Alright, why can't I trim full horizontal? Tips?

[Birddog1911]

I'm at 65 dives now, and doing far better than when I started. But for the life of me, it seems like I'm still a little heads-up. I'm getting better at dropping weight, but I'm wondering if it might be more of a weight placement thing?

I usually put bulk of the weight in the weight pockets, and reserve a bit to put some in the pockets on the tank strap. I'd say around 70/30, give or take. Use a lot less weight in the pool compared to diving my semi-dry, but try to keep around the same ratio.

I swear, it almost seems as if I should hang a weight around my neck! I just want to be perfectly horizontal.

 

[kelemvor]

You could play a bit with tank placement, switch to lighter fins, or add shoulder weights. Dialing in trim takes a little work to get right, but once you get it it's awesome.

 

[Doby45]

Shoulder weights work well..

 

[Birddog1911]

See, that's why I love this place! I've never even heard about shoulder weights. Do they go right on the BCD straps, or is there some sort of harness for them?

If it's that easy on a BCD, I'll try it in the pool tonight.

 

[Doby45]

I ziptied mine on in that pic. @The Chairman also has a way you can attach with a simple loop of bungee. I used that method for a while when I was testing, but once I knew those weights on the shoulder was what I needed, I ziptied them on..

 

[northernone]

Trim pockets for the weights on your shoulder straps. An even easier way is an flexible ankle weight around the neck of your cylinder. It's a common trick for temporarily diagnosing weighting issues but I know some guys who use it permanently and works well for them.

Thicker neoprene on your feet is another easy way, or less dense fins.

 

[Birddog1911]

Well, won't have my very own BCD till August, so I'll see what I can come up with here at work, and tonight at the pool. Shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[stuartv]

Just remember that if you have found your correct weighting, it would be better to move weight towards your head rather than just adding weight up closer to your head.

If you have 70% of your weight in weight pockets on your BCD or a belt, then you might try just shifting some stuff around to have 70% of your weight (for example) in trim pockets on your top tank strap.

Trim is a pretty basic balancing act. Moving the weight you have around your center of gravity is the way to go. You would only add more weight to yourself if, for example, you had ALL your weight up on your shoulders and you were still trimming out head high (which is pretty darn unlikely). If you think about what you said in the OP, it sounds like you have the bulk of your lead on the feet side of your center-of-gravity. Moving some of that from low to high will have twice as much effect as simply adding some up high.

Unless you're hitting your head on your tank valve now, moving your tank up on the BCD is probably the first place to start.

 

[Imla]

Just make sure you are actually feet heavy, and not compensating for beeing head-heavy.
I know... It sounds odd... Bear with me...

If you on your next dive try to forcefully go horizontal (Ie, stretch arms forward, and bend legs towards butt...)
Do you when horizontal feel that you are going to tip over??
The answer might be the complete opposite to what you feel. You might actually be top-heavy and unconsciously compensating for feeling you are going to tip over by actually staying a bit out of trim with feet down and head up.

Moving all weights as far down as you can get them might help the issue.

 

[Doby45]

@stuartv is absolutely correct. Do not simply add weight to your shoulders. MOVE weight to your upper cam band or shoulders. In my case I needed 16lb in my drysuit with an AL80. I started with 2 2lb weights in my upper cam band and a 4lb weight in each of my waist pockets. That sucked so I moved the 4s to the upper cam band and placed the 2s in the waist pocket. That was better but still not right where I needed to be. So then I moved the 2s from my waist pockets to my shoulders and I was perfect. Waist pockets empty of weight, then I started using them as actual pockets for crap I find or what not. That was my Zeagle Express Tech, now I dive a SS B/W and did away with the shoulder weights due to the backplate.