Help?! Positively Buoyant....feet?

[Kharon]

I have a high arch and the Aeris Velocity 3X was very comfortable for me. They are negative and fairly heavy. My problem was just the opposite. My feet dropped. As soon as I moved half to two thirds of my weight to pockets on the tank cam band my problem disappeared. I agree that you are very probably grossly overweighted and that it's a trim issue. Absolutely nothing wrong with ankle weights. Just remember that the farther out the lever (your body) the more force the weight applies. You probably won't need more than a very light ankle weight to adjust the trim. Also, 7mm boots must be awfully floaty. I've never used more than 5mm and the thermocline here is almost always sub-60°F and is often sub-50°F and sometimes sub-40°F.

 

[Quero]

When divers are very overweighted, as more than one respondent has suggested they feel was probably the case, his/her trim most certainly does go off, but it goes off in the opposite direction from what the OP describes. In other words, the diver's feet and legs drop down; they do not float up. When we see a diver consistently diving out of trim struggling to pull their legs down, especially at the beginning of the dive while trying to descend, as the OP has described:

When I'm trying to descend, my feet float upward

it is not a case of overweighting, but it can be a case of weight distribution. There is simply not an indication from the OP's description of her trouble that she is overweighted at all, let alone "grossly" overweighted.

 

[uncfnp]

I'm completing (well, hopefully) my OW this weekend and I'm having a "foot" problem! Everyone thinks I'm weird when I say "my feet float", but I don't know how else to describe it. When I'm trying to descend, my feet float upward, so I'm not able to keep the 'fins down' position like most others. Also, when I'm at the top and am positively buoyant in my BCD my feet continually roll behind my body making me face plant the water or kick around like a fish out of water to stay upright. My husband says "just lean back on your tank and have your feet in front of you". But, when I do this and relax, my legs begin to rotate under and behind me. During our pool dives, again, my feet wouldn't stay down I finally just held on to my heels with my hands so I could stop being led by my feet. The problem with all of this is, beyond a descent nightmare, my back hurts from being so arched. I am wearing 7mm boots with fins that appear positively buoyant as they float on the surface. My husband's slowly sink. In the OW we are wearing 7mm wet suits. I'm average build but most of my weight is in the rump, as I have a long narrow torso but shorter legs. As long as I can complete the OW I'll be happy for now, but I can't imagine struggling like this on all dives. I'm thinking of ankle weights....worth a shot?

The BCD was Aqualung, it was a rental from the Scuba company doing my cert. I do put a lot of air into it at the top. When horizontal, I don't really feel like I'll face plant, but rather I feel like my legs are a bit higher, making my back arch and my kick seems all messed up. Maybe if I did normal kicks I would've face planted, lol. Instead I did a lot of swimming with my arms (bad, I know!) and flutter kicks because I felt like my legs weren't working with me.

I did wear them snorkeling and it's the weirdest feeling because they're on top of the water, slapping the surface...it gets me no where! I've snorkeled a ton of times with the cheapo snorkel rentals they give out while on vacation quite comfortably and have never experienced anything like this. I also did an intro dive in the Dominican 2 years ago (which is what motivated me to become certified!) and again, those same, slip on rubber fins worked perfectly. But, the guide did all the work...set my weights, my BCD, got me all set and we were on our way.

When divers are very overweighted, as more than one respondent has suggested they feel was probably the case, his/her trim most certainly does go off, but it goes off in the opposite direction from what the OP describes. In other words, the diver's feet and legs drop down; they do not float up. When we see a diver consistently diving out of trim struggling to pull their legs down, especially at the beginning of the dive while trying to descend, as the OP has described: it is not a case of overweighting, but it can be a case of weight distribution. There is simply not an indication from the OP's description of her trouble that she is overweighted at all, let alone "grossly" overweighted.

Quero. You would certainly know better than I but in my limited experience, IF she is in a back inflate BCD, needing to over inflating a BCD at the surface to compensate for being overweighted at the end of a dive, can push a diver forward, just as she is describing.

Edit: But I only have my personal experience to draw from...

 

[Quero]

Anyone in a back inflate BCD might feel as if they are being pushed onto their face when they inflate it on the surface--in fact, it's a common complaint among people who use back inflate or bp/w BCDs in general, and even people in jacket BCDs sometimes need some coaching to get them to lean back. Weighting usually doesn't factor into the surface issues too much. Conversely, if we can get people to let some air out of their BCD/wing, then it's easier for them to lean back. I have rarely seen a student who didn't pump as much air into a bladder on the surface as they comfortably could and still be able to breathe (unless they forget to inflate at all, which is also common).

However, the OP's description of not being able to descend (i.e., no air in the BCD) without feeling that her her feet are floating her legs up would not indicate that it's a problem of the amount of weight she's got, but rather where that weight is placed. When I see people diving feet up, it's almost always a question of not enough weight rather than too much, and I actually carry extra weight with me to hand off to my students in the event that (towards the end of the dive) they are getting foot-light. But occasionally it's a question of weight distribution, particularly if the diver is feet-up for the entire dive, even at the beginning.