Posted by seahunt on January 26, 2002 at 21:06:42:
OK, I did a dive today, mostly to study my bouyancy and trim.
I'm trying to figure things out best so I can to buy a new BC. I like the idea of a backplate and small wing.
Almost everybody seems to agree that a SS backplate moves the weight and divers center of gravity up so that they have better trim in the water.
Sure enough, if I get just a little negatively bouyant, my body stays up and my feet go down.
But does it matter?
Really, it's not much weight on my feet in any case. Besides that, when swimming, my down stroke is always going to be stronger than my up stroke, so that tends to mean that I have to work to keep my head and chest from being forced down by swimming. I'm using back and neck muscles to keep my chest and head up. It's not a big problem, but I can't see why I would want more weight up near my chest in any case.
I can see that you wouldn't want to have your feet heavy if you are using a scooter, but those are still rarer on the west coast than almost any critter you want to name including moray eels, so I don't consider that to be of any import to me... I'm never likely to own one.
Really, I'm thinking of an AL or even ABS backplate because of the lightness when travelling. I really see no advantage to lightening up my feet.
Any thoughts on this???
Enjoy the diving, seahunt