Foot Heavy fin suggestions

[bpcfire1]

I use the following when diving wet. They are lighter then DR fins but seem just as stiff. Ive had mine for about 1yr and seem to hold up well.


http://www.typhoon-int.co.uk/product...hurricane_fin/

[Benderr]

I tried a few different fins, and picked up a pair of Slipstreams. They seem pretty close to the DR, perhaps a little heavier in air, but a little more floaty in the water. In any event, they helped. I also felt like my frog kick improved, as it seemed easier to hold them together before resetting, I felt like I was always resetting the DR's too soon. The DR's seemed to cramp me regularly too. No cramps with the OMS, but that may have been coincidence.

While the fins helped, they weren't 100% of my problem. I'm dropping my knees, especially when I'm going into current. Any tips on keeping my knees up?

[Bobby]

Well I just posted this in another thread however it seems more relevant here. I have found that it applies for both BM & SM.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet, which I believe is the most important, is the position of the SM rig on the persons body. Most people that are in a foot heavy position tend to have the SM rig too high on their body. The top of the wing is up on the back of their neck and I have even seen it touching their head. This is far too high in my experience. The top of our wings are a few inches below our shoulders. This puts the lift lower (along with pinching down the top of the wing so it holds less gas up top) and makes it easier to trim out the rig to the individual. When I work with people on their SM set up the first thing I do is get their rig trimmed out without cylinders. Then we work on getting the cylinders trimmed with their rig. The top of my valves are a good ways lower from my armpits which gives me plenty of room to move or even cross my arms without the valves or the cylinders getting in the way.

Most of the time people have the shoulder straps too tight and the crotch strap too loose. The shoulder straps determine where the rig sits on the body and the crotch strap keeps it secure against the body and in the correct position. I like to have a bit of a "V" on my waist belt from the crotch strap pulling it down. Once the rig is set on the body in the right place then the shoulder D-rings usually need to be adjusted down as well to be in the right position.

I hope that helps for anyone that is interested.

BTW Dr. X and I both still dive Jets. Many people find that they make them foot heavy however the way we have our rigs set up we are trimmed with the Jets regardless of diving dry or wet.

[Benderr]

Well I just posted this in another thread however it seems more relevant here. I have found that it applies for both BM & SM.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet, which I believe is the most important, is the position of the SM rig on the persons body. Most people that are in a foot heavy position tend to have the SM rig too high on their body. The top of the wing is up on the back of their neck and I have even seen it touching their head. This is far too high in my experience. The top of our wings are a few inches below our shoulders. This puts the lift lower (along with pinching down the top of the wing so it holds less gas up top) and makes it easier to trim out the rig to the individual. When I work with people on their SM set up the first thing I do is get their rig trimmed out without cylinders. Then we work on getting the cylinders trimmed with their rig. The top of my valves are a good ways lower from my armpits which gives me plenty of room to move or even cross my arms without the valves or the cylinders getting in the way.

Most of the time people have the shoulder straps too tight and the crotch strap too loose. The shoulder straps determine where the rig sits on the body and the crotch strap keeps it secure against the body and in the correct position. I like to have a bit of a "V" on my waist belt from the crotch strap pulling it down. Once the rig is set on the body in the right place then the shoulder D-rings usually need to be adjusted down as well to be in the right position.

I hope that helps for anyone that is interested.

BTW Dr. X and I both still dive Jets. Many people find that they make them foot heavy however the way we have our rigs set up we are trimmed with the Jets regardless of diving dry or wet.

I think I'm squared-away on my straps, but I do wear my wing as high as I can get it. I'll try lowering it and see if helps. Thanks.

[PsychDiver]

I've been diving jets SM which work fine for me diving dry as long as I keep some air in my feet. My problem comes when I have to do a duck-under -- I'm fine going down, but coming up the other side I have to drop my feet, and then I'm in an uncontrolled pitch-up with the bubble leaving my feet and going to my shoulders and the only way out is to kick with my feet in the silt. I know there has to be a technique way around this but the only thing I can think of is to get a lighter fin, then dump my drysuit air when doing a duck-under and just using wing air for buoyancy. Any tips would be welcome, but I suspect this is a practice issue since none of the experienced SM buddies I dive with has come up with a magic bullet.

Most of the suggestions here are hard to come by -- Slipstreams are discontinued -- there are some listed at Edd's but not in my size. Did find a pair of Dacor Turboflex on ebay for $17 so for that price I'll give 'em a try (probably have to switch out the rubber heel straps but I'm sure I've got some springs in the misc. bag somewhere).

[Benderr]

Most of the suggestions here are hard to come by -- Slipstreams are discontinued -- there are some listed at Edd's but not in my size. Did find a pair of Dacor Turboflex on ebay for $17 so for that price I'll give 'em a try (probably have to switch out the rubber heel straps but I'm sure I've got some springs in the misc. bag somewhere).

I think I saw some XL Slipstreams on Ebay earlier today. You may also want to call Edd's. Sometimes the stock that's listed on the site isn't 100% accurate.

[RN]

I've been diving jets SM which work fine for me diving dry as long as I keep some air in my feet. My problem comes when I have to do a duck-under -- I'm fine going down, but coming up the other side I have to drop my feet, and then I'm in an uncontrolled pitch-up with the bubble leaving my feet and going to my shoulders and the only way out is to kick with my feet in the silt. I know there has to be a technique way around this but the only thing I can think of is to get a lighter fin, then dump my drysuit air when doing a duck-under and just using wing air for buoyancy. Any tips would be welcome, but I suspect this is a practice issue since none of the experienced SM buddies I dive with has come up with a magic bullet.

You shouldn't be relying on any gas bubble to keep you trim, even a gas bubble in your wing, IMO. But I've had 3 wing failures. Had I relied on my wing for trim I would have been swimming out with my feet in the silt too and blowing out the cave. That didn't happen though because I'm trimmed out with an empty wing. You just need to get your rig trimmed out and there really isn't a magic bullet. Everyone's physique is different so everyone will trim out differently. There are people who are also adamantly against using trim weights. How many are neutrally buoyant with empty cylinders? I know I'm not. I have 4 lbs of trim weight, and this time of year, since I wear an extra layer of undergarments (not for the dive but rather the surface interval!) I have another 4 lbs mid back. Also, eventually you will be able to trim out no matter what fins you wear. I swapped fins with a student a couple months ago. He had the heavy Jets or F1s. I expected to have my feet drop but they didn't. Similar to what's been posted in another thread about being able to trim out in any cylinder after you've built up some experience. It just happens.

[Bobby]

Rob brings up an important point that I have found a good number of people have not considered. For those that have considered it there are generally two schools of thought. The first is to weight yourself for 99% of the time you are diving. IE to not be over weighted during the 99% of the time the dive goes fine and if a situation comes up where it is required to go into the last third of our gas then we can fin down or push off the ceiling. The second approach is to be weighted for when everything goes wrong and we are in the last third of our gas so we are not fighting buoyancy issues when we have other problems as well.

My opinion is to go with option two. I would rather have my weighting so I don't have to fight positive buoyancy when things are already bad. To me it is a more conservative because that extra weight will require a bit more gas in the wing which adds a bit more drag at the beginning of the dive making it easier on the way out when we have breathed down our gas and have less gas in the wing. This is how we approach it.

Now this brings up weighting in the team. Dr. X and I want to be able to use whichever cylinders for either one of us however I am very negative in the water. With LP Fabers I don't need any weight even with the cylinders down to 200 psi. I have a picture from when I breathed down a set of 95's just to see if I could stay down. They were floating like AL cylinders however I could maintain 5, 10, & 20 foot stops in trim. Dr. X needs 4 pounds on her rig to do the same with the same cylinders. Even Faber HP 100's make a considerable difference for how much gas I have to put in my wing to stay neutral, a set of 104's I have to use my dry suit with my wing to stay neutral when they are full. So our solution is to add the 4 lbs. to her rig so either of us can dive all of the cylinders we own which are all LP Fabers and AL 80's.

There is also a considerable difference for me in buoyancy between my neoprene and trilam DS's. The neoprene is compressed and warm so I don't need much for thermals and during the summer I don't use any thermals unless I am doing something over 3 hours. With the trilam because I am cold blooded I wear heavy thermals which make me more buoyant so I find that I need to have considerably more air in my wing with the neoprene compared to the trilam. Since I carry zero weight and have the lightest steel cylinders available there is nothing I can do other than add more air to the wing.

[skip]

I've been diving jets SM which work fine for me diving dry as long as I keep some air in my feet. My problem comes when I have to do a duck-under -- I'm fine going down, but coming up the other side I have to drop my feet, and then I'm in an uncontrolled pitch-up with the bubble leaving my feet and going to my shoulders and the only way out is to kick with my feet in the silt. I know there has to be a technique way around this but the only thing I can think of is to get a lighter fin, then dump my drysuit air when doing a duck-under and just using wing air for buoyancy. Any tips would be welcome, but I suspect this is a practice issue since none of the experienced SM buddies I dive with has come up with a magic bullet.

Most of the suggestions here are hard to come by -- Slipstreams are discontinued -- there are some listed at Edd's but not in my size. Did find a pair of Dacor Turboflex on ebay for $17 so for that price I'll give 'em a try (probably have to switch out the rubber heel straps but I'm sure I've got some springs in the misc. bag somewhere).

The uncontrolled feet down after the duck under is I believe due to old open water habit - when swimming along and reef or wreck blocks your path, you simply go a bit head up (feet down) and go over it. Next time, give a conscious effort to duck your head down, raise your feet just a tad and use your ass to raise you over the other side. You can also practice this anywhere, u/w that is, by simply raising your ass end. even stationary. even if your knees tend to come down a bit it won't be enough for them to touch. when you ascend ass-first to your desired distance off the bottom, resume normal profile. I may be off-base and this "technique" may be a band-aid for some other buoyancy issue I have unbeknownst to me. I'm sure others will jump in with comments - no instructor has told me to do this; I sort of discovered it on my own back in the day of wreck diving to get me up off the silty floors in a hurry with no hands or feet motion and no addition or subtraction of gas to wing or drysuit.


skip

[Onniman]

Some thoughts about the trim issues, too heavy feet is a trim issue if anything.
When starting to dive with the dry suit, one must remember that it takes many dives to get use to it and much more to master it.
Therefore, If your suit is not vacuum there is always at least little air movement inside the suit, imho the biggest thing to have good trim with dry suit is that one must be able to regulate where the air is.
As somebody earlier said, get married with your suit before changing your other gear.

-j