Trimming for a leg heavy diver

[addohm]

I've always known this to be a problem of mine but I've always just kind of hidden it with a tiny bit of finning in fresh water. It's really not bad in salt water. I've got big meaty legs relative to my upper body. Most specifically my calves. I'd love to shrink them but they don't respond to anything that typically works for muscle reduction. Probably because I'd have to be wheelchair bound to stop using them all yogether. Anyway, I've also tried some neutrally buoyant fins. Ive also added weight way up behind my neck and between my shoulder blades. Mind you, when diving sidemount I typically don't need to wear any weight at all for my buoyancy. Nothing seems to work and honestly I'd rather not add weight like I have been.

I need to clean up my trim to the point where it's effortless again. Here are my frash water configurations:

Always:
Helmet with three torches, semi-dry (usually) or dry, Scubapro jetfins as well as deep6 Eddy fins.
Backmount:
backplate with 25# wing, 4# added to top of tank
Sidemount and CCR:
Primary torch and two backups
4-5 jump spools
Primary reel
XDeep with redundant bladder, 8# at top of spine
Dry suit:
Add 4 more # to the top of spine

Looking for some good quality advice from you fine people. I'm still convinced I need to figure out how to move my CG towards my head but at this point I'm starting to doubt myself.

 

[VikingDives]

Two suggestions for sidemount. Try moving your wing down on your body. Even an inch of adjustment can be a major improvement.

You may also find that moving weight down can help.

Making these changes helped me quite a bit and I'm extremely leg negative.

Is the problem consistent throughout the dive? What kind of tanks?

 

[RobPNW]

What kind of exposure suit? If wetsuit, can you wear thicker boots and even add neo socks in those thicker boots? If drysuit, can you double up on undergarment socks to add more volume down there inside the suit?

 

[Pavao]

I feel your pain, it’s extremely annoying for me to have happy feet when I’m trying to hover/glide after kicking, I too am very leg heavy.

My favorite fins are Scubapro Jets, but I simply cannot use them without a dry suit. But even with a dry suit I encounter a problem when I did training fór my first CCR, that had the traditional inverted cylinders with valves down, my feet did not agree with that and my instructor let me try his OMS slipstream fins and that solved the problem right away, and the Slipstreams became my wetsuit fins.

On that unit I later swapped the tanks ti the upright position, valves towards my head, so that allows me to use the Jet fins and I’m perfectly balanced out on a dry suit.

Wetsuit diving I just have to use the Slipstream and AL80s tanks, the butt heavy characteristics of steel tanks makes my hips “drag” and there are no positive buoyant fins available to conter that, and since I need no weights to dive wet with AL80s, there are no weights to even distribute to tip the scale forward.
Really wish I could use Jet fins all the time, Slipstreams just isn’t stiff like the Jets.

You posted on Cave diving forum, AL80s not very popular for Florida caves, but you mentioned backmount, backplate with 25# wing, so I’m assuming that’s single tank diving.

 

[RobPNW]

I’m not feet heavy, I’m too upper body fat. But that’s another thread.

 

[-JD-]

Eddys are just about neutral in fresh water.

Atomic "Smoke On The Water" splits (with spring straps) are about 0.2lbs positive in fresh. I'm NOT suggesting them for cave diving (they are great snorkeling fins, though), but maybe their "Blade" fins might be similarly buoyant.

ScubaPro SeaWing SuperNovas are also about 0.2lbs positive (FW).

So fins can help or hurt trim.

In addition to the suggestion of thicker boots or neo socks, you might consider neoprene gaiters. They exist to purchase:
Neoprene-Leg-Gaiters-Protection-Windproof
Cutting the bottoms of the legs off of a dead 7mm wetsuit would also do the trick.

 

[TheCatFish]

are you able to cheat with the drysuit to put some more air in your legs? that was honestly a big relief with my leg-heaviness in my 5mm semidry.

with my 2 backup lights on my head and my primary light on my goodman, plus a little gas shifted to my legs, i get put in nice trim pretty easily

 

[addohm]

Two suggestions for sidemount. Try moving your wing down on your body. Even an inch of adjustment can be a major improvement.

You may also find that moving weight down can help.

Making these changes helped me quite a bit and I'm extremely leg negative.

Is the problem consistent throughout the dive? What kind of tanks?

Moving the wing down makes sense, I hadn't thought of that, or maybe lazy took over logical lol.
Weights DOWN or towards the head? I definitely don't need more weight down towards my hips.

Most commonly AL80s. Add an AL13 across my hips for CCR.

 

[addohm]

are you able to cheat with the drysuit to put some more air in your legs? that was honestly a big relief with my leg-heaviness in my 5mm semidry.

with my 2 backup lights on my head and my primary light on my goodman, plus a little gas shifted to my legs, i get put in nice trim pretty easily

Yep. I'm able to hide the issue REALLY well in the dry suit . I just don't dive dry much lately as I've moved to Mexico and the water is a nice 27°C year round . Even long dives. The semi-dry works perfect for nearly every environment down to 10°C (for me).

 

[addohm]

I feel your pain, it’s extremely annoying for me to have happy feet when I’m trying to hover/glide after kicking, I too am very leg heavy.

My favorite fins are Scubapro Jets, but I simply cannot use them without a dry suit. But even with a dry suit I encounter a problem when I did training fór my first CCR, that had the traditional inverted cylinders with valves down, my feet did not agree with that and my instructor let me try his OMS slipstream fins and that solved the problem right away, and the Slipstreams became my wetsuit fins.

On that unit I later swapped the tanks ti the upright position, valves towards my head, so that allows me to use the Jet fins and I’m perfectly balanced out on a dry suit.

Wetsuit diving I just have to use the Slipstream and AL80s tanks, the butt heavy characteristics of steel tanks makes my hips “drag” and there are no positive buoyant fins available to conter that, and since I need no weights to dive wet with AL80s, there are no weights to even distribute to tip the scale forward.
Really wish I could use Jet fins all the time, Slipstreams just isn’t stiff like the Jets.

You posted on Cave diving forum, AL80s not very popular for Florida caves, but you mentioned backmount, backplate with 25# wing, so I’m assuming that’s single tank diving.

Back mount is when I'm teaching, otherwise I'm ALWAYS sidemount. I realize this is the cave forum and I don't think there is a better group to consider when it comes to trim . I'm in Mexico where AL80 is prominent.

I too love my jet fins. Great propulsion and very durable. But nobody can deny how heavy & negatively buoyant they are. That's why I picked up a pair of deep6 Eddy fins. It's essentially the same design with a different rubber formula to make then neutral (in salt water).