6 Tips to improve Buoyancy & Trim

[wetb4igetinthewater]

@Wibble, I have to agree with @The Chairman. This is how open water students should look. It isn't hard if the instructor focuses on establishing comfort in the water with a solid foundation.

 

[MB NZ]

Great tips. New divers may wonder "why bother?". The answer is that good buoyancy and trim will reduce gas consumption. Many people, myself included also find it a more comfortable way to dive. This is somewhat subjective and someone will say that they are completely comfortable in the demented seahorse position. Each to their own.

 

[Wibble]

@Wibble, I have to agree with @The Chairman. This is how open water students should look. It isn't hard if the instructor focuses on establishing comfort in the water with a solid foundation.

Absolutely.

However, with good trim and buoyancy comes
the requirement to fin properly. That’s uncommon in the recreational world.

After the PADI Advanced there’s the Peak Performance Buoyancy. That won’t be teaching frog kick and helicopter turns.

There’s also the attitude of some recreational divers who aren’t interested in flat trim.

Recreational kit doesn’t help flat trim — the picture/video shows a wing and harness, not a jacket BCD. Also the lack of danglies indicates a long hose and necklaced backup, not an octopus with a loose primary hose, the SPG isn’t dangling, etc.

Whilst a few instructors may teach these techniques am happy to wager that most AOW students — and instructors for that matter — won’t be exposed to fundies/technical style diving.

Finally, my personal experience with developing the skills shown in that clip (it doesn’t show the associated finning techniques) was it took a long time to be that stable. My recreational friends/buddies at that time showed no interest in developing those “technical” techniques.

 

[berndo]

This looks exactly like the stuff GUE teaches. This is a screenshot from my Doubles Primer workbook. Fundamentals and drysuit primer have very similar pictures.

I checked some of the other videos on the channel, looks like this instructor is basically teaching a fundamentals class in their AOW, without the ton of added stress of taking a GUE class. Looks like the equipment is the same too.

Don't be fooled by the maketing material. Most people that have at least average talent for learing physical activity will fall into proper trim when given the right amount of weight. The gear, dangling stuff and hand position have no bearing on trim and bouyancy.
The reason why you find good material from (only) gue is that they are the only onee who produce good marketing material and have understood that you have to push the product online with tons of footage that looks cool to new divers. Unfortunately, virtually all other agencies are run pretty amateur hour-ish. An agencies like RAID can't even figure out that you need a instructor search function on the website but it doesn't mean that the instructors don't know entry level stuff.

Recreational kit doesn’t help flat trim —

That's utter nonsense. The type bcd or fins or whatever else gear you use has no bearing on trim or bouyancy.

 

[jadairiii]

That's someone with a lot of experience who's also had lots of training, practice and coaching.

View attachment 789416​

That was how my daughter looked after one day in the pool during her Rec 1.

Here we were 2 weeks ago, mild current on the wreck. It is not hard to teach this to new students, its hard to teach it to "old" students, who refuse to take the cotton out of their ears and put it in their mouth.....

 

[berndo]

..., its hard to teach it to "old" students, who refuse to take the cotton out of their ears and put it in their mouth.....

That's something I keep hearing but is not true in my experience. I dove with a couple of people from another club a while back and I took 5 or 6 kg kg from one guy after the first dive and he trimmed out way better the dive after, without any further training or advice. I've seen that over and over again.
It's super easy to trim out as long as you're not carrying too much weight. Not need to make it seem like it's difficult... well, unless you're trying to sell a classes.

 

[boulderjohn]

I have not been in the Cave Adventurers shop in Florida for a few years, but the last time I was there, they had a sign with the silhouette of a diver exhibiting perfect buoyancy and trim during a dive. That logo was made from a photo of an actual diver showing that "advanced" technique. The subject of the photo was a student in an OW class.

Any instructor in any agency who focuses on buoyancy and trim from the start will produce divers who look like that.

 

[jadairiii]

That's something I keep hearing but is not true in my experience. I dove with a couple of people from another club a while back and I took 5 or 6 kg kg from one guy after the first dive and he trimmed out way better the dive after, without any further training or advice. I've seen that over and over again.
It's super easy to trim out as long as you're not carrying too much weight. Not need to make it seem like it's difficult... well, unless you're trying to sell a classes.

I was making a general statement. There are lots of "old" divers wanting to learn new tricks. But I have witnessed quite a few that paid good money for classes only to watch them argue why their "way" was better, and fail.

 

[DiveProKoko]

That's how my OW students looked after their first pool session. If you teach it right from the beginning, you don't have to help them unlearn bad habits.

I was gonna say.....I show OW students from minute one in the pool that they need to maintain a "diver position". I know many of you do as well. They catch on quickly if you set a standard. They don't all "get it" and it takes more work after training is done to get good, but most look pretty decent by the time they head to OW. I think sometimes students struggle because we sell them short on ability instead of challenging them.

 

[The Chairman]

instead of challenging them.

They don't teach them.
They don't set the example.
Monkey see, monkey do.

Students want to dive JUST like their instructors. If you don't kneel: they won't. If you don't lie on the bottom: they won't either. If you show them how to be neutral and use only your fins: they will emulate.