Trying to compensate for feet down trim when wearing no exposure protection and little weight

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caruso

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I'm in the middle of a week long vacation in Little Cayman along with several ScubaBoard members and it's been some real nice diving so far. Tomorrow we're doing the day trip to Cayman Brac to do the Tibbets wreck, but I'm already off topic and at risk for derailing my own thread before I even get to the point.

I'm diving with no exposure protection in 84-86 degree water and I'm always looking to fine tune my trim. I find that if I remain perfectly motionless, after about a minute my body swings so I'm in a feet down position. I clearly need more weight higher up.

But I'm only using 6 lbs of weight and there's no 1 lb weights available. I've moved the tank up as far as it can go without banging my head so as far as I know, I'm out of options unless I want to swap the 3 lb weights with 2 lb weights and add 2 lb weights to the rear shoulder weight pockets, but then I'm overweighted by 2 lbs simply to compensate for a mild trim issue- doesn't seem worth it. I guess I could also move all the weight up to the shoulder pockets but I expect I'd then be head low and all my weight would now be non-ditchable.

Any other suggestions that I have not considered?
 
I like an ankle weight around the tank neck under the valve as a quick fix.
Also, try adjusting your cylinder the other way. It is a buoyant aluminum tank, right? Then shift the buoyancy of the cylinder lower, not higher.

Also, "over weighted by 2 pounds"? Who cares? Will that small amount of added weight make any difference to your air consumption? If it improves your trim, what is the downside? Loss of bragging rights on how little weight you use?
 
Bend legs at knees, extend arms?
 
I have this problem in warm water. I tie a few pounds to the neck of my tank. That is a lot higher than the trim tabs.
 
Also, try adjusting your cylinder the other way. It is a buoyant aluminum tank, right? Then shift the buoyancy of the cylinder lower, not higher.

I did it backwards..lol. Will do that tomorrow thanks.

Also, "over weighted by 2 pounds"? Who cares? Will that small amount of added weight make any difference to your air consumption? If it improves your trim, what is the downside? Loss of bragging rights on how little weight you use?

For some reason I've always been rather inflexibly geared towards the least possible amount of weight being better. I think I'll try moving the tank down and if it doesn't do the trick I'll add some weight above and go 2+2+2+2 rather than 3+3 on the hips.

Or I'll do this

Try 2 lbs right hip. 2lbs left hip and 2 lbs. top cam band. :happywave:

Then I gotta undo the entire strap. A bit more work but it's a solution.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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