In my quest to achieve the proper trim position, I have noticed how much more important it is to have side to side balance than I ever did before. Without a cannister light or anything "extra" to make me heavier on one side than the other, I tend to roll to the right. Never before have I used more weight on one side than the other to help with this balance.....and honestly just doing rec diving without trying to hold the DIR trim position, I never really noticed that my right side was a little heavier. Do most of you find that you need more weight on one side than the other? I now have a cannister light, so I would assume that I would need to carry a couple extra pounds on my left side to compensate for that. What does your weighting look like...side to side.
Balance
- Thread starter dirthead
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Mine is even and I do use a can light. If it is just a couple of pounds your body will adjust and I see no reason to add a different amount of weight to one side or the other. Think of it this way: If you carry a bag of groceries on your left side you don't tip over do you? You body just adjusts. It may feel uncomfortable for a while, but in time it will feel normal
Hope this helps
Hope this helps
My weight is distributed evenly side to side, although my can light is about 1 lb negative. I do use weight pockets on my cambands for my fore and aft trim, though, and if they aren't evenly pushed back to the backplate, I can end up pretty severely out of balance to one side. Moving more air to that side of the wing helps some, but if you go out of trim at all, the air will redistribute evenly and you'll have to do it over again.
But I also noticed something very strange in a pool, while working on my swim test. If I float on the surface of the water and completely relax, I float right side down. I can completely fix it with a little extra tension in my trunk on the left side. I have a similar problem with asymmetry in riding, and it's fixed the same way. So I wonder if your tendency to roll is related to your posture rather than your weighting?
I just bought a new light with a battery that will be 2 lbs negative, and I'm curious to see if I notice any difference when I dive it.
But I also noticed something very strange in a pool, while working on my swim test. If I float on the surface of the water and completely relax, I float right side down. I can completely fix it with a little extra tension in my trunk on the left side. I have a similar problem with asymmetry in riding, and it's fixed the same way. So I wonder if your tendency to roll is related to your posture rather than your weighting?
I just bought a new light with a battery that will be 2 lbs negative, and I'm curious to see if I notice any difference when I dive it.
JeffG
Contributor
Nope. Never.dirthead:
Doesn't matter if I'm in singles or doubles. Or if I'm carring a 40 or an 80 on my side. Doesn't matter if I have my can light on or not.
Xanthro
Guest
TSandM:
Most people are very unbalanced in their weight distribution. You can test this with two identical scales. Stand one foot on each looking out. Stand as you would normally. Then look down. Most people will show significantly more weight on one scale than another.
I've seen 30lbs differences on people who only weight 130lb.
TSandM:
Posture could be it. I was just wondering though........we spend so much time fine tuning the weight and it's position to adjust our tilt (front to back) and make ourselves perfectly horizontal with no effort, should we be doing the same for our side to side tilt, even if it is due to posture? If a cannister light is 2 lbs negative, why not carry 2 more pounds on the left to offset that, so you don't have to adjust it by altering you posture in the water? Maybe I'm just overanalyzing this whole trim position thing, since it's been kicking my butt lately.
dirthead:
Offsetting the weight on the can light will work, but it's unnecessary unless the extra weight is needed. Weight is weight, regardless if it's lead shot, stainless steel bp, or a can light. So if you need 4 lbs to sink you, have the can light on the right and a 2 lb brick on the left. But say if you're perfectly weighted already, say with BP only, adding a 2 lb brick on top of the 2 lb can light will overweight you by 4 lbs.
When you're in doubles and stage(s) on your left side, it isn't feasible to "offset" the weight of the stages. Best option is to not get into the habit of offsetting the weight, but learn to better manage/manipulate the gas in your wing.
Mel
JeffG
Contributor
Yesdirthead:
Adobo
Contributor
Personally, the experience of learning how to hover motionless in trim in a pool has reminded me a lot of learning how to ride a bike. At first, no matter what I did, I could not keep my balance. Either falling to the left or to the right. Right now, I can keep from falling over except I still fidget a lot to correct any imbalance. Most of the times, I wind up overcorrecting which leads to more corrections.
I am only hoping that as I get more practice and experience, it will require much less effort and corrections to maintain balance. At least, that's what it was like learning how to ride a bike.
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