Nice video, I almost was ran over by one in the Georgia aquarium. Would love to see one in the wild.
THE "PERFECT ( being horizontal ) TRIM" HOAX
- Thread starter Blackcrusader
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The value of perfect trim and propulsion is much less evident when drifting with a current.
If drifting along is the goal, buoyancy is the only skill needed to navigate. No fins required! I dived with a couple who held hands and drifted along above everyone while completely vertical. The same orientation doesn't work anywhere else.
Proper trim is just the most efficient orientation for moving through open water with the least amount of drag. Getting better gas mileage is the goal.
Once in an overhead or restrictive environment, excellent trim and propulsion control is mandatory to protect the surroundings and your safety.
Diving is one of those sports that can be really safe and super easy or kilometers back and 100 meters deep in a icy cold cave or anywhere in between.
The more technical the dive, the greater the need to have better control.
If drifting along is the goal, buoyancy is the only skill needed to navigate. No fins required! I dived with a couple who held hands and drifted along above everyone while completely vertical. The same orientation doesn't work anywhere else.
Proper trim is just the most efficient orientation for moving through open water with the least amount of drag. Getting better gas mileage is the goal.
Once in an overhead or restrictive environment, excellent trim and propulsion control is mandatory to protect the surroundings and your safety.
Diving is one of those sports that can be really safe and super easy or kilometers back and 100 meters deep in a icy cold cave or anywhere in between.
The more technical the dive, the greater the need to have better control.
OP
Blackcrusader
Contributor
Funny thing I went to dive in Panglao Bohol as have friends working in a dive center there. I ask my friend to join me on some fun dives we will catch a whale shark I tell her. She says I brag too much so rare to see whale sharks. She is nah will do some other fun dives with you. So in 5 days the three times she does not come with me we see three different whale sharks. There I am in my vertical trim again lol.
OP
Blackcrusader
Contributor
Happened to me last week so paying it forward. But what you wrote was just perfect to start this thread. Some did not like the title but a catchy title gets well read. I can see the value of DIR when it is needed but there are some who want to be the DIY perfectionists for all dives that really ruin the part where dives are meant to be fun for the mere mortals who go on their vacation dives and do not know or care about DIR diving practices. I am perfectly capable of being in that horizontal trim ( sometimes I do it inverted looking at divers 5m above me ) doing helicopter turns or back kicks or frog kicks when needed. When not needed I just do as I please
I would rephrase it this way:
"Proper HORIZONTAL trim is just the most efficient orientation for moving through open water HORIZONTALLY with the least amount of drag"
Whenever you need to move not-horizontally (for me, most of the time, except for drift diving, where trim is irrelevant as there is no relative motion between the diver and the surrounding water), of course the proper trim will be aligned with the direction of motion, whatever it is. If you are swimming vertically along a wall, the proper trim is vertical...
I agree with you that the key is having CONTROL, allowing you to assume whatever trim you want. Not being "locked" in that unnatural DIR-style position, using it in any situation...
OP
Blackcrusader
Contributor
I think this is a good video. You can see my dive buddy with his camera setup in the white T shirt and mottled white grey fins.
You can also see another diver who in her excitement chases the whale shark and ascends with it. I just put out my hand and she swam right into it never looking ahead to where she was going. You can see my dive buddy easily move from vertical to horizontal and exhale when he needed to descend to get some clearance to the whale shark. When the whale shark was directly underneath me I needed to be horizontal. Learning how to film while holding your camera while changing your position and depth takes good skills.
Mine are ok. Although I got close to the whale shark I never touched it as it swam at me or underneath or above me. A lot of divers from Korea got too excited and wanted to swim up and touch the whale shark. What they don't realize is that you can get fined for doing so in the Philippines and Taiwan.
David Novo
Contributor
No matter the topic, I am always scrolling to the end of @BLACKCRUSADER 's posts before reading to check if there is a video or photo.
OP
Blackcrusader
Contributor
No matter the topic, I am always scrolling to the end of @BLACKCRUSADER 's posts before reading to check if there is a video or photo.
In this day and age video or it never happened. People demand proof lol
ginti
Contributor
yes, you're right... I misread your post
I do not agree that your direction of motion and your trim should always be aligned.
In a vertical ascent in the blue, the direction of motion is vertical. However, a high amount of drag in that direction allows a better control of the vertical position. Also, in case of strong current, the least drag in the horizontal direction allows to easily fight the current.
In case of deco stop these considerations are quite important, in case of recreational dives probably less.
Is the horizontal trim necessary to maintain a proper control? No, so feel free to do whatever you want and need to achieve proper control. But frankly speaking, I do not understand these criticisms towards people who use horizontal trim, nor the criticisms towards the people who don't. They just do not make any sense.
The criticism does not come from the trim (I think everyone should trim the way he likes), but by the fact that there are some "evangelists" who think that the horizontal trim is the only correct one, which should be used always, and who do not simply use that trim when inappropriate, but they even tell ME that I am doing it wrong...
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