How to hover?

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Any thoughts on the best way to learn to hover in perfect trim without any motion?

Any tips or drills?

Thanks

 

[JeffG]

Dive more

 

[hunter991]

Basically diving more will do it. What I do is on my safety stops try to maintain trim and depth without touching anything. I pick a spot on the ascent line and try to stay in trim and even with the spot by only inhaling and exhaling.

Brent

 

[jscott099]

Use a reference point initially to give you eyes something to focus on and detect substantial trim and level changes. Do it in all the gear you would normally wear. Work on it in the pool or other confined shallow area if possible. Try it in less than 10 ft. If you can master here where buoyancy changes are rapid, it should help you in deeper water. Be prepared to shift around gear and weights as needed to adjust trim. It may be just small changes. Do the zen thing and work on different breathing rates and volumes to evaluate the changes.

 

[rjack321]

In addition to what's been said already,
1) make sure your static trim is good. Video is ideal for this.

2) If you are waving your right hand around a bunch that is frequently a sign that you are not neutral/ too heavy. Part of getting bouyancy dialed in is being willing to cork a couple times. There's a tendency to stay heavy to avoid popping to the surface.

 

[TSandM]

As rjack said: 1. Assess static stability. Get as horizontal as you can, using whatever you need to to do it -- finning, hand motion. And then stop moving. (Assumed here is that you are in good trim.) See where you tip. Move weight around to control the tipping.

2. Reiterate: Learn proper body position. Trimming yourself out is amazingly dependent on the position you hear described: head up, chest open, back slightly arched, knees bent. If you drop your head, you're likely to tilt head-down. If you drop your knees, you're likely to end up feet down.

3. Discipline yourself not to move at all. After watching Danny Riordan in Mexico, I became obsessed with being able to be still. I discovered that I tend to make a lot of small, jerky movements with my fins, and they are NOT necessary. They're just habit.

4. Practice. Spend time on every dive just sitting in the water. Ascents are great for this, but if you're swimming upslope, you can pause at your stop depths and just hang out. (Hint: You can find some fascinating life this way.)

Hope this helps! Being able to be still is, in my opinion, the cornerstone of building good diving technique.

 

[beachhead]

Do you guys spread your legs a bit on your static trim?

 

[TSandM]

Separating your fins just a bit, and having them point a little bit to the outside, can help your stability from side to side. I'm not actually sure what I do when I'm hovering -- my subjective perception is that I simply stop moving, without changing the position of anything from where it was before. But where that leaves my fins, I'm not sure.

 

[limeyx]

Do you guys spread your legs a bit on your static trim?

queue a bunch of "wide-stance" jokes

 

[rjack321]

3. Discipline yourself not to move at all. After watching Danny Riordan in Mexico, I became obsessed with being able to be still. I discovered that I tend to make a lot of small, jerky movements with my fins, and they are NOT necessary. They're just habit.

Along these lines... Try to kick and glidddde. Lots of people do little wussy kicks all the time and are constantly moving just not very much. Make a concious effort to either be kicking like you mean it or not kick at all.