A V-weight may help as well.
Ankle weights
- Thread starter 2airishuman
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geomatt21
Contributor
I personally found that using V-weight AND a tail weight solves this issue. With a 7" loop of paracord, the 5lb weight can hang about 3-4 inches lower than the bottom of your backplate. For me, it rests on the lowest part of my buttocks, lower than the tanks. Alternatively a friend of mine makes his own 15-20lb V-weights and wears 6lbs of dump-able lead on a weight belt.
As a last resort that is not recommended, wearing 0.5-1lb ankle weights under your drysuit would eliminate drag and the chance of losing or breaking one of them during your dive (having to finish the dive with lopsided feet). Keeping the size to a minimum reduces leg fatigue and effort.
Good luck and please post again after you try any of the ideas, let us know what products work or cause issues.
As a last resort that is not recommended, wearing 0.5-1lb ankle weights under your drysuit would eliminate drag and the chance of losing or breaking one of them during your dive (having to finish the dive with lopsided feet). Keeping the size to a minimum reduces leg fatigue and effort.
Good luck and please post again after you try any of the ideas, let us know what products work or cause issues.
AJ
Contributor
Seems to me tour problem is floaty feet. How about changing your boots for less floaty boots? I changed my attached Santi boots for Rock boots. That helped me to get stable.
Btw: I hate ankle weights. With every move they resist movement and cost more energy and precision in finning.
Btw: I hate ankle weights. With every move they resist movement and cost more energy and precision in finning.
Get a back plate with the retaining straps further down. Or drill new holes and move the strap.
I sometimes forget which cylinder I've put on and end up feet light and pulling the jacket down like a waistcoat a number of time through the dive. I have moved a weight from the weight belt pouch to one of my drysuit pockets before now to neutralise my trim during a dive. another option I sometimes use is keeping the air bubble at my shoulders.
OP
2airishuman
Contributor
More weight on your feet uses more energy but I'll bet it's less than fighting to stay in trim.
Have you considered that you might just need a different wing?
I have owned 4 different doubles wings, so far. My OMS 60 and my Dive Rite Rec EXP (45#) allow me to have good trim with nothing but a SS back plate and a V-weight. I sold the Halcyon Explorer 55 because it always made me rotate face down and I couldn't figure out how to fix it, short of a tail weight or ankle weights, which I didn't want to use if I didn't have to. I now have an Oxycheq Vertex Extreme 55 that I am experimenting with, but initial indications are that it is just like the Halcyon, and I will probably end up selling it.
It seems to me that the shape of the wing and where it puts the air when it's inflated is the problem I'm having. The Oxycheq, just for example, is bigger, lower down. It seems intuitively obvious that, in horizontal trim, that would cause more of the air inside to go there - which would make my lower part lighter.
In contrast, the DR Rec wing sides are more or less cylinders. They don't get fatter at the bottom. I think that is why I can get horizontal with that wing and not start to rotate face down.
I have owned 4 different doubles wings, so far. My OMS 60 and my Dive Rite Rec EXP (45#) allow me to have good trim with nothing but a SS back plate and a V-weight. I sold the Halcyon Explorer 55 because it always made me rotate face down and I couldn't figure out how to fix it, short of a tail weight or ankle weights, which I didn't want to use if I didn't have to. I now have an Oxycheq Vertex Extreme 55 that I am experimenting with, but initial indications are that it is just like the Halcyon, and I will probably end up selling it.
It seems to me that the shape of the wing and where it puts the air when it's inflated is the problem I'm having. The Oxycheq, just for example, is bigger, lower down. It seems intuitively obvious that, in horizontal trim, that would cause more of the air inside to go there - which would make my lower part lighter.
In contrast, the DR Rec wing sides are more or less cylinders. They don't get fatter at the bottom. I think that is why I can get horizontal with that wing and not start to rotate face down.
Also, no offense intended here, just asking the obvious to cover all the bases... Are you sure you're not overweighted?
My first time diving in drysuit and doubles, I thought I had calculated everything and had the right amount of weight. I kept turning face down. Only after my instructor went over my kit did he point out that he thought I was way overweighted. I took off 8 # that I thought I needed, and I was fine after that.
My first time diving in drysuit and doubles, I thought I had calculated everything and had the right amount of weight. I kept turning face down. Only after my instructor went over my kit did he point out that he thought I was way overweighted. I took off 8 # that I thought I needed, and I was fine after that.
geomatt21
Contributor
Several of you are adamantly against ankle weights, regardless of the vast difference between 0.5lb up to 2+ lbs per ankle. Can someone entertain this question: What's the difference in physical effort for a diver to wear 0.5lb ankle weights versus adding spring straps his fins. Or rather, wearing 1lb ankle weights per leg versus changing fins completely to fins that are 1lb heavier than before?
Seems to me that weight is weight, whether it's in the mass of the fins, or worn comfortably around the ankle (so long as the ankle weights aren't 2lbs and up, where I agree that a different solution should be found)
Seems to me that weight is weight, whether it's in the mass of the fins, or worn comfortably around the ankle (so long as the ankle weights aren't 2lbs and up, where I agree that a different solution should be found)
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