Should your hands ever be used for movement or to hold position?

[GreenDiverDown]

Actually... it's OK to use your right hand... but never the left.

 

[cdiver2]

I don't know about you, but I'm not a fish.

You can not breath UW, see UW, do not have a swim bladder or a tail fin, so what do you do?.

 

[cdiver2]

My two independent fins on my legs using a frog kick in no way parallels how a fish propels itself through the water. That is the fallacious argument the manufacturers use to get people to buy things like split fins. We are not even remotely like fish underwater....

It's not about being a dive snob, it's that there are more effective ways of controling your motion. Those who know how to use their fins understand that. Those who don't will claim that they need their hands. Occasionally pulling yourself along in a current, or shoving off a wreck or your buddy is more efficient, but hand finning never is, nor is it more agile.

HOLDING a down line

 

[Soggy]

HOLDING a down line

Yes it is. How is that hand finning?

 

[Soggy]

You can not breath UW, see UW, do not have a swim bladder or a tail fin, so what do you do?.

I put on hundreds of pounds of crap so I can spend a brief period of time hanging out with my friends the fish.

 

[Puffer Fish]

I disagree. As my Fundies instructor told us, when you use your hands, that's information. You are trying to correct something you should be able to correct another way. You want your hands free to do things . . . whether that's hold a camera or donate a regulator, they should be immediately available to do whatever. All the fine position corrections can be done with good buoyancy control and correct finning. I truly believe that, because six months of work has gotten me about 80% of the way there.

There is a place and a time for using hands, but most of the time, it is from bad technic to start with.

On the other hand, try to dive the washing machine in PG and not use your hands - I tried using just one and got my reg flooded and my mask torn off (was holding a camera in the other one)

I would suggest that using them very, very little is the correct approach - trying to not use them at all can lead to some really silly situations.

 

[captain]

And yet... there you are swimming underwater for an hour or more.

There are parallels and equivalences. Drawing an analogy between hands and pectoral fins is not saying that hands *are* pectoral fins. Just as an analogy between the wings of a plane and the wings of a bird doesn't mean that airplanes are birds. The point is that fish have a variety of fins for a variety of specific tasks, moving in different directions and different speeds. The caudals are the strongest and most efficient. But it's not always about efficiency. Sometimes it is about dexterity. I doubt there is a person on this board that has nearly as fine motor control over their feet as with their hands. You can move your hands in different directions and speeds than you can move your feet.

Of course you should use your fins for propulsion and steering at least 95% of the time. But why take it to the point of being anal retentive? An occasional use of hands in tight situations is going to have a statistically insignificant effect on your efficiency. If one is that obsessed with efficiency, then they had better not be turning their head from side to side while diving either. I'm all for improving skills and techniques but there's no reason to be a dive snob about it.

Halleluiah, Amen.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Hands may have better fine motor control, but when I'm in my dive gear, I have a pretty substantial mass that has to be moved. Given the imprecision of movement in moving water, and the mass and inertia involved, I don't think you can get too excited about the possibility of fine adjustments because you can make fine movements of the hands. It's gonna take a big movement to move me at all.

Wow, how big are you? At my 260 lbs. I have used a single finger to manuever a tight squeeze through coral heads without ever making contact... equipment, body or fins. And, there are places where a single fin kick can do more damage than good.

As far as substantial mass to be moved, even at my weight, I find it almost a non-issue under water.

I am not meaning this as a troll or shot at you. Perhaps you mean something that did not come across to me in the written word?

 

[Soggy]

Wow, how big are you? At my 260 lbs. I have used a single finger to manuever a tight squeeze through coral heads without ever making contact... equipment, body or fins. And, there are places where a single fin kick can do more damage than good.

You moved by just finning with a single finger? You must have big fingers.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

You moved by just finning with a single finger? You must have big fingers.

Please read the quote I was referring and my post again... There was never a mention of finning.

That was from another post-er, a different quote and a different post all together...