ok, so i just switched to a bp/harness setup and tried stuff out in the pool and in open water. damn this thing rocks. orientate yourself in any manner and you just stay there. this thing is just flat neutral. doesn't tip your head forward, doesn't let your legs drop. my trim improved 100% when hovering. no more resting fin tips on coral when i am not finning. it was neutral from full tank to empty (in the pool of course), 0 inflation to 1/2 full.
so my question is, how does it work so well?
i used to have a back inflated bc. was great except that my legs would drop when i'm hovering. in fact, it would tip me over till i'm about 30% facing the sky if i completely relaxed. had tried inflating a little bit to see if the air trapped at the bottom of the wing would help - not really.
then i went back to the pool and tried experimenting to see if i could achieve the same horizontal trim as a bp/harness with a rental jacket bc. i placed weights at various positions along the tank to see if it would work. to cut a long story short, only way i could keep perfect horizontal trim while hovering was if i held the weights with my outstretched hands, in front of me. quite tiring after a while . at that point, it was hard keeping my balance anyway, with the tank wobbling on my back and my flimsy 90 lb weakling arms trying to hold the weights steady.
i had even tried moving the tank further up so that the cg of the tank would be at about the midpoint of my back (my estimated cg). doesn't help either. legs still dropped.
then i thought maybe it was because the bp/harness is an exact fit while most other bc's don't stick to you as much. so i used a smaller size and tightened everything so much that i could hardly breathe. on top of that, i pulled on the jacket with my hands so that it would stick to me. nope, doesn't work either.
this seems to be a very interesting design issue to me. can anyone shed light on this?
so my question is, how does it work so well?
i used to have a back inflated bc. was great except that my legs would drop when i'm hovering. in fact, it would tip me over till i'm about 30% facing the sky if i completely relaxed. had tried inflating a little bit to see if the air trapped at the bottom of the wing would help - not really.
then i went back to the pool and tried experimenting to see if i could achieve the same horizontal trim as a bp/harness with a rental jacket bc. i placed weights at various positions along the tank to see if it would work. to cut a long story short, only way i could keep perfect horizontal trim while hovering was if i held the weights with my outstretched hands, in front of me. quite tiring after a while . at that point, it was hard keeping my balance anyway, with the tank wobbling on my back and my flimsy 90 lb weakling arms trying to hold the weights steady.
i had even tried moving the tank further up so that the cg of the tank would be at about the midpoint of my back (my estimated cg). doesn't help either. legs still dropped.
then i thought maybe it was because the bp/harness is an exact fit while most other bc's don't stick to you as much. so i used a smaller size and tightened everything so much that i could hardly breathe. on top of that, i pulled on the jacket with my hands so that it would stick to me. nope, doesn't work either.
this seems to be a very interesting design issue to me. can anyone shed light on this?