Off-center buoyancy

[Deac in the Wake]

I have asked DAN about this and wasn't very satisfied with the answer. I figured someone else on SB may have this issue. For the last couple of years, I've had an issue in which I descend and have to fight rolling over to my left side, as though I was carrying extra weight in side pocket. I don't roll 90-degrees or anything, it's more like 30-40-degrees and then I just stop rolling and hang there, at an angle.

I have experienced this in all temps of fresh and salt water and in my drysuit, wetsuit, and nothing but swimtrunks. My buoyancy skills are the best they've ever been (duh) and is something I work on everytime I'm in any kind of water (the Dive Training issue with the diver doing a great inverted hover, head-down, fins-up, a year or two ago really became my training target). It happens in current or in still water like a quarry.

I don't have lights or gear or any kind of configuration that would favor one side or the other, especially to that degree. And my BC is in tip-top shape.

So, what I have to do is put a 1 or 2-pound weight in my left trim pocket and a 3 or 4 in my right, depending on suit etc. This brings me back to horizontally level on my roll.

Interestingly, this condition existed before I had a left knee replacement and after- with no change. I thought that may alter it even slightly but it appears to have had no impact. I have wondered if the human physiological condition of different lung sizes (the right is generally larger than the left as it contains 3 lobes vs 2 on the left) could account for this. But then I don't see others having to make such wide weight adjustments. In fact, I haven't really ever seen another diver have to have such disparity between left and right weighting. Obviously the mind can wander into more darker considerations such as tumors etc when more reasonable answers aren't ready. While I'm not quite there yet, I am desperate for an answer.

 

[JamesK]

What was DAN's answer?

 

[mala]

i have seen this only once before.
cant remember if it was left or right roll-left i think.

she ended up wearing more weight on 1 side than the other .


hope you find a solution .

 

[TSandM]

It's highly unlikely that you have sufficient asymmetry in your body to cause this. But I know I had a lot of this problem when I was a new diver, and I played around with body positioning. What I learned was that, if I floated in a pool with no scuba gear on, I tended to float left side down, but if I changed the muscle tension in the two sides of my body, I would float level. Once I discovered that, I played with the same thing with dive gear, and found it massively reduced my tendency to roll.

 

[Deac in the Wake]

DAN didn't really have an answer other than to say what it wasn't (i.e. knee replacement etc). TS, if anything, it's become more of an issue as I've gotten more and more experienced. It happens even without dive gear, just laying face down in the pool or face up. I have to say I'm not aware of any muscle tension anywhere much less how to change it or why it would be different in terms of symmetry. No doubting you at all, just not aware of the sensation. If anything, the minute I hit the water, I'm at the most relaxed state I can physically get into (without the aid of recreational "items," that is).

As I said, it's not really an issue to the extent that I just know to alter my trim weights. I would just love to get to the cause of whatever it is.

 

[chrpai]

Maybe you got a lot of gas in one side of your colon.

 

[knotical]

Are your certain both your arms and both your legs are in similar (symmetric) positions? This can be hard to judge without a mirror, so you might want to have someone check. Especially the angles of the hip and knee joints. When I'm totally relaxed underwater, my knees bend at slightly different angles. I wasn't even aware of it until for some silly reason I decided to click my heels - and missed!

 

[TSandM]

If this is happening to you while floating without dive gear, it IS asymmetric body positioning.

If you can't figure it out, I'd HIGHLY recommend finding a Pilates instructor somewhere near you. Explain the issue, and have him or her work with you for a session or two until you can identify your core and your postural muscles, and learn to change them.

 

[chrpai]

TSandM-

I believe you, but (wo)man, I don't even know where to begin with this one. Pilates? Yikes! (just kidding... kinda)

But yes, in playing in the pool today trying to figure out the cause for my previously mentioned happy feet I realized that I also have a slight tendency to turtle to my left. It's nothing I notice when on the move but when I came to a full stop it seems to be the motivation of my feet to balance me and lurch forward. That and I haven't ever really taught my feet to not move for long periods of time.

So I guess I need to figure this out. I suppose a pound of weight on the other wide would just be masking the real problem.(?)

 

[ianr33]

Try getting a buddy to take some photos/video of you underwater. Amazing what that can reveal.