Balancing Heavy Fins

[inquis]

I am just about to receive my new drysuit so I will see if the air in the feet will help stabilize it out.

That's a very common trend. Light fins for wetsuit, heavy for drysuit.

 

[rjack321]

If you have advice on how to help with offsetting heavier fins, great. If you have advice on better fins, awesome, but keep your unhelpful comments and superior attitude to yourself.

You offset excessively heavy fins by changing them to a lighter neutral model.

The fact that you use 11lbs of weight in a BP/W and 0lbs weight in a Xdeep is problematic - either something else is changing significantly or you're mis-weighted in one or the other or both.

 

[awkwarddiver]

You offset excessively heavy fins by changing them to a lighter neutral model.

The fact that you use 11lbs of weight in a BP/W and 0lbs weight in a Xdeep is problematic - either something else is changing significantly or you're mis-weighted in one or the other or both.

Any good suggestions on a fin to look at? I frog kick about 90% of the time. I have quattro pros, which I like as a good overall fin, and XS Scuba Turtles, which I am not a fan of personally.

I think the weight difference might be due to carrying 2 steels for my SM and just the one for my BP. I might be able to drop my trim weights down. Having the 7mm suit adds to my buoyancy.

 

[awkwarddiver]

That's a very common trend. Light fins for wetsuit, heavy for drysuit.

Awesome. I'll see if they work better in the new drysuit that's arriving this week.

 

[awkwarddiver]

He didn't say you were incompetent. He just related what works for most of the divers who have this stuff figured out.

Oh I get that but, along with the tone of the rest of the response, adding 'competent' is unnecessary. You could just say 'A majority of SM divers and especially those of medium or smaller stature, will end up trimming out..' I am far from easily offended but I don't take kindly to people answering questions with 'extra' opinions about my trim or coming across as arrogant. As I moved from back inflate BCD to BP/W to sidemount, from wetsuit to drysuit, and from AL to steels with pony and deco, I have had to reconfigure my gear many times. The goal was to try to shortcut a lot of 'trail and error' by asking the community and not get comments that my trim must be **** because I dive coldwater in a 7mm and steel.

 

[awkwarddiver]

Because they're negatively buoyant. (Same thing with similar fins.) Without the mass of a backplate, heads-up trim is often present on SM. This is further exacerbated by a wetsuit (especially for thinner suits) because the displacement (i.e., buoyancy) in the leg area is less than that of the upper body. Also by steel tanks, as the center of mass is lower than AL.

Ultimately, gear configuration comes down to priorities & trade-offs. There are numerous ways to solve your trim issue, but only you can make those decisions.

FYI, a very good neutral fin is the Deep6 Eddys and are my go-to for wetsuit diving. In my experience, they have more power than my F1s for both frog and back kicks.

I'll look into the Deep6. I've seen that they have a good reputation.

 

[awkwarddiver]

I hate to say it, but less negative fins might be the solution. I went through 3-4 pairs of fins (borrowed, thankfully!) when I started sidemount and ended up with deep eddys. They are almost dead neutral. Even the Mares avanti Quattros were too negative.

Of course you can try moving weight up however you can but you want to keep the tanks in optimal position for comfort and tank trim, and once that’s right then the typical next step is to find fins that balance well.

Thank you for the advice. Yeah, I was afraid of that. lol. It definitely seems better to find a new or additional fin rather than trying to mess with weights to 'fix' the issue.

 

[The Chairman]

If you have advice on how to help with offsetting heavier fins, great.

I moved over to Deep Six Eddy fins.

 

[awkwarddiver]

I moved over to Deep Six Eddy fins.

Thank you! It does seem like the next best step. Wish I knew someone around here that had some that I could try lol

 

[The Chairman]

Thank you! It does seem like the next best step. Wish I knew someone around here that had some that I could try lol

There are lots of them in Cave Country!