Trying different positions

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RumBum

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I am trying to learn to hover on my back underwater without sinking. I am not overweighted, in fact an aluminum backplate and steel cam buckles are the only weight I use.
I held my breath, I sank. I added air to the wing and I floated upwards. In a belly-down horizontal position I can hover. In vertical head-up or feet-up position I can hover. Why can't I hover on my back?
 
Just a guess, but it may be you lack familiar reference points when you are on your back. Face down, it's pretty easy to maintain neutral buoyancy because you're looking at the bottom. If it gets closer, you're sinking; farther, you're rising. Face up, there is no reference point to judge your relative up-down movement. Kind of like how you can't tell how fast you're moving when looking out of the window of a plane.

Ed
 
Rumbum: It's always fun to try new positions. My daughter is 10, sometimes I swim upside down under her going backward to watch her as intently as possible but I'm moving all the while so it makes it easier. I'm going to the quarry tonight; I'll give that hovering on my back in place one a shot.
 
New positions...hmmm :eyebrow: ... hehehe :eyebrow: (Sorry, I just had to!)

Anyway, I agree with what Ed said about the point of reference. That would be my guess too.
 
OOOHHHHH... you mean scuba positions. Silly me.... got all excited for nothing. Sorry it's Friday, it's been a long week and I'm feeling a little deprived. Hehehe
 
When supine you might try the following:

Drop your feet and bend your knees. Just like a frog kick.

Arms floating sort of in front on your face. Again like an inverted frog kick position.

I love this position on deco/safety stops. I use the bottom of the boat or surface for my visual reference.

Don't alter your normal breathing.

One last thought:
Are you using an AL 80 tank?

If so at the end of the dive you will be 4 lbs positive. This will make it harder than say using a steel tank where you are neutral or slightly negative.

As Stardust mentioned - moving makes it easier.
 
Ya know, sometimes just watching the bottom can be a bit deceiving. A few weeks ago at the Keys Invasion I was doing a drift dive on Conch wall... well, reef, the wall showed up some 60m into the dive.. Anyway, I thought for sure I was getting positively buoyant near the end of the dive. After checking my guage(s) I double checked that I was indeed at the same depth I had maintained through the dive.. 42'. The start of the dive I was only 10' off the bottom, 55m into the dive I had about 20'... so simply using visual reference as a guide would have made that a very interesting dive indeed.

Visual is definitely used though. Ears are a good indicator to. Mine require fairly consistant equalization on descent.. On ascent I can also feel the change in as little as 5'. Lastly, I use the combination my depth guage and my computer since one is a little more accurate than the other in reference to my 'depth' vs. actual depth.

Of course, I'll have to try this floating on back stuff... upside down, on my side, drifting backwards I have the T-shirt for.. but not on my back. Well, I lie there to since I have a great pic of me on my back over Molasses reef in the keys.. but it was sort of an upside down 'wah-hoo!' vs. floating. :)
 
Nothing constructive to add here. Just another reader attracted by the thread title.
 
Ed - the place where I was practicing has a PVC cage-swimthrough thing. I was inside it, looking up at the "ceiling" of the cage for vis reference.

OE2X - that sounds like good advice, I will try bending my legs and arms. I use a HP steel tank, I forgot to list that in my weighting at the opening of this thread. It's a teensy bit negative. I was practicing with about 1000-1500 lbs of air.
 

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