Tank position to trim?

[simbrooks]

In reply, the jets, i would have thought seeing as they are negative would pull my trim back to a little feet heavy - are you suggesting otherwise?

As for trimming practice, i do the same kind of thing, although not neccessarily always with eyes closed, just trying not to move a muscle and see where i go (like i said there is that foot twitch, that goes when i am trimmed - thinking they are related). I understand the point. However as has been discussed it seems that AL tanks centre of buoyancy/gravity are on the head side of the body's centre, thus as they swing from slightly negative to positive, that will push you down to start with and pull your head up to end with (again can be countered by leg placement/bend), however the steel tanks stay negative or get to neutral if totally empty, so you always have some moment putting you head down - and therefore the effect is not as pronounced as with AL tanks. As for having the tanks, i would if i could have afforded to buy them after the price hike pushed my price up by $100 per tank compared to the deal i had struck beforehand.

To conclude, i think you all have helped, i am working on it, but wanted to check my reasoning about it all and as i add equipment (soon enough can and reels), i shift again

 

[JimC]

No one can reealy help you much online. Equipment can help, such as jetfins and moveing weight around.. but noone can help you online with the key part - that being the skill aspects.

I know when I started working on trim I couldn't understand how anyone could trim out in an AL80 without putting weights on there head. My problems had nothing to do with equipment and everything to do with skill. Arch the back, use your legs and arms. This kind of stuff is so suttle its easy to miss something. Especialy if your down to a "foot twitch". This is where the camera is nice to have. You can see something dumb like your tank isn't centerest in your integrated pionere STA. (Been there, done that one)

The jets will give you more control over your trim, yes they are negative but that enables the foot/leg/bend skill to work better. Adding minor gear like reels shouldn't throw your trim off. Even something like an AL40 shoudln't take more than a couple of seconds to 'get' if your body english is good. (My avatar is about 3 minutes into my first dive ever with a stage bottle)

 

[jagfish]

Hey Jim
I'm strugglinig with similar issues at the moment as I just adopted a BP/W setup. Appreciated your posts, they have helped a lot to hear about someone elses process along the way...

JAG

 

[simbrooks]

No one can reealy help you much online. Equipment can help, such as jetfins and moveing weight around.. but noone can help you online with the key part - that being the skill aspects.

I know when I started working on trim I couldn't understand how anyone could trim out in an AL80 without putting weights on there head. My problems had nothing to do with equipment and everything to do with skill. Arch the back, use your legs and arms. This kind of stuff is so suttle its easy to miss something. Especialy if your down to a "foot twitch". This is where the camera is nice to have. You can see something dumb like your tank isn't centerest in your integrated pionere STA. (Been there, done that one)

The jets will give you more control over your trim, yes they are negative but that enables the foot/leg/bend skill to work better. Adding minor gear like reels shouldn't throw your trim off. Even something like an AL40 shoudln't take more than a couple of seconds to 'get' if your body english is good. (My avatar is about 3 minutes into my first dive ever with a stage bottle)

Thanks for your imput, i know i havent got all the skills in the world, how are you supposed to if you only have 50 odd dives and have only been at it around 7 months. But i do try to arch, using my butt to lift my thighs, put my hands clasped in front of me to keep an eye on guages and to add a little extra - however like i said, when i have been fairly trimmed, like saturday my foot twitch stopped, previously i had to conciously put in effort to stop it going (again subconcious correction i believe). I have had video shot of me, but i was diving steel at the time, so that changes things

 

[Bigcape]

I dive with a steel 95 and no matter how high I place it, (even with shoulder clip weights) my butt still hangs low. However when i started carrying an AL40 that little bit of "float" it has trims me out perfect. I carry it all the time now. I like it for a back up or bailout anyay.