Buoyancy Tips

[SlewFoot]

My wife and I have been diving for a year now, both AOW certified. She is taking a bit longer to adapt to the underwater life than I & her main issue to this point is that she has a tendency to swim nearly vertical and not face down. I've tried pointing it out and suggesting some tips; force yourself to look down and not as much forward & add a little more air to her bcd so she isn't kicking to stay afloat. She keeps insisting at its her weight, I don't think that by dropping 2-4 pounds will magically fix this. We already had the weight evenly distributed between weight pouches and non-ditchable grim pockets (Aqualung Libra).

Suggestions or tips?

 

[phoenix31tt]

why not listen to her about the weighting? she could be right... even distribution would not necessarily mean proper distribution or proper weighting..

i think its best to give more descriptions on the exposure protection she's wearing as well as her actual weighting/distribution..

 

[TSandM]

Well, it's pretty easy to determine whether it is the amount of weight, or the distribution of weight that is causing the problem, even if you have to do it in a pool.

The first thing is a good, formal weight check, to determine whether she is properly weighted or not. Once that is done, the next step is to look at her posture. If she swims with her hip joints bent, as though she were sitting in a chair, she WILL tend to rotate feet down. Once she can get a straight line from her shoulders to her knees, then the next thing is to get her horizontal, even if that requires swimming, and then have her stop moving. What happens then will tell you what the static balance of the diver/gear system is. If she rotates feet-down, then you have to work with her gear to try to get better balance. That can include changing to lighter fins, moving the tank up, moving the weights off her belt and onto her back, and extending her arms in front of her.

Diving head-up and negative is unfortunately VERY common. It results in poor gas consumption and increased diver stress, since one is never truly stable in that situation.

 

[jbark]

I will make this suggestion having just celebrated my 27th anniversary yesterday:

Sometimes the husband is the worst choice as helper/teacher in anything.



My advice: go hire a instructor to take her for a pool session to work on the issue. and most of all keep your mouth shut while setting this up, its her problem to solve so let her do it with the instructor. Go to the bar or the local taco joint with one of your buddies while they go to the pool. she and the instructor can sort it out and all of you will be happier in the end. You will be happier with a happy dive buddy, she will be happier with better trim and a happy dive buddy and the instructor will be happy having made a couple bucks and helped a diver raise her skills and become more capable and self reliant.

WIN< WIN< WIN!

cheers
Jerry

 

[tdtaylor]

The last two posts say it all!

Terry

 

[cb5150]

The last two posts say it all!

Terry

Agreed!

 

[billt4sf]

Diving head-up and negative is unfortunately VERY common. It results in poor gas consumption and increased diver stress, since one is never truly stable in that situation.

I think I am probably doing all too much of that.

- Bill

 

[TSandM]

BTW, HERE is an excellent article on trim (and there are others on the site, and some good stuff on buoyancy, too).

 

[phoenix31tt]

BTW, HERE is an excellent article on trim (and there are others on the site, and some good stuff on buoyancy, too).

+1 on this article... i think you posted it in my threads and it is really some good information

 

[Damselfish]

I agree sometimes spouses are not the right person to help, even if you are good at whatever doesn't mean they will listen. I'd suggest some time with a DM/instructor to sort things out and/or take the peak performance buoyancy class.