It's not uncommon for people to try a wing and complain they hate it. The most common complaint is, of course, "It pushed me face-down at the surface", but "It was no better than a stab jacket underwater" can be an issue as well.
For people who are determined to go the wing route, this is a setback they devote time and effort to solving, until they can enjoy the benefits of a wing. But for people who are just trying it out, it can put them off wings for good.
But wings don't have to be dreadful on first try. The main reason people don't like them is they go about using them in the wrong way. The smallest mistake can have big consequences. So this page is my effort to help you understand how to avoid undesirable consequences when starting out with a wing.
It seems to me that if I had to summarise the typical approach of an average recreational diver in this country, it would be: Stab jacket with single cylinder (worn rather low), ankle weights, buoyancy done on drysuit.
These are very common practices, they are also big causes of problems in using a wing.
For starters, consider a drysuited diver. No other kit, just a drysuit. He'll float at the surface, and float horizontally: The suit provides buoyancy evenly all over his body.
(N.B. In the diagrams, Black indicates Buoyancy and White indicates Weight)
Add a weight belt around the waist. He will now be able to sink. And he'll probably be fairly horizontal still, as the belt is fairly close to his centre of gravity.
And yet, a diver in full kit will often feel a need for ankle weights. They complain that drysuits cause "floaty feet" and that they can't stay horizontal without leg irons. However, my first argument is that they are wrong: They don't have floaty feet. What they have forgotten to include in their consideration of weight distribution is that steel cylinders are negatively buoyant!
We all know this, and yet it so often gets ignored when we try and sort out our trim. Divers have a tendency to think of trim as being the distribution of lead. It isn't, it's the distribution of all weight. We have a large lump of steel on our backs, and it sinks underwater. It pushes our upper body down, and so our feet go up. The true problem faced by a drysuited diver is "heavy head" not "floaty feet".
The typical solution is, of course, ankle weights.
However, instead of keeping the problem and masking it by adding equipment, is there a way to remove the problem itself with our existing equipment?
Yes. The problem is that buoyancy is spread evenly around our body by the drysuit, but the counterweight is unevenly biased towards the upper body. Instead of adding more weight lower down, we can add buoyancy higher up, by putting air into the wing.
As easy as that, the buoyancy is biased in the same way as the weight. And, when a diver is correctly weighted, the weight of the cylinder will be almost exactly equal to the buoyancy supplied by the wing: A steel cylinder is very close to neutral buoyancy when empty, so only the weight of the air inside it needs be countered by the wing (About 3kg in a single 12L cylinder)
Ankle weights are necessary when doing buoyancy control on the drysuit, because of the uneven weight distribution. Stop using the drysuit for buoyancy control, and the problem goes away.
It should also not be forgotten that a big reason for the wing coming into existence was the improved underwater buoyancy characteristics it offered. It can't give you those benefits if it isn't supplying any of your buoyancy!
Once you make the decision to use the wing to counter the weight of your cylinder, the positioning of the cylinder itself becomes a consideration. On a typical jacket-and-ankle-weighted diver, the cylinder tends to be slung very low, as this keeps the cylinder's weight from giving too big a "heavy head/floaty feet" problem. Plus, of course, a stab jacket supplies most of its bouyancy at the bottom.
However, when you're using your wing to counter the weight of the cylinder, the cylinder's weight must be in the same place as the wing's buoyancy. The centre of gravity of your cylinder should match the centre of buoyancy of the wing. Since a wing is usually about the same size as the cylinder, that means the base of the cylinder should be no lower than the base of the wing.
Having the cylinder this high also means you can sit more comfortably when kitted up, allows you to reach your cylinder valves when using a twinset, and also helps to reduce the other big problem complained of about wings: The face-down-at-surface issue.
When you consider a diver at the surface in a wing, you tend to get the view that the diver is heavy, the wing is buoyant, therefore a face-down position is unavoidable.
However, once again, this viewpoint ignores the weight of the cylinder. Being on the other side of the wing, this should provide a countering weight to stop you getting pushed face-down.
One reason why it often doesn't do this is that the cylinder is worn too low. A cylinder buoyed up by water will not provide nearly as much counterweight as a cylinder above water.
So wearing the cylinder high on your back helps solves both the problems with a wing!
However, just the weight of the cylinders will often not be enough. Using a weightbelt, all your lead will be mounted in front of the wing, so you'll still be front-heavy. Simple enough to solve: Add a V-weight, a P-weight, or even just weight pockets on the cylinder bands. If you have some of your lead mounted behind your wing, you'll have a much better chance of avoiding the face-down issue.
Another important plus is that by putting the lead on your cylinders, you have much less strain acting on your body. As an example, consider a diver with 10kg of weight, and 3kg of buoyancy in his wing:
All weight in belt: 10kg pushing him down, 3kg pulling him up = total strain of 13kg
3kg lead on cylinders, 7kg lead on belt: 7kg pushing him down, no buoyancy pulling up = total strain of 7kg
Because the lead is now pushing down on your wing instead of on you, you have much less of an imbalance, leading to a much more comfortable dive.
If you still have an issue with being pushed face forwards, a common cause is a wing that's simply too buoyant. Ignore anybody who tells you that there's no such thing as too much lift: If you have enough buoyancy to get back to the surface at any point in the dive, you have enough buoyancy. Anything more than that is pointless, and it can (and will) cause you problems. If you find yourself being pushed forwards, try letting some air out of the wing. You'll find that the less buoyancy it provides, the less it pushes you forwards. So either get a smaller wing, or just don't over-inflate it when you surface.
So, to summarise:
A wing gives better buoyancy than a stab jacket by supplying buoyancy in the same plane as your body. However, it only does this if it has air in it to supply the buoyancy, so you need to put air in it. By putting air in the wing, you'll counter the heavy-head, floaty-feet issue so many divers experience, and be able to dispense with ankle weights. Because the wing is countering the weight of the cylinder, the cylinder needs to be mounted fairly high up your back. By mounting the cylinder fairly high, it enables you to reach your valves and adds more weight behind the wing to counter the face-down problem. To further counter the face-down issue, mount some of your weight on the cylinders. Putting weight on your cylinders relieves the strain your body is put under, and gives better buoyancy characteristics.
I hope the last paragraph underlines the most important point about diving with a wing: It is a very holistic system, and any change you make must be considered in its entirety. The worst approach you can take is to change to a wing but base your use of it on "I've always done it this way!".
As a final point: The chances of you getting it bang on perfect your first try are still fairly low. You will need to play around with your wing to get it set up perfectly. Just remember that wings are very adaptable. If your wing is causing you problems, try and solve them with the wing: If you find that you're still suffering floaty feet, try moving your lead lower down your back, closer to your centre of gravity; If you find that you're actually too foot-heavy, then move your lead up higher.
Lead can be bolted to the backplate, held between the cylinders, stored around your waist, it can go just about anywhere. Don't try to fix a problem caused by the wing by adding equipment somewhere else. Eliminate the problem, don't just mask it.
Good luck!
