Avanti Quattro + vs X-Stream vs RK3 vs Supernova - help me choose my next fins

[NW Dive Dawg]

I personally like a vertical position at my Safety Stop and for me the Mares Quatro's have perfect buoyancy and are great at 360 / helicopter maneuvering while vertical at the SS.

 

[Boarderguy]

I personally like a vertical position at my Safety Stop and for me the Mares Quatro's have perfect buoyancy and are great at 360 / helicopter maneuvering while vertical at the SS.

Vertical in your drysuit so the legs get squeezed and air dumps or burps out of your neck?

 

[SlugLife]

But during dives I find it hard to keep an upright position without too many adjustments.

A number of instructors, including ones I highly respect have told a story that was basically.

"A diver comes along, and complains about their fins. They're too light, too heavy, can't do XYZ, etc. The diver blames many of their problems during the dive on the fins. So, the instructor swaps fins with the student for a dive, and the student continues to have all of the same problems."

While, yes, fin-buoyancy can slightly impact "perfect trim" it's likely that your problems are something else. For horizontal-trim, I'd suggest looking at how your weights are positioned. See if you can move your weight further towards your butt.

If you essentially have "forced horizontal trim" I'd guess your weights are positioned by your belly, on a weight-belt, or weight-pockets. I don't think that's really a problem, unless you have a hard time being vertical on the surface after a dive. For that, move weights to your backplate area, or behind your back.

edit: The fins I use the most are my SeaWing Novas and I don't have the problems you describe.

But during dives I find it hard to keep an upright position without too many adjustments.

The ONLY time I have vertical trim, is when I'm on the surface. The entire rest of the dive, my trim is horizontal. That includes the final safety-stop. I do see lots of divers making vertical-trim safety stops, but that's really not necessary. One added bonus of horizontal trim at the safety-stop, is that if I'm a little buoyant, or need to increase depth, it's easier for me to fin back down to depth.

 

[SlugLife]

There are at least two commonly recurring instances when you want to be upright: when regrouping near the bottom at the beginning of the dive and while doing your decompression (usually also in a group). These are the situations where I find myself flapping about consuming air while the rest of the group just... stands.

First, stop flapping about.

I pointed out you don't need vertical-trim in my other post. But lets pretend your trim was all wacky during a dive. I'd suggest just "rolling with it" during a dive, and letting it happen and fixing it later (if it's not a simple fix mid-dive). If you're constantly fighting your trim, you're wasting energy and air.

Side note: As someone who likes to experiment, I've done dives with some of the craziest/worst trim ever. I did once dive "monkey-mount" with a Steel 100 & no counter-balancing weight. I was mostly just curious how bad it would, or wouldn't be. Lets just say I was tilted about 35-degress to my left during the entire dive, like a fish whose fin was chewed off. I tried fighting it for about 5 minutes, but it was just wasting air. So I just finished my dive that way, regardless of how how annoying it was.

I did another dive later with a counter-weight, but was still just slightly light on the opposite side. It wasn't an issue while finning, but when I stopped finning, such as a safety stop, I'd start tilting. Again, I didn't fight it, though at least this time it was only a few degrees.

 

[MidOH]

Vertical in your drysuit so the legs get squeezed and air dumps or burps out of your neck?

What dry suit? OP says vacation dive.

 

[BoltSnap]

Talk about thread hijack.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Vertical in your drysuit so the legs get squeezed and air dumps or burps out of your neck?

Nah..... never really noticed any of that.... I just like the vertical position at my stop mainly because it's just easier for me to helicopter 360 to check out my surroundings and especially to see whatever's directly above me.... I get that it's not popular and maybe just a personal thing for me. I guess the best way to explain it is to lay flat and perfectly horizontal on your stomach on your bed and try to look straight up at the ceiling......... then stand vertically and look straight up.

I do stay pretty much horizontal for everything other than my stops. The only other exception I can think of is on nice "no kick needed" drift dives (like Coz)....... I like to be vertical sometimes and helicopter for the view....

My Mares Quatro's work well for both vertical and horizontal.... nice balanced fins.

 

[MidOH]

Just another weird oddity of scuba. 60' from the bottom, but still worried about trim more than their surroundings.

Likely still frog kicking as well.

Institutional inertia.

 

[Boarderguy]

What dry suit? OP says vacation dive.

I was referring to the poster I quoted, not the OP, in a way to continue a conversation on this topic within the thread. I added my 2psi to the OP earlier.

 

[berndo]

Just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s correct…

Why is it not correct though? I've noticed that on SB people seem to think everybody should be in horizontal trim at all times. Why is that or what's the logic behind this?
IMHO horizontal trim is for when you're cave diving, against a current, wanna move efficiently when you wanna get somewhere etc. but why should people be in flat trim when they paddle around a reef or on safety stop?