How Finning Can Improve Your Buoyancy

Mastering neutral buoyancy lets you experience zero gravity and become one with the underwater environment.

Like the symbiotic relationships between clownfish and anemones, sharks and remoras, or coral and zooxanthellae, finning and neutral buoyancy are inseparably intertwined. These tips will help you fine-tune your trim in the water.

In order to become a neutral-buoyancy pro, start by examining your chosen gear, which affects how you move. Fins propel you through the water, and also help you steer, turn and move forward or backward. Just as you would own different shoes for different occasions and sports, you’ll also want a variety of fins for different diving conditions and finning styles.

Practice finning on the surface in a pool or on a checkout dive—this will help you work out any kinks before you descend. On the surface, get in a vertical body position, extend your fins down and raise your hands out of the water. In general, moving your arms exerts energy and causes your breathing to change, impacting your buoyancy. Practice turning using a hip-to-fin maneuver—which is commonly referred to as a flutter kick in swimming. Staying in one place, fin in a circle, moving 360 degrees to the left and right and using very minimal effort. Practice stopping yourself midturn.

Next, try moving yourself forward and backward using only your fins with what I call the seesaw finning technique. The idea is that your hips remain in one place—like the middle of a seesaw—while you alternate pushing and pulling water over your fins so that your shoulders glide forward and backward. This technique helps you get vertical or horizontal on the surface and underwater to deflate a BCD or drysuit without changing your depth. Strive to practice all these techniques with minimal flailing and complete control of your breathing.

Once you master controlling your movements with your fins alone, practice swimming on your back on the surface, using only your hip-to-fin movement. When diving, you want to move your legs slowly with long, gentle strokes to compensate for the weight and equipment drag.

At any point, you should be able to fully stop yourself by flaring your fins out, or change direction with a flick of your hip/fin connection. While still on your back, practice a reverse kick to pull yourself back through the water. Your goal is to pull the water over your fins, rather than pushing it with your fins. To do this, extend your legs together and point your fin tips outward. Bend your knees and engage your core to pull your fin tips back toward your hips. Using the seesaw maneuver, repeat these techniques facedown. Moving backward underwater is a breeze if you can master this movement on the surface. The more confident you are with these movements on the surface, the more success you will have on your dives.

Once below the surface, descend and hover horizontal to the bottom in a streamlined position. Without using your arms, practice finning, turning and stopping. Use the power of your hips, legs, ankles and fins. Check where your shoulders are pointed. Your body follows your shoulders. If your shoulders are pointed slightly up, you will swim up, affecting your buoyancy as air expands. Practice finning with your shoulders pointed slightly down and fins up. If you are swimming over silt or sand, this position prevents you from kicking up a dust storm or harming fragile environments. It’s also great in currents, allowing you to get close to the bottom, where the current is weaker and easier to swim against.

Get in tune with how your fins feel. When toddlers first begin to walk with shoes, they are clumsy and have to find their feet—this is similar to how new divers move with fins underwater. As you gain experience, your fins become an extension of your body and you can feel the world around you. When you’re in touch with this feeling, you avoid kicking too hard when close to an animal, another diver or any substrate. Don’t have lazy legs! Practice lifting and moving your legs rather than kicking.

With your shoulders down, arch your back slightly, and press your lower back against the tank; your thighs will lift off the bottom, creating a more stream-lined body shape. From here you can move into a frog kick, using a slow, circular movement from your knees to your ankles and fins, causing you to glide. From this position, you can try the helicopter turn—the most efficient and advanced turning technique for wreck, cave and fragile dive environments. With shoulders down, lower back engaged and knees bent, you turn using only your ankles and fins in opposing rotation. Work with a buddy or a dive professional to get proper positioning underwater. Bring a GoPro to capture your movements so you can review and improve after your dive.

Visit your local retail dive store and try a plethora of fins. Be prepared to change your fins for different diving environments. Everyone’s legs are different, and they change as we age. Fin styles, materials and designs advance every year. Fins age and eventually need to be replaced just like an old pair of shoes. Have fun trying different combinations of fins and gear on your next dive!

If you are having a hard time finning, you might be using fins that are too stiff or a blade that’s too big for your body. Put one hand on the side of the pool or boat, and move your legs backward and forward. You should feel energy flowing from your hip down a relaxed leg to your fins—lifting your body slightly up and out of the water. If you are doing a bicycle using your knees, you will have zero upward propulsion and will feel like you are running in place. Try different fins, and work with a dive professional to help master underwater movement.