Trying to keep my fins in the water

[DiveMom1927]

I did a fairly long surface swim the other day. I noticed that as I was swimming out on my back it was a lot harder than it usually is to keep my fins deeper in the water. I thought about the differences in my usual dive gear and there was only one major difference. Instead of using a weight belt I dove with fully integrated weights. Is this why it was harder for me to keep my feet down? Should I invest in some ankle weights? Is there a differnt method I should use? Please let me know... It could have just been me... And I havent tried to dive with this fully integrated method again... which I will do to see if I still notice a difference or if it was just fluke. It just seemed extra hard to keep my feet as far down in the water as I usually do.... What are your suggestions?

 

[spectrum]

I suspect you have identified the problem. Moving the weight higher on your body would leave your feet high.

Question, how did the change effect your trim during the dive?

Question, why did you move the weight from your belt?

I doubt that ankle weights want to be the solution here but the answers to the questions will point the way.

Pete

 

[DiveMom1927]

Good question!! I changed from partial weight belt to fully integrated because I have a friend that LOVES diving fully integrated and figured I would give it a shot. So far its 1 point for weight belt. Yet, I will dive a couple of times fully integrated just to make sure of my preference. Practice makes perfect eh!!! I need to rule out other things... I didnt really notice too many other differences. Just mainly My fins out of the water~!!!!!

 

[captndale]

The key to keeping your fins in the water is to arch your back. Try looking forward, not down, and keep your arms and hands at your sides or, ideally, behind your back.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

The optimal choice of how you distribute your weights will depend very much on your other gear choices, as well as your specific physiology ... the idea is to use your weights to "balance" your body in the water when you are diving ... what you see referred to on the board as "trim". You want to distribute your weights in such a way that when you stop all motion, you will neither tilt head down nor feet down ... basically, you should be able to stop all motion and remain where you stopped without your weights wanting to pull you one way or the other.

For some people, integrated weight systems work out very well. For others, a weight belt is optimal. And for still others, distributing your weights between BCD and belt turns out to work best.

The best way to find out is to see how you trim out with the weights as you are using them, then move them around on subsequent dives (a little at a time) until you feel balanced. Generally speaking, integrated weight systems will move your weights higher up on your hips than a belt, so if you find yourself getting "feet heavy" you want to move more weight to the BCD ... and if you find yourself going head down you want to move more weight to the belt.

There are several weighting "solutions" available ... generally speaking, ankle weights are not an optimal solution for trim issues. They work well enough for people who tend to get air in their drysuit boots ... or for people who have fins that are positively buoyant. But I view them as more of a last resort than a first one.

(edited to add) ... Weighting considerations should be done while diving, not surface swimming. As someone has pointed out, the surface swimming issue is more one of technique than weight distribution.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[GA Under Water]

or just roll over on your back and that forces your fins down and you can surface swim that way Other than that, Arch your back and look where you are going.

 

[DiveMom1927]

Wow!Thanks for your responses. I was definately having trim issues.... I felt unbalanced the whole dive. I think I just noticed it the most on my surface swim out. I just couldnt put how I was feeling into words! I didnt know how to say I didnt feel balanced without giving an example like "my fins felt like they were out of the water more" or it felt like i was trying too hard to keep them down. Thanks so much!!!

 

[nwbrewer]

How do you have your weight spread out? I noticed in your other thread you're diving wet I'm guessing a 7mm, so you're going to have a lot of positive bouyancy due to the wetsuit. I like spreading my weight out a bit, with my old BC these - http://www.xsscuba.com/weight_belts.html
along with using some weight in the integrated pockets helped a lot to get my trim the way I wanted it.

Jake

 

[RICHinNC]

You might also try not inflating your bc as much as you did. That will make you glide lower in the water.

 

[zackalack8999]

Rich beat me to it, usually, when i'm at the surface, my bc is almost completely deflated, so I use the minimum amount of weight during a dive. If I need to decend I swim down the first few feet and then it's much easier. This would allow you to be much lower in the water. I don't know if this is the correct way to go about doing things, I'm not very experienced, but it has worked for me in the past.


edit: take into account, all of my dives have been in 7 ml wetsuits with about 25 pounds of weight on the belt/ integrated.