I'll take perfect bouyancy and trim for $500 Alex!

[SeaJayInSC]

Did I miss something..? I guess we're either on different wavelengths, or I don't understand what you were saying.

I was just saying that it was interesting that NetDoc told me to make my username "Deep South Divers" (the name of my company), when clearly you had stated that people were ticked at you for supposedly "promoting your business."

I went from being banned to promoting my business (through my username) in one phone call. NetDoc could have simply reinstated my "SeaJay" username... But instead opted to suggest a new name that would clearly promote my company.

...Which I thought pretty odd.

 

[tgreene]

Ahhhh, gotcha.

 

[yousmellsfishy]

I watched the video again, and I realized that maybe it's not the perfect bouyancy so much as it is the perfect trim. Even when he reaches back behind himself he stays perfectly trimmed.

Oops.
I just re-read the title of the thread - perfect bouyancy and trim. Never mind

 

[SeaJayInSC]

Yeah, I agree... It's both.

The first thing is that he's got the absolute perfect amount of weight on... Not a pound too heavy, not a pound too light. That is, with an empty tank (or two empty tanks in this case), an empty wing and a full breath of air, he floats exactly on the surface such that the water bisects his mask. If he breathes out, then he sinks slightly - which is to say that he's exactly weighted down to the pound. This minimizes the size of the bubble he's got to have in his wing to make him neutral, making him more stable and easier to control up or down with his lungs.

...Then he works on weight placement for trim. Some of it will go on his waist, some on his backplate, and some somewhere between. He may place his wing or his tanks in different places in ordrer to nail his body's tendency to flatten out underwater. If he stops moving completely, he should "even out" horizontally. If he breathes in, he should rise a little (flat and horizontally), and if he breathes out he should sink a little (flat and horizontally).

He's wearing ScubaPro Jet fins - which are very heavy fins - and favored by many divers for this reason: They make his feet heavy. If he straightens his knees, his whole body should "tilt up," without changing depth in the water. If he bends his knees so that his heels are nearly touching his buttocks, then he should "tilt down" without changing depth. A 90* bend should make him perfectly flat.

This postion will also give him a tremendous advantage in that he's resistant to depth changes, but streamlined to resist current or move in any direction.

Simple, small fin tip movements (which are easily controlled with stiff fins like Jets) of different sorts will propel him forward, propel him backwards (yeah, try that in a set of split fins) or rotate him (called a "helicopter" kick).

This position also aids in decompression and completely frees the hands so that you can work... Or handle lines... Or handle lights... Or fly a scooter... Or run the video camera... Or switch to your decompression gas... Or stuff a reg into the mouth of an OOG buddy.