September 30th, 2017

Thoughts on 27- Breaking Trim

Thoughts on 27- Breaking Trim

At the end of Episode 27, I made a comment about needing perfect buoyancy. Brando spoke of the artist breaking the rules of photography to create the magic in an image.  At the same time, I was making a point about the diver doing the same thing and becoming an artist themselves. An artist underwater. A diver really awakening and making diving an art. Someone more than a person with a C-Card.
I said that in the beginning you need to work hard on getting perfect buoyancy. The new diver needs to have a solid foundation in this base because it is the core of everything you will do underwater. The new diver needs to find an instructor that can help them build and develop this ability. Precision buoyancy, controlled trim, effortless balance, and a mastery of propulsion that gives them an ability to move carefree and aware and for deliberate purpose.
It is after you have mastered these that you can learn to break trim on purpose. So you can move from horizontal to vertical and back to horizontal in a calculated manner that doesn’t disrupt any of the environment. Where you can film and follow an Eagle Ray passing over you, enter a hatch on a shipwreck, swim through a hollow in the coral reef or navigate a restriction in a cave. These are done without hands flailing or floundering and always return you back to your neutral, balanced and controlled base.
This ability should not be a specialty. It should not be advanced training for the elite. This should be the beginning.

James