Ankle Weights and Surface Trim

[Mark Duddridge]

I have two weight/BCD/trim related questions I was hoping to get some help on.

1. I've recently started diving with a drysuit. So far, I've been using ankle weights, but I've seen a few posts on SB that suggest many people feel ankle weights are not necessary and are just a "band-aid" to improper trim technique. Could someone explain to me why this is the case and whether I should be learning to dive dry without ankle weights?

2. I have trouble at the surface with my BCD pushing me too far forward. It's not the biggest deal in the world, but it's irritating always having to kick at the surface just to keep from facing too far forward. My instructor suggested I might be overinflating my BCD, but even with very little air in my BCD I still find it's an issue. I've seen some divers that are able to comfortably lean back on their BCD's - almost like they are reclining in a comfortable chair. I'd like to figure out how to do the same. I dive with 10.5 pounds in each weight integrated waist pocket and 4.5 pounds in each shoulder pouch (30 pounds in total).

Thanks in advance for any help you are able to offer.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Using ankle weights is fine if you're static, floating neutrally buoyant and/or drifting with the current. Potential problems like leg cramps can crop up however when you start working hard (ie. finning/kicking around especially against the current). Try redistributing some of your lead from the integrated BCD onto a weightbelt and see if that'll make do in lieu of the ankle weights next time. Also, with that much total weight in the BCD (30lbs total), sounds like your buoyancy wing is hyper-inflated anyway on the surface just to keep your head above the surface . . .redo-rearrange your lead set-up and you might resolve both problems at the same time. . .

 

[Web Monkey]

1. I've recently started diving with a drysuit. So far, I've been using ankle weights, but I've seen a few posts on SB that suggest many people feel ankle weights are not necessary and are just a "band-aid" to improper trim technique. Could someone explain to me why this is the case and whether I should be learning to dive dry without ankle weights?

Floaty feet can be caused by too much air in the suit and/or improper weight distribution. You can try moving your tank more towards your head (if it's normally positively buoyant like AL), or towards your feet if it's steel.

Also, "30" sounds like too "convenient" a number. Chances are good you're overweighted, which will leave you with too much air in your suit or BC and will make maintaining horizontal trim difficult (give you floaty feet or head depending on the weight distribution).

You should see exactly how much weight it takes to sink you with an almost empty tank and no air in your BC and your drysuit exhaust valve open all the way and the suit vented. Then you might want to add a couple of pounds to give you enough weight in case you want to flufff up your underwear a little.

Once you're properly weighted, you won't have much extra air anywhere and being horizontal will become much easier. If necessary, you can move your weights to a weight harness, like the DUI Weight and Trim, which will let you adjust the location of your weights, without requiring that you put them on your ankles.

It's not that ankle weights are evil, they just make you work harder than necessary. (just for an example, when on land, would you rather carry a 10 pound backpack or duct tape 5 pound weights to your shoes?)

Terry

 

[almitywife]

dont let the elitist ruin your ankle weight pleasure!! ive been wearing ankle weights for almost 10yrs now and yet i still live a fulfilling and happy life despite their angst

but Web Monkey has some good advise

i may have missed it but what sort of bcd are you diving in? by your description im thinking rear inflate and ive found that being pushed face forward is often because you have your wing over inflated and if you are over weighted its all a vicious cycle

 

[RJP]

I have two weight/BCD/trim related questions...

There might be ONE answer to your TWO questions...

Move the weights out of the shoulder pockets.^*

1.) Air in your BCD probably isn't pushing you face-forward, your weight is probably pulling you face forward.

2.) Your feet are probably not floaty, but rather the weight in your shoulder pockets may be rotating you head-down in the water, effectively raising your feet.

As Kevrumbo suggests, moving some of the weight around should help. Essentially rotating your body around a center-point near your hips will help your feet from getting floaty while submerged, and keep your face from getting pulled into the water on the surface.

Also, the amount of lead in your weight integrated BCD is probably situated "in front" of you, adding to the face-forward tendency at the surface. What kind of BCD do you have? Does it have fixed weight pouches in the rear? Moving lead to the back will help keep your face out of the water as well. If not, put that weight on a belt with the lead situated right below your tank to pull the small of your back down, rotating your face out of the water.

You can also try lowering the tank in the BCD a bit. Will shift weight towards your feet helping both the floaty feet problem as well as the face in the water problem.

^*And ditch the ankle weights. It's not an "elitist" view. In general they are "a gear solution to a skill problem" but in your case they also make it hard to put your legs/feet out in front of you when vertical at the surface. (Like when you are "sitting back in a comfy chair") The ankle weights pull your feet straight down/under you, further rotating you face forward.

Lastly, the fact that your instructor didn't address these obvious weighting issues instead of telling you "too much air in your BCD" is genuinely troublesome.

 

[imasinker]

HI there....

I myself have recently started using a drysuit. I have a bout 20 dives in mine thus far. At first I thought about using ankle weights. Some of the guys at my club and LDS gave their mixed feelings but overall said it is up to your comfort and way of diving. At the time I was going to be using a light fin OMS slipstream and I thought for sure I would need ankle weights. The fins were to small for my drysuit boots so I ended up trading them in for turtle's that are much more in weight. Since then I have dove with the turtle's and found I am comfortable without ankle weights since I dont have much air in the suit and the fins are a bit on the heavy side, counteracting with weight. I am 6'2 180 diving in a Bare ATR HD Trilam suit. My feet only floated a few times on my virgin dive with the suit. I have had great success since then. Again I feel it all comes down to what you as a diver feels comfortable with size and weight.

As for the BCD, I too had that problem being pushed forward. One part was i added way to much air to the BCD, second was I didn't use any trim weights with the BCD since during my classes i needed to use a weight belt. I have a Zeagle Stiletto and It does have the trim weight pockets in the back. I use them with 4 pounds of weight in each pouch and that in it'self has made me more trim and helps to keep me set upright at the surface. I Dive with an AL 80 i use 26 pounds of weight, 8 in the rear pouches and the rest in the front two pounches. Seems to have worked well for me. Hope this helps any.

Rob

 

[Mark Duddridge]

Thanks for all the great advice!

I am suspicious that I might be carrying a bit too much weight and am going to do a weight check at the end of one of my dives this weekend when my tank is close to empty.

I had one question I was hoping you could lend some clarity to... do the trim (shoulder) weights make staying upright at the surface easier or more difficult? RJP's comments suggest my trim weights may be pulling my face down while imasinker's comments suggest the trim weights helped him remain upright at surface.

I'm diving a Sherwood Axis (rear-inflate/weight integrated).

Thanks again for all the great advice.

 

[TSandM]

Imagine yourself floating upright in the water. There are various forces pulling you in various directions. The tank behind you most likely is pulling you down in the back (unless it's an empty Al80, in which case it's pushing you forward.) The weights at your shoulders are pulling you down at the back. The weights in your weight-integrated pockets are pulling you down in the front. The air in your flotation bladder is pushing you up, and where that push is depends on what style of BC you are using. If it is a back-inflation BC, all that push is behind you. If it is a jacket style, you have push behind you and in front. In addition, your exposure protection is pushing you up, and your fins may or may not be pulling down.

Whether you tip one way or another depends on how these forces sum. If you are using a back-inflate BC with an aluminum tank (very little negative buoyancy there) and a LOT of weight in your integrated pockets (all in front of you), you're going to tend to tip face down. The more air you put in the BC, the worse that will get, so if you are also overweighted, it will be more pronounced.

If you are using a steel tank with a jacket BC and a lot of weight in the trim pockets, you may tip backwards instead.

My guess is that it's the 20 lbs in front of you that is causing the biggest part of the problem. A formal weight check is a GOOD idea, and if it turns out that you need to carry that much weight, you might consider either camband weights or something like a backplate, where you can shift even more weight to your back. It will help the surface problem, and it will help you trim out underwater, too.

Edited to add: I just found an old article that goes into this kind of thing, with some diagrams: http://www.direxplorers.com/new-dir-articles/482-why-backplate-wing.html

 

[RJP]

I had one question I was hoping you could lend some clarity to... do the trim (shoulder) weights make staying upright at the surface easier or more difficult? RJP's comments suggest my trim weights may be pulling my face down while imasinker's comments suggest the trim weights helped him remain upright at surface.

Your trim weights are in the front. His are in the back

 

[RJP]

Your trim weights are in the front. His are in the back

EDIT: Sherwood site says Axis has "rear-mounted trim weight pockets." Where are the "shoulder pockets" you mention in the original post - front or back? When you said "shoulder" I was picturing something mounted to the front of your shoulders.