Tipping over while on the bottom

[MXGratefulDiver]

A new diver might have buoyancy problems, but those aren't fixed by kneeling. They are fixed by not kneeling.

Well said ... and as I think you already know ... we are in vehement agreement ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Damselfish]

Kneeling on the bottom like that is actually hard if the water is moving at all (it usually is, even if there's not a noticeable current, and moving water is a powerful thing.) But it's not a normal dive position so I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Thing is, if your knees are planted on the bottom and the rest of you is sticking up, the water will have it's way with the rest of you. It's much different than when the water is freely pushing all of you. Over-weighting will keep you more glued to the bottom but doesn't solve the "problem" of staying upright and causes all sorts of new problems.

As you get more experience with diving and buoyancy control, you will learn how to best position your weights and yourself for whatever diving you are doing. Most often you will want to swim horizontal but be able to move into other positions to easily see or do something, and with proper weight distribution and some practice you'll get the hang of it. It's easier than kneeling. You may someday do something like a manta dive or fish feed, one of the rare recreational dives where you are actually encouraged to overweight yourself and plant yourself on the bottom. And you will probably see people struggling to stay put. Often it works better to be in a lower profile position, semi-horizontal with your knees on the bottom, kind of like a lizard. And in this situation you'd probably be someplace where there is nothing left on the bottom to hurt and there's rocks or dead coral on the bottom it's acceptable to hang on to a bit. If you are doing something like lobstering, you will be in all sorts of positions, but you will probably also have rocks it's ok to hang into, and there may be rocks blocking some of the water movement. It all just takes common sense and practice for whatever type of diving you're doing.

 

[D_B]

Kneeling?...havn't done that since OW but I do remember how hard it was to do, I could not keep my knees bent far enough to counter act my fins wanting to push me forward ... I had to have one foot out in front and one out back to do it without falling over (kind like a kneeling rifleman's stance)

But, your probably not ever going to need to kneel again

 

[tomboyy]

Unless you do the stuart's cove shark dive.. but then you'll have a smallish rock to clamp your knees on

 

[captain]

An absolute statement was made that

"In your future diving you should never have to be kneeling or for that matter be vertical in the water."

This is a shortsighted statement at best. The OP is training in Far Rockaway NYC, if he continues diving in the US North East there is a very high likelihood that he will eventually do either some wreck dives or go after lobsters. As such, he will most defiantly be on the bottom and many times vertical.

BTY, using a wrench or hammer is quite common up here for setting up a mooring, doing a tie in, and retrieving an artifact. That is part of wreck diving, not commercial diving up here.

Gilldiver, I just don't get this obsession with being horizontal. I get in what ever position I need to that best suits what I am doing. Besides trying to look horizontally or up while horizontal hurts my old surgically altered neck.

 

[Diver Tim]

In your future diving you should never have to be kneeling or for that matter be vertical in the water.

I just don't get this obsession with being horizontal. I get in what ever position I need to that best suits what I am doing.

I'm with you on this one, captain... I'd like to be able to maintain whatever position in the water is best for the particular situation, be it horizontal, vertical, sideways or upside down. Can I do it now? Not reliably, but I'm working on it.

I had a tough time staying upright on my cert dives while kneeling for skill demos, too. I think the surge (which was not huge that day, but it was present) was making it really tough to stay balanced. I haven't noticed a problem since then, probably because I haven't been "anchored" to the bottom by my knees while the surge pushes my upper body around. When you're not stuck to the bottom, your whole body moves with the surge, making it easier to maintain a body orientation while it gently sloshes you back and forth.

 

[Diver0001]

I certified this past weekend at Beach 8, in Far Rockaway, NYC. As there is no delicate coral on the bottom, we spent time kneeling in the sand. For some reason, I can't do this for long before I'm tipping over. Struggling to regain my balance using up a lot of air, thus shortening my dive.

How can I prevent this in the future? Swimming is not a problem; not swimming is. My weights are distributed, so what could be causing this?


Phil

A couple more tips:

1) make sure your BCD isn't too large. Often times, tipping/turtling, has to do with teh BCD not fitting, which allows the tank to shift to one side on your back, which will pull you over.

2) make sure you have the right amount of weight. The others have handled this point so I won't go into it.

3) when you are on the bottom, spread your legs so your knees or feet are at least as wide apart as your shoulders. This will help you remain more stable.

R..

 

[Gilldiver]

Gilldiver, I just don't get this obsession with being horizontal. I get in what ever position I need to that best suits what I am doing. Besides trying to look horizontally or up while horizontal hurts my old surgically altered neck.

A long time ago one of the early wreck divers named Lee Prettyman made this comment to me "Do you ever look up in a wreck? Half of it is above you." Ever since then I have tried to keep that in mind, to stop and have a real look up is hard in the horizontal, and rolling inside is asking for a silt out.

But back to absolutes, much of the horizontal requirements seem to come out of a cave mentality, but many of the very experienced cavers will also tell you that they will take whatever position in the water that is needed to move forward or back.

Just remember, the only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

 

[ScubaDiverRyan]

Not to uncommon for new divers.

 

[BDSC]

I'm sure you can do a safety stop in any position, but most of the time the folks I see doing a safety stop are in a verticle position.