Why so much Horizontal trim ?

[gypsyjim]

Another benefit to horizontal trim, that someone may have mentioned and I just missed, is it allows for better control of ascents and descents. Easier to slow yourself down by flaring, on either an ascent or the descent, and also, you can dump a significantly larger amount of gas, more quickly from the rear dump valve, than the shoulder valve, if you should need to halt your ascent quickly.

The neck/head tilt thing was a bit hard for me to adjust to at the beginning also, although I did come pretty close, even with my poor flexibility.

 

[ccx2]

Ok all y'all ,thanks for expaining it for me.

 

[TMHeimer]

Horizontal is the most efficient, easiest, and most fun way to dive (neck problems aside, I guess). As mentioned, there are times a diver may opt for something different--I've heard some UW photogs do at times.

 

[Angry Turtle]

nevermind, misunderstood

 

[Doc Harry]

...I just don't like it....

I know what you mean. I really disliked being in proper trim when I was a beginner diver. Felt un-natural.

Give it some time. Eventually you will come to appreciate all the benefits of the position of proper trim.

I was diving in Thailand a few weeks ago and thought about this very subject. I was actually keep my trim a little head-down to keep my fins as far away from the reef as possible. I recalled that, as a novice diver, I really disliked being in that position. Now I enjoy it, and also have the knowledge that I'm not going to be kicking the reef.

 

[TSandM]

Trim is a tool. The "default" position should be horizontal, but there are times when it is fine not to be in that position -- for example, if you are drifting along a vertical wall, there's no particular reason to be perfectly horizontal (although if you aren't, it will be hard to back up if the water begins to push you into the coral!)

People have already mentioned both reducing the effort of swimming forward by presenting the smallest cross-sectional area to the water, and also not disturbing bottom sediments and reducing the vis. But there is another, more subtle and pernicious problem with being out of trim.

If you are swimming with your head up 45 degrees and you kick, where is your kicking pushing you? Forward . . . and UP. Each kick wants to push you shallower in the water column. So, in order to remain at the depth you want, what do you have to do? You have to produce a force downward that counters that force upward from your fins -- and you do that by remaining negative, so that if you stop swimming, you will sink. That leads to two things -- one, a significant part of your kicking effort is expended just to remain where you ARE; that's all breathing gas you used to achieve a net of nothing. Second, because you are not neutral, you CANNOT stop -- if you stop, you will sink. That makes inspecting small animals or getting good photographs very difficult, and in some cases, can lead to a great deal of anxiety on the part of the diver, who feels like he is sinking all the time. (Note that the exact same arguments apply if you are feet-up, as some wetsuit divers are, except that you have to stay positive instead of negative, but you still can't stop.)

Being able to stay horizontal and STILL is one of the core competencies of diving. Once you have a stable, flat platform, you can perturb it at will, knowing what you are doing and what the effects are going to be. But until you have that platform, you are constantly correcting some kind of instability, and it limits what you can do.

 

[Tigerman]

Watch this video, and see the effects of not keeping a horizontal trim

Awful - YouTube

MAN he needs to work on his streamlining

Sorry, couldnt help myself..

Horizontal is the most efficient, easiest, and most fun way to dive (neck problems aside, I guess). As mentioned, there are times a diver may opt for something different--I've heard some UW photogs do at times.
​

I do change my trim from time to time depending on the dive. If I know Im gonna "work" at the bottomn, I might opt for overweighting myself. If I know Ill be looking for stuff in nooks and crannies in the reef I might go in top-heavy as I rather be with my head down than kicking the reef. On a wall I might be foot heavy as most the stuff is along the wall.
Generally though, if Im trimmed horizontal and weighted properly, I can go feet up or head up by changing my pose anyways.​

 

[DevonDiver]

Why so much attention to strive to be perfectly horizontal when diving ? It seems some think it makes them look bad to others and tags them as a novice

Because poor trim has major repurcussions...

It increases air consumption, therefore reducing dive time and/or increasing risk of low-on-air/out-of-air situations
It causes physical fatigue
It encourages downwards fining for buoyancy control (actually, NOT buoyancy control at all).. which leads to damage to bthe environment or reduced visibility through the disturbing of bottom particulates....

Why is trim so important to some and how does it benefit ?

It benefits you... if you want do dive wrecks with me. I won't take 'silt kickers' into/onto wrecks.
It benefits the environment... as the corals don't get smashed
It benefits photographers, because they can take pictures of fish, rather than silt-storms.
It benefits.... well, you get the idea

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I don't find proper trim difficult to attain, but perhaps because I'm a new diver, I just don't like it. Yes, when I'm trying to get somewhere, I will be perfectly horizontal. This also goes for when I need to hover just inches off a reef or something.

But besides those 2 circumstances, I prefer not to be trim. Very rarely do I dive while looking straight down at the bottom. I like to look ahead as well, but if you're perfectly trim, you need to cock your head back a bit to look forward, and I find this to be a strain on my neck. Perhaps as I get more experience, I will come to prefer being trim all the time, but for now, I definitely do not. Come to think of it, I do have a neck problem .. if that's a part of it, maybe I will never prefer being trim. hmmm....

I agree with this sentiment a lot. If you are looking ahead, scanning for things... staying horizontal is really bad for the neck. I'm much more comfortable with my body tilted upward and my neck in a more relaxed and natral position.

Also, some people have commented that the most steamlined position is to have the legs bent at 90 degrees. That position may facilitate a certain type of kick and is effective in preventing silt stirring from the bottom, but I find it hard to believe that holding the lower leg perpendicular to the forward motion does not have some influence on drag.

 

[Rich Keller]

Not wanting to highjack gcarters thread about trim so I started this one to ask, Why so much attention to strive to be perfectly horizontal when diving ? It seems some think it makes them look bad to others and tags them as a novice. Why is trim so important to some and how does it benefit ? I must be a Dork because my feet/fins are usually about 10/15 degrees high .

Trim may not be your issue. You might not have enough weight so you need to keep swimming down just to maintain your depth.