Seriously, though... you're wearing your weights too high

[oya]

"No, really," I often find myself saying,

"You're actually head heavy."

"I'm not, though!" comes the cry, "I can't keep my feet up like you keep saying!"

"Because you're actually head heavy," I say as the whilrligig of a conversation continues.

So I wrote a thing about it HERE.

(Apologies for not copying the full text to SB. There are lots of pictures and some formatting.)

 

[Smache]

I really like this explanation. I was experimenting with shoulder weights earlier this summer, and it seemed like they were having the opposite effect I wanted and made me more hips-down. Moving all the weight (just 4 lbs) to my hips fixed the problem.

 

[crofrog]

Yep. So many people are head heavy.

 

[Ayisha]

"No, really," I often find myself saying,

"You're actually head heavy."

"I'm not, though!" comes the cry, "I can't keep my feet up like you keep saying!"

"Because you're actually head heavy..."

Great write-up!

Until divers do a static trim test without correcting and see that they tip head down, they just can't fathom it since it's counterintuitive to what they think the issue is.

Maybe start the training with it.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

"No, really," I often find myself saying,

"You're actually head heavy."

"I'm not, though!" comes the cry, "I can't keep my feet up like you keep saying!"

"Because you're actually head heavy," I say as the whilrligig of a conversation continues.

So I wrote a thing about it HERE.

(Apologies for not copying the full text to SB. There are lots of pictures and some formatting.)

Had this exact conversation with a new tech student yesterday. Hope you don't mind, but I forwarded him your link as you explain it better than I do.

 

[lostsheep]

Conclusion is 100% legit but the free body diagram loyalist in me is cringing a bit.

Step 1: draw the FBD
Step 2: apply N2L

Make sum of forces zero. Make sum of moments zero.

 

[treasurehunter]

“HOLDSTILLHOLDSTILLHOLDSTILLOH****OH****HOLDSTILLHOLDSTILL“


Been there/done that/ still kinda doing it.

This has brought back so many memories from the beginning of my training.
Now it’s going to be stuck in my head all day like a song.
Although In the beginning I had a lot more oh****oh**** in the mix. You can tell your progression when the oh****oh****’s start to decline.

I dive mostly cold water, so I wear mostly heavy undergarments which in turn, keeps quite a bit of air in my dry suit core.
My main problem is that if I’m perfectly flat the air in my core has easy access to migrate to my feet.
So I find I have to keep my legs slightly bent down, to prevent the air in my core to migrate to the highest point in my boots.
True for me that ,weight on my hips regulated my head heavy balance better.
I have multiple weight belts which are set for different undergarments and number of deco bottles I carry.

 

[oya]

Conclusion is 100% legit but the free body diagram loyalist in me is cringing a bit.

Step 1: draw the FBD
Step 2: apply N2L

Make sum of forces zero. Make sum of moments zero.

I mean... that's kinda what the whole endgoal is, right?

But it's also a bit of a choose your own adventure since every one of those forces is going to be different on every individual diver. So they've all got to fill in the values themselves (or, at least, if not actually write in values, work out how to arrange them all).

But this might be the only place where we want scuba diving to be zero-sum. Let's all be zeros!!!

 

[Bladebreaker65]

Interesting. Could you explain a static test and corrective measures to do in a training type dive?

 

[sea_ledford]

Awesome write up! I'll be sharing with all my students! One thing is missing though...




Googly eyes for Scubanocchio: