Can't hover upright...

[cascas]

There are plenty of reasons you want to have complete body control in the water, including a vertical hover: taking photos, safety stop, looking in a recessed area, etc.

All these things can be done perfectly in a horizontal position. Why on earth ( or in the sea for that matter) would you want to do your safety stop vertical ? If you swim horizontal you will want to look in the direction you are swimmign in to prevent bumping you head. So why not take pictures that way.
Controlling your trim / buoyancy is more effective if you can do anything you want/need in a horizontal position. Even donating gas.

 

[tstormdiver]

I agree with the others, there are only a few little reasons that you should ever have to be vertical. 99.99999......% of your diving will (or should) be done in the horizontal position. As soon as I get my students off the bottom, I encourage them to do everything (skills & all) in the horizontal position. The problems with being vertical is that most beginners are not very aware of where their fins are, they could be kicking up a reef or deflecting their kicks toward a silty bottom, stirring it up. Being horizontal corrects a good amount, if not all, of this.

 

[jscott099]

Lot's of good suggestions here. Another is cross your legs. As an instructor I see new divers and students attempting to hover vertical but they tend to kick around a lot and thus upset the balance of things (or even start a gradual ascent). Crossing your legs (or fins) will stop you from doing this and thus remove one destabilizing element.

As for those that are shocked with vertical buoyancy: why in the world would you want to do a safety stop or take pictures or enter a vertical hatchway on a wreck constrained to only the horizontal position? The world is not always horizontal and one should be able to master buoyancy using different geometry.

 

[RobM77]

I must admit, I'd rather be in complete control and not constrained in any way. This is how I feel about other sports, but time will tell once I start diving properly. Surely I should also be ascending vertically so I can look above me and at my buddy?

I did wonder actually if crossing my legs when I hover isn't helping, because it puts my legs and feet out in front of me, and I've got 5mm boots on... The pool's not very deep, but next time I dive in it I'll try a hover with my legs out behind me to see if that makes a difference, in conjunction with differen breathing perhaps. I expect an aluminium tank would indeed solve the problem, but I can't ever see myself owning my own tank, and most of my diving wil be abroad anyway. Perhaps in the future I'll solve the problem with experience and having my own BCD. On that note, I don't understand the comment on page one about my friend's suggestion of a different BCD - could you elaborate please?

 

[Mayor]

Some gear works with you for trim and buoyancy and some does not. The backplate, harness, and wing will help you in many ways. Control takes time and it will never befound in an OW class.

 

[nimoh]

if the air bladder on your BC is more towards the front, and you are over weighted, you will have to add air to your BC to remain neutral, thus lifting up your front. A back mounted bladder puts the lift closer to the tank which is weighing you down (especially if it is a steel tank).

Next time you are in the water, make sure you are properly weighted (ask your instructor for help in doing this).

Personally I prefer to ascend in a horizontal position, turning my head with a slight body roll to look up for possible obstructions such as other divers, jellyfish. If something happened during an ascent like a jammed inflator button, you would want to be horizontal to help slow your ascent in an emergency (although I will concede that this is very unlikely). After my safety stop, I will usually move into a more vertical position, to better keep an eye out for boats.

 

[RobM77]

That's great, thanks very much. I'll make a weight check the first thing I do tonight in my final CW dive. I did it last week and if I remember rightly I was indeed a little overweighted.

 

[TSandM]

The classic tropical setup is fairly easy to balance for stability in any position. Aluminum 80s are only 2 pounds negative when full, so they don't have a huge desire to topple the diver.

When you move away from that setup toward cold water diving, with larger, steel tanks, it gets far more difficult to set up a rig that will balance in all positions. Last night, I got in the water with a tank that's 2 lbs negative when empty, and I had over seven pounds of gas in it -- so I had almost ten pounds of negative stuff on my back from the tank alone, and six pounds in camband weights, plus a five pound backplate. That's 21 pounds of negative stuff behind me. Although I wear a 20 lb weight belt, it's not possible to put all 20 pounds in the center of the front of my body to balance that pull. Since I tend to use my drysuit as primary buoyancy when single tank diving, I don't have a full wing to help offset the negative pull of the tank. If I go completely vertical and stop moving, I will fall over on my back. There really is no way to avoid this. I have to scull when upright -- that doesn't mean I can't REMAIN upright if I wish, but I cannot be motionless doing it. The same thing is true, only worse, when I'm diving my steel doubles.

Expecting to be able to balance every rig so that it's completely stable in all orientations is just not reasonable by simple physics.

 

[rongoodman]

I must admit, I'd rather be in complete control and not constrained in any way. This is how I feel about other sports, but time will tell once I start diving properly. Surely I should also be ascending vertically so I can look above me and at my buddy?

Ascending vertically might help you to see above you and your buddy, but should you actually need to get to him, to offer gas or provide some other help, you will have to first become horizontal. When you're vertical, you can only propel yourself in one direction, toward the surface.

 

[Kern]

On that note, I don't understand the comment on page one about my friend's suggestion of a different BCD - could you elaborate please?

When you're underwater, & correctly weighted, you'll have very little gas in the wing. Because the bubble want's to rise, when you're horizontal, the gas will be in the outside edges of the wing, & the wing will be wrapped to some degree around the tank. The tank is cradled & so supported by the wing when using a back inflate or backplate & wing. Even with a jacket style BCD, most of the gas will be in your back region & will support the tank to some degree.

One more thing about wings cradling tanks. The longer the wing, as a proportion of the tank, the better the tank is supported. Back inflate, jackets, & some wings are quite short compared to an aluminium 80 or a steel 100, etc. The weight in this over hanging tail on some tanks, may work as a lever to pull you off the horizontal if you don't counter the force with good weight distribution.

When you're vertical, the gas will shift into the top arch. It'll be up around you upper back, shoulders, neck region. The levers & fulcrum have moved dramatically. The tank is no longer cradled, & is not supported by the wing. This is more or less the case for any style of BCD


That's not to say I'm into this "you must be horizontal/use a backplate & wing, or you're a poor diver/gonna die" stuff. I'v been known to ascend head up along the side of wrecks at a 30^o backward cant to the horizontal.


I'd be looking at proper weighting & its distribution, more input from instructor, & of course it all becomes much easier as you gain more experience.