Trying to compensate for feet down trim when wearing no exposure protection and little weight

[Slate]

Get the right gear, adjust it properly, dive it, adjust it again until it’s right.

And yet when other people ask about moving weight around and cutting as much weight as possible, "they're overthinking". Yeah ok.

a half pound here and there on equipment is excessive and can be easily fixed with better diver posture..

No, it can't.

 

[CT-Rich]

A diver who is in anything less than perfect trim is using some, or even a lot of movements to compensate. The closer one gets to that "perfect trim" the less movement is required, less energy expended, less gas used- and that means a longer, more comfortable dive.

To say "Oh it doesn't matter they are overthinking micro weight adjustments is spoken by a lazy person who is ok doing something half-assed. That's the difference in attitude between those who succeed and even excel in life and those who are content to sit in a cubicle all day watching the clock and collecting a paycheck from a boss who is making a heck of a lot more money than they ever will.

So let me get this straight.... a diver should adjust small weights all over his body so that he will be perfectly, effortlessly trim? You know, I can adjust my trim by bending my knee or pushing my hands farther out or closer in, right? I decide to ditch my hood for the second dive and bring a light on the second dive, I should micro adjust my weighting? Should drain I my tank and do a weight check before the dive? At what point should I say good enough?

The buoyancy swing of 80Al tank is around 6 lbs (~3 kg). Is moving a pound or two around the divers body on an a given dive really going to make some significant difference?

I am not saying a diver shouldn’t put some thought into being trim, but “micro adjusting weights”? I thought that was called “swimming” or “using your BCD”. I can roll a air bubble in my BCD forward or backwards two feet to shift me from a level to head down position. My experience as a diver can probably trump your “micro adjusted” weights. Where a pound of lead is sitting just isn’t going to make huge difference.

 

[Steelyeyes]

I think we should institute a don't ask, don't tell policy on whether we put weights in unauthorized areas or not to promote diver harmony.

 

[MichaelMc]

Where a pound of lead is sitting just isn’t going to make huge difference.

I would not say huge. I would say useful. I was a bit foot heavy. I resolved it by shifting 1 lb. up 8” in my spine weight pouch. I could deal with it earlier, now I don’t need to. Seemed silly not to fix it.

 

[Steelyeyes]

I found that not only can I remain horizontal I can stop moving altogether and not slowly roll over tank down when I moved my 2 lb weights from the trim pouches on my lower tank band to my shoulder straps just above my D rings. Now I can be very still and shoot photos without sculling my fins at all. No other contortions required.

Keeping all of my lead below my center of buoyancy just made sense.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I was once accused of having too floaty of feet. Regardless of whether that was true or not, I switched my booties from zippered 5 mm hard soles to low cut 3 mm tropical booties.

Why wouldn't more neoprene on heavy feet help for someone with the opposite problem like the OP?

 

[YZed426]

Probably tried it already, but go inverted. Get any bubbles in the BCD away from your shoulders. That got me from my profile picture to this

 

[Diving Dubai]

I'm with @PfcAJ on this one.

Posture and positioning is king. Weighting will only be ideal/perfect for one part of the dive when gas contents get to a certain level. It does take practice. People often relax and let their legs drop etc, then blame it on weighting

Trim is like riding a bicycle where you (generally) constantly make sub conscious imperceptible changes to your body position to maintain balance

Using your core muscles and changing body position to refine C of G is the key (assuming you're not significantly over or under) but a couple lbs here and there should matter not. Heck when I teach in a OW students while wearing a BCD, I'm carrying a significant amount of extra weight, thrown in to which ever pocket it will fit in case I have to refine a student's weighting. And yet I can maintain buoyancy and trim without effort.

For me a practice example was when I use SM rather than my normal large single steel BM, the first time I was hovering in SM I realised that I was no longer counteracting the desire of my steel tank to become a keel and rotate me. I'd never notice the sub conscious corrections my body made before because it's automatic.

 

[MichaelMc]

Using your core muscles and changing body position to refine C of G is the key (assuming you're not significantly over or under) but a couple lbs here and there should matter not. Heck when I teach in a OW students while wearing a BCD, I'm carrying a significant amount of extra weight, thrown in to which ever pocket it will fit in case I have to refine a student's weighting. And yet I can maintain buoyancy and trim without effort.
For me a practice example was when I use SM rather than my normal large single steel BM, the first time I was hovering in SM I realised that I was no longer counteracting the desire of my steel tank to become a keel and rotate me. I'd never notice the sub conscious corrections my body made before because it's automatic.

Bolding above is mine.

In working to prove your point, that it's become subconscious, you prove my point, that constant effort need not be necessary. Which you did not realize until your mass was below your buoyancy. To each their own.

Now, if you have to have very negative steels above you with no other ballast, then you are forced to have center of mass above center of buoyancy, and the effort is necessary. But if you are not forced, then the effort is not necessary.

There are many types of tanks, a neutral or positive tank might not act like a keel above you, if your diving supports it. Plus, as you noticed, sidemount puts tanks at your side instead of your back. But sidemount is not my point. Center of mass just a tad below center of buoyancy is.

 

[Londy]

Why wouldn't more neoprene on heavy feet help for someone with the opposite problem like the OP?

Or 2 small airbags clipped to the fin straps?