you, if you put some on then take off somewhere -dont just add
 
This is valuable - guys catching my discrepancies and chiseling away at my problem. I noticed yesterday after raising the tank closer to head that my feet heavy issue did not improve. I wasn’t thinking floaty tail so lower it don’t raise it up my back.

CLARIFcation - this was happening for me while doing SM and now BM. I started SM last late fall and this summer is my first with SM in a thin wetsuit. I find that I need no add’l lead for neutral buoyancy but with SM I was adding 2-4 lbs at the top spine pocket just to get my feet up…and I haven’t found success yet. And because of my recent change in tank focus for upcoming trip I thought do same thing for BM. In either dive style adding more weight at my head is not giving me definitive results.

Yes, I have drysuit and had no problem with feet heavy, solved it with negative fins and practice managing air flow into feet.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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