Posted by roakey on August 27, 2001 at 16:52:29:
In Reply to: Ankle weights "training wheels"? More GUE derision posted by AADIVER on August 27, 2001 at 16:00:45:
When I first started diving dry, I felt that I needed ankle weights because otherwise my feet would float up.
Then I discovered that in actuality the problem was not floaty feet, but that I was more comfortable in the classic/common head up/feet down position that most divers exhibit. In a correct horizontal position it *feels* like your legs are going to take off, when in actuality there’s quite a bit of slop where you can get in a correct horizontal position without your feet rocking you forwards; it just takes practice to operate within that slop. So, I started playing around with a more horizontal position and discovered that the ankle weights actually kept me from assuming a correct horizontal trim. So I ditched the ankle weights and got some gators. Eventually I even ditched the gators and don’t dive with any weighting on my legs. In fact I keep struggling to get weight higher on my body to flatten out my trim.
I do wear gators when I think I might have to be in a head-down position for more than just a few seconds, like in a relatively small cave as you descend the far side of a breakdown room or something. In Open Ocean I never have to be in a head down position so I never wear gators.
I have yet to see *any* drysuit diver that wears ankle weights with trim less than 30 degrees from horizontal, with a 45 degree trim being typical. Heck, I’ve seen a few where it appears that seahorses are their swimming model -- I haven’t figured out how they get any forward vector!
If you had told me just three or four years ago that I could dive dry without ankle weights I would have told you that you were full of it, that it was absolutely impossible.
Roak