Took me 8 dives to realize my weight belt was killing my trim

I was diving for a bridge repair job near Savannah last summer and kept fighting to stay horizontal. Thought it was just current or my gear setup. Then a guy on our crew, Dave who's been doing this 20 years, watched me suit up and said 'why you got all your weight on your hips?' I had all 40 pounds right on my belt instead of distributing it. He made me move 12 pounds up to my tank and shift the rest to harness pockets. Next dive I could hover flat without kicking my legs off. Been doing it wrong since my first cert and nobody ever corrected me. Has anyone else found a simple change like that that totally fixed their underwater posture?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_wyatt1mo ago

Twenty pounds on the belt does explain that extra buoyancy issue.

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sam_anderson1mo ago

Twenty pounds is basically wearing a whole extra small dog under your wetsuit, @the_wyatt. No wonder you were floating around like a cork out there. I once strapped on fifteen pounds and felt like I was fighting for my life just to get below the surface, so twenty sounds like a full time job. Guess the fish probably thought you were a buoy or something. At least you didn't end up doing the frantic paddle back to shore like I did my first time.

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