New to BP-wing: upside-down

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If I keep my legs together, and come to a complete motionless stop I will too eventually roll over. The key for me is to keep my fins apart, my knees are ~ 1ft apart, knees bent, fin blades horizontal fins "splayed" at about 45 degrees each. In this position my fins have to move a lot of water for me to roll on my long axis.

Another way to discribe it is stopping a frog kick right before you roll fin blades and snap your legs together.


Tobin
 
Humuhumunukunukuapua'a:
This happens to me too, if I completely stop and sort of cross my ankles and bring my arms close in.

For me, I have to basically try to make it happen. When I'm swimming around checking stuff out, it's no problem and I stay trim without effort. But equilibrium is definitely turtle-on-back position.
Some of us don't go swimming around horizontal all the time. I often roll over to one side to look under a ledge as swimming by, or go 45 degree head down and 45 degree roll simultaneously when looking at something on the bottom. Ideal trim for me is one that leaves me in whatever position I'm in. For me, a SeaQuest ProQD with 1# in each shoulder pocket does that. And this is with my arms in a streamlined position of crossed at my waist or tucked behind my tank, rather than out in front of me causing more drag.

It sounds like you, just like the original poster, would be better off with some more weight on your belly, so that your center of gravity and center of buoyancy are closer together.
 
I'm a cold water diver, and I carry a lot of weight (19 lbs on a belt, 4 lbs on the cambands, SS backplate, and can light). I have my fore and aft issues, particularly if I get a bit too much air in my feet, but I no longer have any tendency to roll over. I did in the beginning, but now I can hang perfectly still for about thirty seconds (or sometimes more) before my longitudinal imbalance begins to get to me. But it occurs to me that I don't use an STA, so my tank is snug on my back (with the DSS wing and its built-in tank stabilizer), so maybe that makes a difference.
 
OK, found the reason for the roll this weekend. A bit of air was getting trapped in the right side of the wing (opposite to the pull dump) causing the rollover. A tilt to the left while dumping air or a hose dump every so often solves the problem.

Thank you all for your responses.

Daniel
 

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