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

[Steelyeyes]

I recently moved some weight on to my shoulder straps from my trim pockets. Worked pretty well. I dive a 5 mil suit so my total weight is more than 6 lb.

 

[Ayisha]

To hang horizontal and stable, first put a bunch of floating stuff on your back, legs, and arms. Then a belt with a ton of lead in front at just the right height between your belly and chest. You will float like a very bottom heavy, top light long air ship with the gondola set at just the right spot along its length, with its trim thrusters turned off. It's just physics.

If the belt half up your chest is not that convenient, put some weight on the front part of your shoulders and some in a normal weight belt, to the front. Split the weight as needed to get horizontal trim. Then just hang there, perfectly stable. Just do not flail your arms and legs needlessly. Turning to the side will be a pain, as you will be very keel/belly heavy. But you will be stable in horizontal trim.

Making it diveable just means not tending it so far toward being massively belly heavy.

Biasing your lead HEAVY to the front is NOT a good idea for a new diver as it tries hard to keep you horizontal even on the surface. Where you may well want to breath surface air, not lay face down. Nor in that extreme is in what I'd recommend for any diver. But I think the point that it keeps you stable and horizontal is clear.

OMG. No. The above is absolutely not right.
Your homework is *Neutral Buoyancy*. Correct weighting is crucial for neutral buoyancy and static trim.

 

[Ayisha]

I dived today with a 2 lb weight on the tank band and 2- 2 lb weights on the hips. It was better but still feet down.

How come you're not using your shoulder trim pockets rather than the cam band? The trim pockets will probably work better for you.

 

[MichaelMc]

OMG. No. The above is absolutely not right.
Your homework is *Neutral Buoyancy*. Correct weighting is crucial for neutral buoyancy and static trim

Terribly absent minded of me. But I said nothing about not being neutrally buoyant. I said to bias the weight toward the belly. Not anything about overweighting in total. I figured being neutrally buoyant was assumed.

ETA: Bias it forward to the belly for this little 'you can't hang horizontal motionless' exercise.
Still "OMG, No"?

 

[Ayisha]

...a belt with a ton of lead in front...

...Turning to the side will be a pain, as you will be very keel/belly heavy...

...Making it diveable just means not tending it so far toward being massively belly heavy...

...Biasing your lead HEAVY to the front is NOT a good idea for a new diver as it tries hard to keep you horizontal even on the surface...But I think the point that it keeps you stable and horizontal is clear.

Terribly absent minded of me. But I said nothing about not being neutrally buoyant. I said to bias the weight toward the belly. Not anything about overweighting in total. I figured being neutrally buoyant was assumed.

None of what you wrote sounds like a correctly weighted diver. Being belly heavy is not even any part of the equation. You make several references to being "heavy" and "a ton of lead", which would make neutral buoyancy very challenging. It also sounds dangerous for an impressionable new diver.

 

[MichaelMc]

Ahh. Really sorry if you are not reading the full message and just picking on the adjective heavy in isolation. And missing the qualification, that you twice quote me as making, to warn that this is not a recommended plan for a new or any diver, just a trim and stability exercise. Maybe read it again.

ETA: I'd say that correct weighting is key to safety. You can still be neutral and in trim without correct amount of weighing. But I was not recommending being overweighted. I was discussing a distribution of your, correct, weight.

 

[happy-diver]

Arch that back and spin on a dime with posture posture posture

Gorilla trim absolutely no courses or fancy gear required

Yeah at the start it feels like someone's trying to drive you into the dirt

 

[leadduck]

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?

Watch your breathing pattern. Do not stay inhaled for longer time, instead rest exhaled. Some divers who stay inhaled for a longer time can compensate trim by moving weight higher up (not good but works), but in your case with little weight, no such workaround.

 

[caruso]

How come you're not using your shoulder trim pockets rather than the cam band? The trim pockets will probably work better for you.

I was only using 3 lbs on each side for a total of 6. In order to use the shoulder pockets I'd need to use a total of 8 split into 2 lbs each since no 1lb weights are available. I didn't want to dive with extra weight but that's what I'm going to do this morning.

 

[Ayisha]

Ahh. Really sorry if you are not reading the full message and just picking on the adjective heavy in isolation. And missing the qualification, that you twice quote me as making, to warn that this is not a recommended plan for a new or any diver, just a trim and stability exercise. Maybe read it again.

ETA: I'd say that correct weighting is key to safety. You can still be neutral and in trim without correct amount of weighing. But I was not recommending being overweighted. I was discussing a distribution of your, correct, weight.

I did read it properly. That's how I was able to quote sentence by sentence. I purposely left in your qualifier so that your statements didn't sound even worse.

Out of all the divers I know who have no issue with static trim for any length of time, I can't think of any that have any weights at the front. Realize that we practice static trim for hours in preparation for a DIR course like GUE Fundamentals. Correct weighting and distribution is the first thing dialed in. BTW, you would be able to be comfortable in and maintain any position.