The Frog Kick...........can't.......help?

[DiverDurf]

DiverDurf, ENORMOUS kudos to you for thinking about these things. You're way ahead of me; at 9 dives, I was still trying to SURVIVE underwater.

Good luck with this, and again, my compliments and my thanks for being concerned enough about the environment through which you pass, to want to learn what you can to help preserve it.

Thank you. I'm diving with three of our police rescue divers this weekend who promise to "show me the ropes" on some of their techniques (I'm trying to join their team this year). I'll pick their brains about the frog kick stuff too! I went to Ginnie Springs a week ago and absolutely loved every minute of it, but what I did NOT like was seeing all of the freakin' beer cans/bottles littered about the river floor. Having grown up in water sports of all kinds, that really chaps my butt to see the inconsiderate butts that frequent that place (college aged campers/swimmers). I've already inquired and found out that the springs invites divers to come out once or twice a year to do a volunteer clean up while drift diving- I will gladly be one of them!

 

[TSandM]

If you can't hover in a horizontal position, then your static balance is off. The first thing, as I said, is to make sure your body is FLAT. If your fins are negative (eg. Jets) bending the knees and bringing the fins closer to your body will help as well. If you are flat with your knees bent and STILL rotating feet down, you can move your tank up in the cambands until your head hits the regulator when you bend your neck back. If your BC has trim pockets (and you carry enough weight to divide it) you can move weights into the trim pockets. (This only works if they are high enough on your back to make a difference -- if not, you can put weight pockets on the cambands.) You can also put an ankle weight around the tank neck, if you have no other options for moving weight up.

There are a few equipment configurations that you just can't balance, because the fins are negative, the tank can't move up any further, and you have too little ballast to move it around. Then you have to move to a less negative fin. But play with the other things I mentioned before you give up and start changing equipment.

For my money, the ability to hover quietly in a horizontal position, without moving anything, is the beginning of real diving skill, and a great deal more enjoyment.