THE "PERFECT ( being horizontal ) TRIM" HOAX
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Try to imagine what it is like to open a 3-day old thread you have not seen before and find you are mostly responsible for the opening post.
In retrospect, my early training may have been extreme. I was taking my tech training from an instructor employed by the shop that employed me, and they were making their first foray into the tech world with that instructor, so I had no choice in instruction if I wanted to stay employed. The course was technically TDI, but the instructor told us from the start that he was going to ignore the TDI curriculum and follow GUE's instead. (I later found that TDI had no problem with that.) He had taken GUE Fundamentals and some other courses from Andrew Georgitis when he was Director of training for GUE, and he fairly worshipped the guy. By then Georgitsis had been fired by both GUE and then NAUI. When he then formed UTD, our instructor crossed over to UTD and the Georgitis version of DIR, and all the students had to cross over, too.
For my instructor, being in perfect trim was an article of faith that was drummed into us over and over and over and over and over. As one of the most advanced students in our group, I was once given the task of videotaping students working at a lower level course. I took that job very seriously, and I twisted, turned, swam upside down, and did everything I could to get the best possible camera angle on the students throughout the dive. I was pretty proud of what I had accomplished. That evening we reviewed the video together, and the instructor reserved his harshest criticism for me. He could not help but notice during the dive that I had frequently been out of trim. He was very disappointed in me. I could tell a number of stories like that, but I hope that will deliver a sense of that training.
After a while I became so disenchanted with UTD training that I decided that if I wanted to progress through Tech, I would do it on vacations in Florida through TDI. Since I had earlier on gotten TDI certifications from that instructor, I could jump right into the TDI program at that level. I knew that would end my employment with the shop, but it was worth it. While doing my deco dives in South Florida, I was surprised by the number of people I saw doing their deco stops in reasonably horizontal (but not close to perfect) trim. I saw how much easier it was for them to communicate with each other during the stops. Their ability to swivel their heads to keep visual contact was an enticing revelation, but I could not escape my earlier training to allow myself to do that. It seemed sinful. I continued as I had been trained before.
Years later I was diving in Cozumel, and I joined a trimix class as an add-on diver. That instructor was as much a fanatic for horizontal trim as my original DIR instructor, and he was PADI. His students had to be perfectly still and in perfect trim during deco stops or they absolutely heard about it afterward.
Now that I am a tech instructor, I make sure students CAN achieve and hold nice horizontal trim, but I am not anal about it, and I tell them why. During those last long deco stops, in fact, we move continually but gently with the goal of keeping the blood flowing to improve perfusion and off-gassing, something that would not have been allowed in my earlier training. (We had to be perfectly still.) Last year on one dive we started the ascent, going up along a cliff by which I had ascended and descended in horizontal trim countless times over the years, I did much of the ascent nearly vertical. As a result, I was thus able to get a really good look at that cliff for the first time ever. I saw interesting features I had never seen before and which I resolved to visit again.
In retrospect, my early training may have been extreme. I was taking my tech training from an instructor employed by the shop that employed me, and they were making their first foray into the tech world with that instructor, so I had no choice in instruction if I wanted to stay employed. The course was technically TDI, but the instructor told us from the start that he was going to ignore the TDI curriculum and follow GUE's instead. (I later found that TDI had no problem with that.) He had taken GUE Fundamentals and some other courses from Andrew Georgitis when he was Director of training for GUE, and he fairly worshipped the guy. By then Georgitsis had been fired by both GUE and then NAUI. When he then formed UTD, our instructor crossed over to UTD and the Georgitis version of DIR, and all the students had to cross over, too.
For my instructor, being in perfect trim was an article of faith that was drummed into us over and over and over and over and over. As one of the most advanced students in our group, I was once given the task of videotaping students working at a lower level course. I took that job very seriously, and I twisted, turned, swam upside down, and did everything I could to get the best possible camera angle on the students throughout the dive. I was pretty proud of what I had accomplished. That evening we reviewed the video together, and the instructor reserved his harshest criticism for me. He could not help but notice during the dive that I had frequently been out of trim. He was very disappointed in me. I could tell a number of stories like that, but I hope that will deliver a sense of that training.
After a while I became so disenchanted with UTD training that I decided that if I wanted to progress through Tech, I would do it on vacations in Florida through TDI. Since I had earlier on gotten TDI certifications from that instructor, I could jump right into the TDI program at that level. I knew that would end my employment with the shop, but it was worth it. While doing my deco dives in South Florida, I was surprised by the number of people I saw doing their deco stops in reasonably horizontal (but not close to perfect) trim. I saw how much easier it was for them to communicate with each other during the stops. Their ability to swivel their heads to keep visual contact was an enticing revelation, but I could not escape my earlier training to allow myself to do that. It seemed sinful. I continued as I had been trained before.
Years later I was diving in Cozumel, and I joined a trimix class as an add-on diver. That instructor was as much a fanatic for horizontal trim as my original DIR instructor, and he was PADI. His students had to be perfectly still and in perfect trim during deco stops or they absolutely heard about it afterward.
Now that I am a tech instructor, I make sure students CAN achieve and hold nice horizontal trim, but I am not anal about it, and I tell them why. During those last long deco stops, in fact, we move continually but gently with the goal of keeping the blood flowing to improve perfusion and off-gassing, something that would not have been allowed in my earlier training. (We had to be perfectly still.) Last year on one dive we started the ascent, going up along a cliff by which I had ascended and descended in horizontal trim countless times over the years, I did much of the ascent nearly vertical. As a result, I was thus able to get a really good look at that cliff for the first time ever. I saw interesting features I had never seen before and which I resolved to visit again.
That is one of the criteria of our drysuit course, or for trainees to master if doing their elementary training in a drysuit.
This is nice post......and a good reminder for those of us that advocate for the proper trim position and all its benefits that simply being relaxed and enjoying the dive is a wonderful thing.
I see a trimmed diver and I know if they aren’t struggling to maintain the position they are relaxed and confident. It’s a zen feeling being in trim, controlling your buoyancy with simple breaths but you can get the same feeling cruising along a nice reef letting the ocean move you at its pace, whatever position you’re in.
I see a trimmed diver and I know if they aren’t struggling to maintain the position they are relaxed and confident. It’s a zen feeling being in trim, controlling your buoyancy with simple breaths but you can get the same feeling cruising along a nice reef letting the ocean move you at its pace, whatever position you’re in.
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I've got quite a bit of experience.with experience and maybe scar tissue it gets easier, most of the time
With a front zip, I just zip down, fish out the wiener and let go. With a back zip, I have to clamp the top of my suit between my legs and make sure it doesn't protrude too far, getting pissed on.
Damn, sometimes I'm happy to have outside plumbing.
A basic scuba discussion and all the pros take it to a unreadable level.
MichaelMc
Working toward Cenotes
The idea is to set up your gear for neutral trim, so gravity is not rotating your body one way on another. So your center of mass and of volume are very close to each other. Then you can decide at any moment what body orientation you want, be it vertical to sail along with the current, look at a wall or rapidly in all directions, or horizontal to not disturb the bottom while looking at it or to move horizontally other than down current.
If you are vertical because all your lead is low down and gravity pulls you upright like a Weeble wobble toy, doing anything but drifting with the current is more difficult. You have to keep tipping that Weeble sideways so that you can kick vaguely horizontally. That is a lot of work, less fun, and burns through your air. Unless you really do just drift with the current like a balloon.
Always having a horizontal orientation is not the point. Being able to choose, from moment to moment, is the point, and not having to fight gravity to keep it.
And not destroying the vis or the sea life for the rest of us because of your choice.
ETA:
If you are vertical because all your lead is low down and gravity pulls you upright like a Weeble wobble toy, doing anything but drifting with the current is more difficult. You have to keep tipping that Weeble sideways so that you can kick vaguely horizontally. That is a lot of work, less fun, and burns through your air. Unless you really do just drift with the current like a balloon.
Always having a horizontal orientation is not the point. Being able to choose, from moment to moment, is the point, and not having to fight gravity to keep it.
And not destroying the vis or the sea life for the rest of us because of your choice.
ETA:
There is nothing inherent to sidemount that puts divers in neutral trim nor easy horizontal orientation. But the instruction covers getting the tanks streamlined for easy movement, which carries over to body orientation for that and so neutral trim. Plus we usually have weight pockets going up our spine, so the notion to distribute our lead further up our body to make diving easier is fairly clear.
I don't care any more, life is too short, but please do as above, as long as I am neutrally buoyant I don't give 'fig' if I am going through the water looking like Rudolf Nureyev in Swan Lake.
This reminds me of one of my most successful pool games for OW students, "the apple game." The rules are you can't touch the bottom of the pool, you can't touch the surface, the apple can't touch the surface, and you can't use your arms or hands. You can only swim two kick cycles before you have to transfer the apple to another student... If you violate a rule, I signal you to perform a skill before the game can continue.
I've watched students do neck to neck transfers spinning in the water and in all kinds of body positions while maintaining neutral buoyancy, and that's the goal. Being comfortable in any position in the water contributes to the ability to hold good horizontal trim on dives.
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Neutral buoyancy is a hoax. Fake news. I have people that have seen 2000 divers in Wisconsin quarry's claiming to be neutral, but weren't. There are places in Pennsylvania that people that were not even divers were claimed to have neutral buoyancy. And don't get me started on Arizona, more people claimed to have neutral buoyancy than the lake could hold. Wake up sheeple, they are trying to steal neutral buoyancy from those of us that have perfect trim.
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