Buoyancy issues...

[stairman]

Who said to add weight below your waist? The harness weight I was referring to is at the shoulders. Obviously if you have weight pockets on a BC your still in the cavern diver relm. And with usual padding there as most BC's have , the weights would need to be double ziptied there. I punched a hole in my harness straps where I wanted my weights to sit and added a gromet to each side and have my weight there. My old Transpak 1 straps are too wide to slip through the hardweights so I had to Mcgyver it but it works.

[giles45shop]

If you are going to do cave training past cavern, you might as well go ahead and switch over to a back plate & wing now. Spending a bunch of time trying to dial in your trim w/ a rec/tec back inflate BC that you are not going to use for cave diving is somewhat counterproductive. You may find the same thing w/ the H-valves, as its much more common these days to dive doubles at a Basic/Intro level.

As far as fins, OMS slipstreams are very similar to Jets in design and function, but are made of a much lighter polymer compound. They are a great choice if you need lighter fins.

The arching of the back and proper bend to the legs also tends to help with preventing a feet heavy condition.

John

[stairman]

I wondered if the slipstreams were lighter than Dive-rites? My old Dive-rites finally ripped but they are swapping them out for me for free. Apparently the older ones used a bad polymer that caused the problem which is now solved.

[WJefferis]

The Dive Rite fins are nice and light and may very well solve your problem. They made a massive difference for me. Like I stated earlier in jet fins I was standing straight up in the water and had to fight like Hell to attempt to staryed trimmed out. I put on the dive rite fins ans was trimmed out with no other modification to me or my gear.

Edd has the best price on them: www.caveadventurers.com

[Greenwood_60]

The weight below the waist I was talking about was the comment about attaching weight to the crotch strap, sorry for the confusion. I don't know where I could easily attach weights to the straps of my bc, but it sounds like the best solution. I am going to play around at Hudson Grotto Sunday to see if I can't get it all sorted out with my rec bc. A 7 mil pair of thick soled booties would probably help a lot too.

I am planning on getting my cave cert, thats why I picked up all the gear i have. My girlfriend wants to also, but is going to take it a lot slower. I don't mind tweeking all the gear, I kinda geek out on all of it.

[Greenwood_60]

I think I am doing OK with my knees bent/back arched position... but I don't have anyone to spot me on it. I will bring a camera next time for my buddy to film me, which I have been thinking about doing anyways.

I think the fins would help a lot too, but I love my splits! I have my jets, which I will pull out at Hudson Grotto Sunday. How are the OMS fins compared to the Scuba Pros?

[HeloDriver]

The key in my opinion is to find a mentor. The amount of information that a cave instructor can convey to you in a given amount of time is fantastic. This will not only save you time but it will save you a ton of frustration in getting your kit/ trim/ buoyancy sorted out.

[GeorgiaDoc]

I had the same problem. Switching to drysuit helped me alot because I don't use gaiters and the bit of air in my feet help to increase my lower extremity buoyancy.

[Sludge]

but I love my splits!

Split fins are designed to be used with the flutter kick, and the flutter kick has no place in caves. The sooner you get rid of them and perfect the frog kick and scull kick, the better off you'll be.

[stairman]

Agreed! Ive never seen a cave diver in split fins. Something else to get the line hung up in too.