Trim Issues

[Arkman]

This year I've really been working on buoyancy and trim. I have been trying to do weight checks as I dial stuff in and I think overall my weight is getting closer.

Last weekend I was on dive and the viz was crap and nothing to see, so I started messing around just trying to hover. Not moving my feet or my hands and taking slow breaths trying to basically just sit in one spot. What I found was I kept going head way down and listing to the right side a bit. This lead to me sort of diving down in the water column when I didn't want to. After trying it a few times I was able to adjust my BC to get rid of the listing for the most part, but I still kept going head down.

I'm in a drysuit but I don't think it is my feet causing me to go up. I didn't have much air in the suit and when doing this test a couple times I would try and remove as much air as I could from my feet and keep them horizontal and still went head down.

Now I get that If I move my weight towards my legs that would change my center of gravity, but I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on the best way to actually do this. I've got my weight spread out between a DUI harness and a little in my BC weight pockets. I used to use some in my trim pockets by my shoulder blades but earlier in the year I found that it was making my go even more head down.

I can't lower my BC towards my hips at all, doing that would cause it to be too loose on my body. The harness is also adjusted so it as low as it goes. Maybe I need a longer one to get the weight closer to my hips??

Like many of the parts of my diving, I have a decent idea what I'm doing wrong, but really no understanding of how to fix it.

 

[grantctobin]

Which wing?
Which plate?
Which fins?
Which cylinder(s)?
How much weight and where is it distributed?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Have you looked into getting a competent instructor to do a workshop for you tailored to your issues? I did that all the time for divers. No need for a formal course.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I'll also say just because you think you don't have air in your legs, doesn't mean you don't. You need a second set of experienced eyes to be sure.

 

[Arkman]

All great questions.

Which wing? Which plate?
Right now I am using a seaquest balance which is a back inflate BC. Not a plate/wing.

Which fins?
Right now I'm using the twin jets. A while back I was able to use the hollis f1, deep 6, and the RK3 HD. I liked the RK3s the most and I'm going to upgrade to those soon.

Which cylinder(s)?
This weekend in particular I was using a AL80. Most of my diving this year has been in steel tanks. I don't recall the size off hand, but they were probably similar in size to an AL80.

How much weight and where is it distributed?
I am diving in a Santi E Motion drysuit with a pretty thick undergarment. On the steel tanks I was at 26lbs and felt like I was a little overweighted. With the AL80 I was at 30lbs. I didn't do a proper weight check at the end because we still had a lot of air in our tanks and we were also running late to get home.

I have been putting 16lbs in my harness and 10 in my bv pockets. 5 in each side.

 

[Arkman]

Have you looked into getting a competent instructor to do a workshop for you tailored to your issues? I did that all the time for divers. No need for a formal course.

Haha. Yes. I'd love to find one. I've been talking to a few different folks but I don't think there is many people in my area that actually want to do this kind of thing. If you take a look at my other thread you'll see the experience I've had with local isntructors.

I'll also say just because you think you don't have air in your legs, doesn't mean you don't. You need a second set of experienced eyes to be sure.

I think that is a very good point. My buddy is very similar to me. We are both trying to work on this stuff, but don't really have the experience to help each other fix it. We can see what is going on most of the time, but really we'll just give each other bad advice.

 

[Outbound]

What position are your arms in? Does your drysuit have integrated boots or does it use socks? Integrated boots tend to trap more and can make your feet floaty. Also, you can try small adjustments to the height of your tank relative to your BCD. Some people use heavy/negatively buoyant fins to help. Others use ankle weights, although I tend to think of this as a last resort type move.

 

[Arkman]

During this exercise my arms were basically at my chest just kind holding my hands and sitting still. This is how I try to dive, but usually I'm holing the dive flag so one arm is out away from my body. Which makes faking the bouancy and trim easier, since I can use the float to compensate for crappy B/T.

I have integrated boots. My Twin Jets are positive but the RK3 HD are somewhat negative.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Haha. Yes. I'd love to find one. I've been talking to a few different folks but I don't think there is many people in my area that actually want to do this kind of thing. If you take a look at my other thread you'll see the experience I've had with local isntructors.

Developing skills that will serve you for decades to come might be worth the expense of a trip somewhere to meet up with an instructor. North Florida, for example, has loads of instructors who can get you squared away.

 

[Outbound]

Try diving with your arms out in front of you. This will shift your center of balance as well as allow the air in the drysuit arms to offset the lift the air in your lower legs and feet provide. Look at videos and photos of solid drysuit divers and you'll see they are nearly all in some sort of "Superman" pose or a variation of it. And if you are holding a dive flag with one hand and away from your body it might be contributing to your sideways list.