Kneeling

[G-lock]

I don't know if this should go in New2Scuba or here, but here goes. I'm down to my last confined water session Monday and things are going good. I do however have an issue, I don't seem to be able to kneel very effectively on the bottom of the pool. Now I'm a big(round<G>) guy, 240, 5-9 and very long waisted. What happens is I get down and I seem to want to fall forward into the horizontal position. This causes me to use my hand to stay upright. I don't know if this is casued by my body type, weighting, exposure suit, bc or what. Any thoughts would be apprecaited. Jeff

 

[Rick Murchison]

kneeling is just used in class to keep you from getting distracted with having to do other stuff like maintain decent buoyancy. Put a little air in your BC and it should enable you to stay off the bottom with your torso - just let yourself fall forward a little.
The good news is that once you're done with the basic stage of training you'll be diving - and kneeling ain't a part of that.
Rick

 

[HarleyDiver]

Your instructor is just trying to keep you from wandering off while he works with other people.
Like Rick said, Kneeling is not a skill you need to worry about.
Maybe you could do the old "down on 1 Knee" the coach always had us do?

 

[G-lock]

I find down on 1 knee much better. My instructor would just prefer that we not use our hands much, but in this case he doesn't have much choice. If it really was an issue I'd go horizontal and hover, but reg recover is done vertical. Thanx for the reply. Jeff

 

[G-lock]

Rick Murchison once bubbled...
kneeling is just used in class to keep you from getting distracted with having to do other stuff like maintain decent buoyancy. Put a little air in your BC and it should enable you to stay off the bottom with your torso - just let yourself fall forward a little.
The good news is that once you're done with the basic stage of training you'll be diving - and kneeling ain't a part of that.
Rick

Rick-
Good point, I tried the let it go forward thing, I ended up horizontal. Might be the rental BC I was using. I'll have my own this Monday and we'll see if this improves. Thanx for the reply!. Jeff

 

[Wendy]

Being horizontal is the way you want to dive once you graduate from your class. You move more efficiently thru the water that way.

Just think about it...How many fish have you ever seen swimming vertical thru the water?

 

[MikeFerrara]

G-lock once bubbled...
, but reg recover is done vertical.

Why? The arm sweep stuff is ok on the surface but reaching over your shoulder to get the hose and follow it to the reg works in any position and anyplace.

 

[G-lock]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...


Why? The arm sweep stuff is ok on the surface but reaching over your shoulder to get the hose and follow it to the reg works in any position and anyplace.

Mike-
Excellent point, I was only thinking of the shoulder dip/arm sweep. My bad. Jeff

 

[jbd]

while horizontal and moving through the water. There's no need to stop to recover a regulator. In this case instead of leaning to the side you roll on to your right side and then do the sweep. As you are finishing the sweep you roll back to the prone position and just keep right on finning.

 

[Padipro]

G-Lock,

I've always had trouble staying on my knees as well and I've been diving for years. I found that being on one knee and having my other foot out in front of me with that knee bent worked much better for me. It seems to give me more control over my movements and as an Instructor it gave me the ability to move quicker if I needed to assist a student because I could push off with the foot in front of me in the direction I needed to go.

Just my 2 cents.

Scott