Can't hover upright...

[RobM77]

Thanks for all your responses so far, and to Kern above.

I spent an hour practising in the pool last night and got on very well. The first thing that made a big difference was having a BCD that fitted me. The dive shop I'm learning with have a habit of giving you equipment several sizes too big, but I called them up in the day and asked them if I could try a small BCD this time round. Having the tank attached to my back securely made a big difference in my control underwater, as it wasn't slopping about when I moved, so I could move more gracefully. Secondly, in response to what a few people on this thread have said, I tried carrying less weight - 2kg instead of 4kg - which was just about enough. I still can't hover upright, but I've found that I can hover leaning forward slightly and then by putting my hands and legs in certain positions I can balance myself. I managed lots of successful stationary hovers in all positions other than upright, and to be honest at this stage I'm very happy with that. Oh, and I checked the tank size I'm using and it's 12 litres, and I'm assuming it's steel.

Thanks again.

 

[Kern]

Discovering the difference a well fitted BCD make, proper weighting, & beginning to develop a postural response to assist trim in various positions. Things you can build on. You'll hone these things as you dive more & use a variety of BCD styles.

If it's a 12lt steel, it's probably a 12lt x 232 bar tank ~ about 100cft.

 

[Mayor]

In the Northeast the word hover means your total motionless and horizontal in the water with out sculling or any hand movement. Never heard the term used this way. Get in the water and stay about four feet from the surface in a horizontal position. Almost like you could use your tank as a table. Then have zero movement with zero depth change for minutes. This is what the word means to many of us. What your talking about is buoyancy. Hover would be the extreme of that and takes many years to master. Most divers have not and never will. Just saying very skilled divers hover and is something to work for.

 

[Kern]

Not in the Nth. East I come from. Mastering buoyancy control, would allow me to hover,........ in any orientation I chose.

Yes, developing the skills to do it without sculling & the like, take time, experience & a bit of tuition.

 

[nimoh]

I have to go with Mayor on this one, hover == horizontal and motionless

 

[TSandM]

"Hover" means motionless in the water without sculling. When I imagine this, I always imagine the diver horizontal; but one of our recent instructor candidates spent quite a bit of time mastering hovering in the Buddha position, because she either believed or had been told that THAT was the position required.

 

[nimoh]

I think the Buddha position is a neat trick, but has no place in actual diving. I see this as the same as requiring new divers to do fin pivots, neat trick and helps teach breath control but no place in actual diving.

 

[Kingpatzer]

From the perspective of passing the standards -- hovering without sculling -- it doesn't matter what position you're in for the class. And as an instructor I tend to point out that the requirement of not sculling or finning at all is very much not realistic. It is extremely rare that one is likely to need to hover motionless and can't even offer a fin twitch or two in order to help with positioning.

And a result of the focus on buoyancy management is that positioning is sacrificed somewhat. But the class is really a very artificial environment and hovering in any particular position isn't required because of that, rather merely hovering in any position is the standard.

So, from the perspective of the class, don't worry about how you hover. From the perspective of being as good a diver as you can, of course, it is a great skill to work on as body control and body awareness under water are key skills, and time spent on developing those skills further will never be wasted.

You have a lot of good advice in this thread, but the most important point you should take away is that you don't need to stress out about your position in the water for the purpose of the OW standards. And in fact, relaxing and being calm about what you're doing will actually help you problem solve so that you are hovering the way you want. Just relax, keep working on it, get feedback from your instructor and you'll be looking great pretty quickly!

 

[RobM77]

Thanks very much. I get the feeling that time in the water will improve my skills gradually, and then eventually when I buy my own kit I will probably be able to trim myself well enough to hover vertically. Up until then though I won't worry about it too much.

 

[elan]

Yeah do not worry especially about vertical position. Its a position when you are very limited in terms of movement you can only go up or down. If your hands are busy you cannot even turn around. You might need it sometimes for photography but for a regular diving I have not used it for quite some time, not counting the surface