Reasons to take a propulsion/trim/buoyancy class...

[The Chairman]

BTW, the best part of the video for me was the lack of silt. Bravo. BTW, are those geoducks? I've never seen that kind of bottom before and it looks intriguing.

 

[rongoodman]

You might try keeping a little arch in your back, just tightening up your glutes. That should help with the dropped knees. Those fins are heavy too, so maybe trying something lighter like Slipstreams or Dive Rite EXPs might help. OTOH, if you're going to move on into doubles, which usually want to put people head down, the added weight of the F1s might be just the thing.

 

[LowDrag]

Thank you for the critique. I will move more weight forward by adding a couple of ankle weights to the neck of my tank to experiment then adjust from there. Either by moving my tank forward or by some other means. I will definitely work on the sculling, I know I need some more practice there. As for wanting to be be better, yes, I will keep practicing to get my trim much better because I want to and because it will help me be a better diver around things I should not run into.

Thanks again for the honest answers.

---------- Post added December 8th, 2013 at 01:53 PM ----------

BTW, the best part of the video for me was the lack of silt. Bravo. BTW, are those geoducks? I've never seen that kind of bottom before and it looks intriguing.

I definitely tried staying off the bottom. Like I said in the video, it felt weird being off the bottom like that and seeing the bottom without touching it. Geoducks? Nope, those are Giant White and Orange Plumose Anemones. Those guys are all over the place around here. Did you like the whale snot floating around me??? LOL!!!






This is a picture of a Geoduck taken by Don Rothaus that I found online to show you what a Geoduck looks like. Nasty looking things aren't they???



---------- Post added December 8th, 2013 at 02:10 PM ----------

You might try keeping a little arch in your back, just tightening up your glutes. That should help with the dropped knees. Those fins are heavy too, so maybe trying something lighter like Slipstreams or Dive Rite EXPs might help. OTOH, if you're going to move on into doubles, which usually want to put people head down, the added weight of the F1s might be just the thing.

I definitely need to tighten up the ab's...hehehe. As for the F1's, considering what they cost me, my better half would kill me if I wanted to put out another $100 plus on another set of fins...LOL!!!

 

[The Chairman]

Move the tank first, add weight second.

As for the F1s: that's what I dive. They are awesome fins.

 

[TSandM]

You're really close, and I'd be delighted if I saw more divers in our local sites looking like that.

I second the recommendation for tightening the glutes and STRETCHING out from elbows to knees, to flatten the body and get rid of the slight drop to the knees. That will help fix the last little bit of trim. From watching the video, I'm not entirely sure you have a major weight distribution problem. I think you have a little bit of a mechanics problem, in that when you are distracted or inattentive, you revert to a head-up position. Moving weight up will help with this; so will parking just a little more air in your feet. But the bottom line is to remain aware of how you are changing your position in the water.

Part of your instability, unfortunately, is your BC. The wing you are using is the same one I use for doubles (although I know the label says "do not use with double tanks"). The wing is cut as a doubles wing, with a very wide center panel and large side pontoons. Any time you get even the slightest bit off in the roll axis, the wing wants to take you on over. Parking the gas much closer to the tank results in a much more stable system. I absolutely LOVE this wing for doubles, but I wouldn't ever use it with a single tank.

Pete, you need to come up and visit us in the PNW! We can show you all kinds of cool and bizarre critters!

 

[LowDrag]

You're really close, and I'd be delighted if I saw more divers in our local sites looking like that.

I second the recommendation for tightening the glutes and STRETCHING out from elbows to knees, to flatten the body and get rid of the slight drop to the knees. That will help fix the last little bit of trim. From watching the video, I'm not entirely sure you have a major weight distribution problem. I think you have a little bit of a mechanics problem, in that when you are distracted or inattentive, you revert to a head-up position. Moving weight up will help with this; so will parking just a little more air in your feet. But the bottom line is to remain aware of how you are changing your position in the water.

Part of your instability, unfortunately, is your BC. The wing you are using is the same one I use for doubles (although I know the label says "do not use with double tanks"). The wing is cut as a doubles wing, with a very wide center panel and large side pontoons. Any time you get even the slightest bit off in the roll axis, the wing wants to take you on over. Parking the gas much closer to the tank results in a much more stable system. I absolutely LOVE this wing for doubles, but I wouldn't ever use it with a single tank.

Thanks TSandM!!! That is very encouraging and I promise that I will continue to improve. I have been questioning the wing. It was highly recommended by my instructor even for a single tank. His thought process is that if my wife was to have a catastrophic failure and I had to support her as well as myself at the surface then a 40 lb wing would be insufficient even after dumping our weights. I can see his point BUT.....I also know that EVERYONE talks about "tacoing" and how it will throw your balance off. Uggghhh!!! I am sooooo confused and frustrated by this. I still have my 40 lb Hollis S38 and I think I may put it on the DO harness. I really like the harness and I am not interested in getting rid of it. I really struggled with the Hogarthian harness. I had to have help getting in and out of it. I believe if I were ever in an emergency situation I would have had to cut myself out of it.

Pete, you need to come up and visit us in the PNW! We can show you all kinds of cool and bizarre critters!

That would be cool to have Pete come up for a visit. I know I want to go down there and dive in his playground.

 

[mselenaous]

This is an awesome workshop/class to watch divers not only improve their skill level but their overall comfort in the water and self-confidence.

Netdoc and I both include these skills in our Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses and remediate anyone who wants to improve.

Not all Buoyancy courses are created equal and some don't even bring up trim or propulsion. It is up to the instructor to enrich it with his/her experiences and expertise. Just because someone loves to dive, has bought into the dream & gone through an IDC does not mean he/she has these skills. Some say the PADI PPB class isn't worth the card, but that is all on the instructor. Many will say "Oh my instructor was great" without knowing what their class was missing. Sure the instructor was a nice person, patient person, etal...however if their class was inadequate, find a good mentor or an experienced instructor to practice with and video as you improve. I'd seen enough sub-par PPB courses to convince myself that is was an agency issue until I saw this video on the PADIProTV Youtube channel, where PADI Course Directors provide Teaching Tips to Instructors.

If you are considering a course like this, show this thread and this video to your instructor as a discussion of what you are expecting to accomplish in their course.

[video=youtube;swPVup2vItM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swPVup2vItM&feature=share&list=PLmA_jUmKY1 GbgOQ4a_y6u5rhtjC_vATeC&index=5[/video]

 

[The Chairman]

Great video!

 

[Nemrod]

I think there needs to be an Eco-Diver rating. It would be industry wide and would have stringent standards and if those standards are not met you do not get the rating. The rating would be required to dive any ecologically sensitive area such as a reef system.

People are all over the bottom because nobody has ever told them to get off the bottom. It is ignorance as much as skill or lack of I should say. Frankly, I think some of it it on purpose, they simply do not care. They are the most important thing in the universe. The diver culture needs to strongly discourage and essentially censor divers who damage reef or touch bottom more than a finger or who are always vertical in the water. People are social animals, social pressure is the solution to correcting bad behavoir.

N

 

[The Chairman]

I think there needs to be an Eco-Diver rating.

I call that OW. This is a remediation class for those who did not get it during their OW classes. My OW students will never have to take this kind of class. I would rather see all the instructors set the bar a bit more neutral for their students. It's just not that hard to do.