Odd trim problem - Make me a better diver

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You dive the gear, it doesn’t dive you.

Body posture and positioning is what you need to work on. Fiddling with gear is going to frustrate you.

I never understood the sidemount zealouts that go to mm precision on their weighting. Sidemount is frustrating enough without worrying about trying to put static weight on a dynamic entity. You should in my opinion be able to put a 2lb weight anywhere on the body without it greatly affecting positioning since you should be able to compensate with body positioning.
 
I started playing with tiny AL40 doubles. These were my trim experiences last week and this.

I started with a 5lb. plate, 2 lb. in each of two shoulder pockets, and a 12 lb. weight belt. That worked well, but was a bit much on the shoulder straps gearing up and for in water remove/replace. (Breakwater and Monastery south)

So I moved 3 lb. to the top steel band between it and the wing/plate. It is tidier, but made me really want to turtle (Breakwater middle reef). (I had also tightened up the back of the weight belt to make it snugger.)

Should I just leave it there and work at always correcting my roll?
::leading question / sarcasm emoji::

(I did a forth dive with a really tidy one pounder on each shoulder and the weights on the belt more forward.) (Monastery south, bit of surge.)

I think I'd be cursing my gear for a while if I didn't adjust it so it worked well.
3lb is and making you want to flip over? Struggle bus over 3lbs?

God help you if you ever put on a real pair of doubles.
 
I never understood the sidemount zealouts that go to mm precision on their weighting. Sidemount is frustrating enough without worrying about trying to put static weight on a dynamic entity. You should in my opinion be able to put a 2lb weight anywhere on the body without it greatly affecting positioning since you should be able to compensate with body positioning.
Its pointless. The buoyancy wing of the tanks totally nullifies all this "let me strap a .5lb weight here and a 1lb weight here" nonsense. You get more variance than that by eating a bean burrito before the dive. Beans beans the magical fruit.
 
You dive the gear, it doesn’t dive you.

Body posture and positioning is what you need to work on. Fiddling with gear is going to frustrate you.

Honestly, this is easier said than done if we're talking about more than a few lbs head or foot heavy. Why fight gear that's constantly working against you? Body positioning works, but it's a lot easier to use it for fine tuning.

IMHO, OP, make sure you're correctly weighted first. While you're neutral, stretch out horizontally without moving and see if you stay horizontal or you tip head or foot down. If you continue to be foot down, experiment with how far your hands are in front of you, clench your glutes, keep your knees up and experiment with how high to raise your calves, keeping your fins flat. If this is not enough to keep you horizontal, you can move the tank up higher on your body and/or raise your backplate if you have one and/or move some of your weight into trim pockets near your shoulders or on your cam bands. If the heavier fins aren't bothering you in any other way, the above may be enough to keep you in trim.

Stretching out horizontally while neutral to see if you tip is important because many people are actually head heavy and compensate with their fins bringing them diagonally. When you're in trim, it tends to feel head'heavy and can feel awkward at first.

Good luck! :)
 
God help you if you ever put on a real pair of doubles.
That is my point! I, and the OP, am not diving real doubles, with their no-choice-but-off-center but we still have to dive this thing weighting.

If I want to practice ahead, I can make it harder by moving weight to my belt rear or behind my tanks, and make constant correction and only brief sideways tilts unconscious.

If I, or the OP, just want the current rig to swim easily, shifting ballast can help. (while of course using proper positioning)
 
Honestly, this is easier said than done if we're talking about more than a few lbs head or foot heavy. Why fight gear that's constantly working against you? Body positioning works, but it's a lot easier to use it for fine tuning.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that you have to perpetually compensate for out-of-trim weighting without fixing it.

It was noted that OP's posture was not ideal and that extending hands and bending knees, which is desirable for reasons other than simply adjusting trim, might go a long way to solving the problem. Get the posture right, and then go from there. Otherwise, you are shooting at a moving target.

So, best advice is:

1. Make sure you have the proper amount of weight. If you're overweighted and forced to carry a bigger air volume in the wing, that can throw off your trim. Also, if it is, in fact, the case that your integrated pockets are positioned south of your center of buoyancy, then it's even more important not to stuff more weight in there than is needed. So, get to the minimum weight you need. That's step 1. For tons of reasons.

2. Then fix the positioning: Extend hands more and bend knees more, so that the fins are higher and closer to the body.

3. If that doesn't fix the issue, and you're still foot heavy, then try moving cylinder up a bit. This makes a big difference.

4. If that doesn't fix it, and I'd be surprised if it doesn't, then consider moving a little weight out of the integrated pockets onto a cam band trim pocket.

The point is don't paper over an issue that is probably more related to "form" than to "equipment" by moving weight around until you've first got the amount of weight correct, the posture fixed and done whatever you can with the cylinder position. Then, absolutely, use a trim weight pocket if you need to. There's no need to fight the gear.
 
I don't think anyone is suggesting that you have to perpetually compensate for out-of-trim weighting without fixing it.

It was noted that OP's posture was not ideal and that extending hands and bending knees, which is desirable for reasons other than simply adjusting trim, might go a long way to solving the problem. Get the posture right, and then go from there. Otherwise, you are shooting at a moving target.

So, best advice is:

1. Make sure you have the proper amount of weight. If you're overweighted and forced to carry a bigger air volume in the wing, that can throw off your trim. Also, if it is, in fact, the case that your integrated pockets are positioned south of your center of buoyancy, then it's even more important not to stuff more weight in there than is needed. So, get to the minimum weight you need. That's step 1. For tons of reasons.

2. Then fix the positioning: Extend hands more and bend knees more, so that the fins are higher and closer to the body.

3. If that doesn't fix the issue, and you're still foot heavy, then try moving cylinder up a bit. This makes a big difference.

4. If that doesn't fix it, and I'd be surprised if it doesn't, then consider moving a little weight out of the integrated pockets onto a cam band trim pocket.

The point is don't paper over an issue that is probably more related to "form" than to "equipment" by moving weight around until you've first got the amount of weight correct, the posture fixed and done whatever you can with the cylinder position. Then, absolutely, use a trim weight pocket if you need to. There's no need to fight the gear.

Um, yeah you basically re-wrote my post.
 
Because I agree with much of what you said (indeed, I said it several posts back). The part, however, I don't agree with is the stuff about stretching out horizontally. You want to be in-trim when you're properly postured, not planking. Get the posture perfect, including bent knees and hands and then see if you tip, then fix from there. Then, it's easy to make the subtle adjustments if you change gear or the cylinder is strapped a little higher or lower on a particular dive, or whatever.

Plus, I think my "version" makes more sense. And, for a small fee, I'm available to rewrite for clarity any time.:wink:
 
Ok folks, thank you for the input and advice. It is much appreciated. Now please be kind to one another and avoid barbed passive aggressive comments. Life is short and I’d rather enjoy it amongst friends.
 
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