Fin Pivot

[steleehin]

hi , could anyone explain to me what a fin pivot is exactly
this term sounds self explanatory but cant really see this as a skill thanks

 

[goodknight411]

It's an underwater push up basiclly. You lay on the bottom and raise/lower your torso through breath control, pivoting around your fins.

It's to learn/improve bouyancey and weighting.

 

[steleehin]

thanks goodknight i was thinking it was some kind of turn
using only your fins as in a helocopter turn ,ive never heard of it.
is this a padi skill? whats wrong with floating 2ft off the bottom and doing the same thing with out the fins touching
thanks again

 

[goodknight411]

yes it's PADI. I think the main reason for touching the bottom is for stability for newbies. (not super sure, mabey someone else knows?) and also so you can tell how much you rise and fall with a breath.

 

[SubMariner]

yes it's PADI. I think the main reason for touching the bottom is for stability for newbies. (not super sure, mabey someone else knows?) and also so you can tell how much you rise and fall with a breath.

A fin pivot is the first step to teaching new divers how to control their bouyancy. Then comes the hover. Once a diver has mastered both, they are considered on their way to good buoyancy control.

How much you rise & fall with a breath depends entirely on how big a breath you take, as it's all based on the tidal volume of the diver's lungs. Take a very big deep breath, & you go up a lot; take a small breath, and you go up less.

Hope this helped,

 

[cmcarver]

The fin pivot is great for fine tuning your bouyancy thru breathing because you can practice getting within inches of the bottom. This makes it easier to see the minor changes posible as opposed to being several feet away and tring to see 1-2 inch changes

 

[Wristshot]

Another point of a fin pivot is learning about the delay (often) inherent in breath bouyancy control. If you learn it right, you just gently come up, then back down without coming off the bottom (fin tips) and without slamming the bottom. People that don't get the delay are like people trying to steer a houseboat. When they don't get an immediate reaction, they steer (breathe) more, then more, then more until they get action, and then it is really turning (rising - sinking).

When we were taught the very tips (and only the very tips) of our fins were supposed to touch, and supposed to touch all through the exercise. Nothing else was supposed to ever touch.

After that, cruising along on our certifcation dives we were able to just swim along the bottom smoothly and breathe ourselves right over rock mounds etc without moving our hands or using the "elevator". (well, some of us were able to --*smiling*--)


Wristshot

 

[steleehin]

thanks for the info ,just proves you can still learn .
i have made it all the way thru naui master diver and dir/f
and never been asked to do a fin pivot,but now i know what it is and what its used for thanks .

 

[Buoyant1]

That's one of the few things I was dissappointed with in my classes, the lack of buoyancy training. The few times I had to myself with the equipment I practiced, I'm still not overly confident with it, but hope that it's not something that keeps me from getting my certification. The (resort) dives that I did do previously weren't a problem, I hit the sandy bottom once on the first dive, but got my act together and didn't funk up the reef (like I'm sure a LOT of newbies do) THAT was my main concern over not dying! hahaha! I figured that was secondary, sicne the reef should be around longer than me...I'm expendable!

 

[SubMariner]

Another point of a fin pivot is learning about the delay (often) inherent in breath bouyancy control. If you learn it right, you just gently come up, then back down without coming off the bottom (fin tips) and without slamming the bottom. People that don't get the delay are like people trying to steer a houseboat. When they don't get an immediate reaction, they steer (breathe) more, then more, then more until they get action, and then it is really turning (rising - sinking).

When we were taught the very tips (and only the very tips) of our fins were supposed to touch, and supposed to touch all through the exercise. Nothing else was supposed to ever touch.

After that, cruising along on our certifcation dives we were able to just swim along the bottom smoothly and breathe ourselves right over rock mounds etc without moving our hands or using the "elevator". (well, some of us were able to --*smiling*--)


Wristshot

Very good points!

DSDO,