Low silt kicking

[livinoz]

jumping on your thread as I know I have a lot to learn. Can one of you point me to the videos/threads reagarding swimming/kicking/etc?
thanks!

This might also help:

YouTube - Propulsion Techniques - Scuba

 

[TSandM]

One of the key points of frog kicking is keeping the knees up. The body should be flat from shoulders to knees, and inclined upward a few degrees. It's very important that, during the loading phase of the kick (when you are separating the fins) you do not pull your knees up toward your chest. This is a very common error. Your knees can disturb the silt just like the water off your fins can!

Second the recommendation for the 5thD-X DVD. Image quality is excellent, and you won't find better demonstrators.

 

[LIVES4SHARKS]

Here is a site that I use for some clues to improve techniques. It's best to work with someone who knows how to do it. That way they can correct any problems so that the kick is as effecient as possible. It also helps to practice above water. I use my coffee table, put my fins on and practice the kicks while watching TV. I try to use muscle memory to understand how the mechanics should feel. It makes it easier to do underwater since gravity isn't a factor.
Dive Tek Images

Good luck!
Carolyn:sharks:
ps...when I dive with sharks, the glide from the Frog kick doesn't scare them away and allows me to stay with them at a close range. There is no "Flutter" and disruption of so much water so you glide quietly beside them.

 

[lowviz]

Ok, so I'm drifting as close to the bottom as I can get and just did a bad kick. I know that I'm rolling into it. What is the best low-silt recovery? Inhale, kick and hope, two fingers on the bottom...

 

[battles2a5]

I think it all depends on the environment. In open water over a silty bottom I would stop, get my trim and bouyancy under control, inhale and get above the stuff then continue with a low-silt kick. Kicking your way out of the dirt will make things worse.

 

[TSandM]

Let's see, siltout . . . Stop, stabilize position, reference the line . . . Ooops, we're talking open water here!

In reality, in open water, the mess you can make is localized. Stabilize yourself and regain your buoyancy whatever way you can, and then propel yourself out of the cloud you made and reacquire your team. Frequently a couple of fingers in the bottom is better than kneeling or kicking your way out of it, but hand waving will make a huge mess.

 

[ClayJar]

Ok, so I'm drifting as close to the bottom as I can get and just did a bad kick. I know that I'm rolling into it. What is the best low-silt recovery? Inhale, kick and hope, two fingers on the bottom...

If I'm close to a silty bottom (or any other bottom I don't want to disturb, such as coral), I'm not going to approach it rapidly. If you're under control, in neutral buoyancy, and in good trim just a bit above the bottom, it should be trivial to exhale a bit to descend for a close pass. As long as you're not trying to go fast, a big-bad-wolf-style deep inhale should yank you away from the bottom rather effectively.

While getting used to diving on the reefs in the Keys this past weekend, I actually got neutral with slightly less air in my lungs than normal. (I was breathing more toward the "bottom" of my lungs, although otherwise normally.) That gave me a nice bit of extra lift if I found myself drifting sidelong into the reef. A big inhale could very quickly get me well clear. (Then I'd look again at the current and surge and think about how I ought to approach whatever I'd been examining on the reef.) Once I got used to reading the conditions, I normalized my buoyancy and breathing, but it was convenient to have extra force in my breath control in the beginning.

Anyway, if it's just silt, a finger won't hurt much, but if you consider your approach ahead of time, you shouldn't need to find yourself out of control in the first place. That's not to say I've never done a low-viz face-plant right into the bottom, of course. Still, it's far easier to keep control of yourself than it is to regain control once you've departed controlled diving.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if you do a bad kick (or misjudge the current and surge on a reef dive), if you were under control before that point, you should have at least enough breath-based control left to keep yourself from messing up the place. If you're not weighted, trimmed, and practiced enough to be fluent in breath-based fine control of buoyancy, I'd highly recommend polishing those bits before trying to fly too low across the deck. It's much more fun diving with all that dialed in.

We had a group of 12 divers searching an area about 100 feet square, on a fine silt bottom, for a lost fishing reel. We spent an hour criss-crossing the same space, and when we left, the viz was what it was when we got there. It makes for great fun!

I probably speak for at least a few people reading this thread when I ask, "So, did you guys find the reel?"

 

[texdiveguy]

The frog kick is almost the same as a breast stroke kick. But you keep your knees up. With practice it becomes a VERY efficient kick. It is best done with stiff blade type of fins and if you get it down well you can glide through the water with a few kicks here and there. Don't think I have done a flutter kick in years.............

Its a funny thing....we whom get in the habit of frog kicking as our primary meaning of forward movement can loss touch with a standard flutter kick.......for this reason I still use the flutter at times to keep my legs/knees in condition for that kick as it is a ness. in strong current diving.

 

[lowviz]

Thanks all for the good advice. I just wanted to let the OP know that you don't just switch over to frogkicking without a bit of "face-time".

 

[Saltair]

Just getting back to this thread loooong day of work. Thanks for all the info. To the poster who asked what to do if you silt yourself out in OW I am clearly not an expert, but a couple weeks back I got the bottom all stired up and gave two hard kicks thinking I would propel myself into relatively clear water. Nope. I kicked myself into the mud. Not straight down into it, but enough so I landed in it just as I cleared the silt cloud so of course I had to escape again. It has been an interesting learning curve, but I will be much more effective if I can learn this kick.