scubasean:
Finally, I would try to descend horizontally...I find being horizontal is more like diving, and is much easier to control....
But, change one thing at a time...Get the weight correct, THEN redistribute it, THEN do other things...
Good advice scubasean.
To other new divers, lets look at the feet first descent. Picture yourself at the surface in the water and think about location and position of your feet.
If you dump the air from your BC and exhale to descend and stay in this position what do you think the water flow will be in regards to your fins :06: It will be "pushing" upward while you are are trying to move downwards. There will be less resistance behind you and you will naturally tend to "fall over" backwards especially if you have to much weight behind you. But others have recommended the fix for weight placement so lets move on.
Lets improve our descent by following scubaseans recommendation of making a descent in a horizontal or prone body position. Again we are at the surface and now we start our descent. Essentially three things need to happens simultaneously.
1.) Dump air 2.) exhale 3.) flex the knees and slightly extend the feet. Dumping air and exhaling we know changes our volume thereby changing our density so we sink. What in heavens name does flexing the knees and slightly extending the feet have to do with descending :06:
Think of where your feet/fins are now and where is the "pushing" force being applied to the fins. Correct it is against the top surface of the fin instead of the bottom surface of the fin. This will rotate you into a horizontal or prone body position in the water. From this position you can see where you are going. You can see the bottom or the wreck or waht ever it is you are looking for including divers that may be under you who would really appreciate it if you didn't land on them(really a fun experience I assure you
)
The good thing about seeing the bottom on your way down is that you can better guage your rate of descent and add air to the BC appropriately to stop above the bottom or whatever is down there.
To all the istructors out there that read this method, you will find that your students can get much more descent distance within the confines of a pool as compared to the standard feet first descent. Think of the 6 foot tall person doing a feet first descent in a 10 foot deep pool. He will land on the bottom in slightly mor than four feet of travel---not much practice IMHO. Using the technique given above and have them stop descending 6 inches above the bottom will give them 11feet 6 inches of travel and more descent control practice.
