Weight Movement Solution needed

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belairbrian

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
189
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2
Location
South East USA
# of dives
200 - 499
My son (13) is diving a AquaLung Balance and a Steel HP 80. Usually a 3mil suit.

Well over the last 6 months he has grown over 6 inches and lost his baby fat or something, as he is now skinny and tall.

That's where the issue comes in. Last season he need around 8 lbs in his ditchable pockets and had good trim when horizontal or vertical. Now he needs 4 lbs and trim is good as long as the weights are at teh front of the pockets.

With a 2 pound in each side they tend to move back. I'm looking for a solution to keep them forward, was thinking maybe a rolled up hand towel as it would absorb water and be essentially neutral.

What has anyone had success with? Open to anything except sewing the pouches.
 
a weight belt?
 
you could try a weight harness, or use webbing and a little stiching to fix the location of the weights in a pocket.
 
I use lengths of PVC pipe in my trim pockets to keep the weights higher so you may could use a variation of that. Take a lengths of 2 or 2.5 inch PCV pipe that are long enough to keep the weights where you want them and boil them. They will get soft enough for you to mold into a shape that is similar to that of a weight. If you want them curved some, reheat them to just plyable and depress one side with a large bottle or can. Once they cool they are solid but have little to no buoyancy effect and dry quickly.
 
You could also use a red hot nail and pierce two holes in the weight pouch and put a zip tie or sex bolt to make the pocket effectively smaller.
 
Simple solution. dumpsterDiver already pointed it out -- weight belt. You can try weight keepers to maintain weight positioning.

I like herman's idea of using PVC piping.

Not sure what is meant by good trim while "vertical."
 
Are you talking about the front cargo pockets (non-ditchable)?

Try having him alter his body position first. If you're laying horizontal and planking in the water you tend to sink head first, or feet first.
More often than not body position will fix bad trim a lot quicker than weight placement. Keep the weights on your hips via weight belt, ditchable pockets or a combo of both.
He should look similar to this. That key is leg positioning. Some divers can hold a horizontal trim with just their legs up and arms to the side. Additionally some need to move their feet farther from their butt to maintain horizontal trim. It all depends.
[video=youtube;f9Tqli5uejQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Tqli5uejQ&feature=related[/video]
 
I agree that trim should not be an issue iregardless of body position in the water. Experiment by using the PVC pipe suggestion below or doing a few dives with a weight blet. My guess is that there will be no difference.
DivemasterDennis
 
Try moving the bc placement on the tank slightly up or down....
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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