Besides video and dive buddy..

[mwhities]

...how does one know that one is trimmed out properly?

I had my face about a foot or so from the bottom of my pool and my legs or (fat) belly didn't ever touch the bottom. Also, how does one know for sure if one's feet are up "near" your rear? The only way I could tell for sure was to attempt a back kick and I stopped my feet instead of reloading for the next kick. Then of course, I would move forward as my feet (I assume) began to "fall" back and my fins pushed me forward.

I hope to get my dive buddy and his camera in the pool this weekend. I guess that will really tell me but, I wanted to see if there was a way to till without it. I guess over time I'll get used to it and it'll be second nature.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[_Slacker_]

Your dive buddy can tell you.

 

[LiteHedded]

mirror?

 

[mwhities]

Your dive buddy can tell you.

As stated in my Subject.. without a dive buddy.

mirror?

That's not really an option.

Ok, so let me try again. I meant a way to "feel" that you are trimmed or a way to "test" it. Being a newbie, I want to make sure I'm trimming out properly.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[PerroneFord]

Get yourself into what you think is a trimmed position. Then put your chin on your chest.

If you are looking up at the surface, you are head down. If you are looking down at the bottom, then you are feet down. If you are looking directly behind you, you are trimmed properly, or close to it.

I did this in a pool at 4ft (out of 6). Worked great.

 

[mwhities]

Get yourself into what you think is a trimmed position. Then put your chin on your chest.

If you are looking up at the surface, you are head down. If you are looking down at the bottom, then you are feet down. If you are looking directly behind you, you are trimmed properly, or close to it.

I did this in a pool at 4ft (out of 6). Worked great.

PF! Thanks. I didn't think to try that. I'll give that a shot this weekend. Hopefully I can get my dive buddy to come.. if he doesn't feel like suiting up, at least stick his arm in with the camera.

Thanks again!

Michael

 

[TSandM]

Kudos, Michael, for trying to find the kinesthetic cues that tell you you're in good trim! It's worth working on, because eventually, you have to have them internalized. (I'll let you know when I get there.)

First off, it doesn't really matter where your feet ARE, as long as your knees are somewhat bent, and you are balanced so that you can remain in position without finning. Different gear configurations may require a different degree of knee bend, depending on the lever arm you want for the negative buoyancy of your feet. In my 85s, my knees are almost at 90 degrees; in the 72's, it was probably more like 30, because I was trying to balance head-heavy tanks.

You do need to memorize the feeling of "head back to the valve, hips straight with slight back arch", because if your head is down, it changes your balance, and if your hips are bent, you can't assess your trim well at all. What worked for me was feeling that my chest was pushed down slightly, and that I made myself as LONG from the shoulders to the knees as I possibly could. This is one of the things I've been pretty successful with -- I don't drop my knees, even when I kick. If I remember the photo from your AOW class correctly, your hips were flexed somewhat, so this is a good thing for you to work on.

Once you've got your body long and straight, then you can work on its inclination from the bottom. Perrone's got a good tip, except that when you bend your head down, you will begin to tilt head-down, so you can think you're in good trim when in fact, you just corrected a head-up position. I like to swim over an obstruction so that I just barely clear it with my chest. If my thighs bump it, I'm head up again. I don't know if you have any kind of object you can place in the pool to help with this; the bottom is okay, but something more defined is better. This is where those buoyancy hula hoops can be quite useful, assuming you can feel yourself hit them. (We have enough stub pilings and other large pieces of debris at our popular dive sites that I can spend a fair amount of any dive checking and rechecking this.)

So do it in two stages -- straighten out your body, and then change its inclination. Have fun with this! (I've spent more time in my back yard pool on Scuba than I ever have spent swimming in it )

 

[rjack321]

First off, it doesn't really matter where your feet ARE, as long as your knees are somewhat bent, and you are balanced so that you can remain in position without finning. Different gear configurations may require a different degree of knee bend, depending on the lever arm you want for the negative buoyancy of your feet.

Careful tho, the knee bend will control where your fin tips end up. E.g. mine "drag" sometimes when I get too sloppy and stretched out.

 

[limeyx]

Take a GUE class -- you'll find out in pretty short order

 

[LG Diver]

One easy cue that we were taught in Fundies for pool work is that if you're in proper trim with slightly arched back the first thing to touch the bottom should be your crotch d-ring. You can try hovering very close to the bottom and see if you can have just that d-ring touch down.