Are you all just technical? What is technical?

[chrpai]

Hmmm. I don't that would fly with my wife. Honestly hun, I was checking that woman out cause I thought she was you!

Diving is a buddy sport. Dump the other divers and problem solved. And in the junk vis of Lake Travis I'm checking where my buddy is every 5 seconds or so. We know to dive the same dive and if we didn't check on each other for a couple minutes we'd be solo diving.

 

[elan]

It really ticks me off everytime someone says that a BP/W will face plant them all the time trying to act like they know what they are talking about. That simply isn't true.

I might not know what I'm talking about but a single wing does face-plant me unless it is deflated till my chin submerges... That's with an SS back plate and the rest of my weight (about 4 lb on the belt).

The double rig does not do that as it has a lot of counterbalancing weight on the back.

Paladin makes a good point - try different configs including jacket and rearinflate BCDs and BP/W.

I still prefer to dive my wife's Sherwood Solaris backinflate with a single AL80 and a thin suit while diving BP/W with dry suit locally.

 

[nimoh]

I might not know what I'm talking about but a single wing does face-plant me unless it is deflated till my chin submerges... That's with an SS back plate and the rest of my weight (about 4 lb on the belt).

The double rig does not do that as it has a lot of counterbalancing weight on the back.

Paladin makes a good point - try different configs including jacket and rearinflate BCDs and BP/W.

I still prefer to dive my wife's Sherwood Solaris backinflate with a single AL80 and a thin suit while diving BP/W with dry suit locally.

do you have any thoughts on why the BP/W (singles) face plants you but the Solaris backinflate does not?

My first BC was an oceanic backinflate, and I was prone to face planting floating on the surface during my initial classes. I know now that the reason was that I was fairly overweighted, and the integrated weight pockets of my BC were towards the front of my body.

I have since switched to a BP/W and dive with the correct weighting, and don't find faceplanting to be an issue. However, I am also diving a steel tank, which provides a little more counterbalancing, and don't wear much weight on a belt (about 4lbs when in my drysuit)

 

[elan]

do you have any thoughts on why the BP/W (singles) face plants you but the Solaris backinflate does not?

Yeah, that's easy. I do not have camband trim pockets on my BP/W but I do have them on the solaris. I usually put about 4-6 lb of weight into the trim pockets and as they are father from the back they counteract it better...

 

[nimoh]

Yeah, that's easy. I do not have camband trim pockets on my BP/W but I do have them on the solaris. I usually put about 4-6 lb of weight into the trim pockets and as they are father from the back they counteract it better...

when you say farther from the back, do you mean closer to your belly button?

wouldn't that make you more prone to face planting since you are weighing down the front of your body?

I might be missing something, which is usually the case

 

[jonnythan]

The cam band is on the tank. A trim weight on the camband is well behind your back.. the further they are from your back, the further behind you they are, and the more they counteract the faceplant.

 

[elan]

when you say farther from the back, do you mean closer to your belly button?

wouldn't that make you more prone to face planting since you are weighing down the front of your body?

I might be missing something, which is usually the case

No the other way around... the trim pockets are on the tank's cam-bands which are about 4 inches from he back, So they sit on the other side of the bladder ( relative to the diver)

 

[nimoh]

The cam band is on the tank. A trim weight on the camband is well behind your back.. the further they are from your back, the further behind you they are, and the more they counteract the faceplant.

like I said, I am usually missing something. Although I was reading cam band, I was thinking cumberbun thanks for setting me straight.

elan,
so if I am understanding correctly now, you don't need the trim pockets on your BP/W because of the SS backplate, and therefore, you faceplant. That makes sense.

I would agree that it is obviously, not a good idea to put trim weights on your BP/W and dive overweighted in order to float comfortable at the surface

 

[rhwestfall]

My first BC was an oceanic backinflate, and I was prone to face planting floating on the surface during my initial classes. I know now that the reason was that I was fairly overweighted, and the integrated weight pockets of my BC were towards the front of my body.

Exactly the problem I have/had with a back inflate DUI Delta. Due to its geometry, the weighting for my DS, and an AL80, but 23# of lead right on the front of me. It always put me face down. I switched to a SS BP, added cam band weight pockets w/ 2-3# in each pocket, and it solved it. I dive a DUI Weight & Trim Harness in conjunction with the BP, and with the harness, I have moved the weight further down my hips, and somewhat on the sides... Great results!!!! Zero face plants. YMMV.

 

[calicant]

My wife and I are not technical divers and don't feel inclined to cave or wreck penetrate. We much prefer our diving experience in BP/W than the jacket BC's we learned in. Our training courses in PADI or GUE have all been in class sizes of 3 or 2, which has to be better than a class of 10 when it comes to instructors making adjustments to our buoyancy devices or anything else for that matter. We love technical divers and hope they keep pushing the edges, developing equipment and techniques which in future might move in some form or another into our recreational diving. I'm glad technical divers of all agencies enjoy teaching recreational divers and I find it comforting to be trained by people who can dive at very high levels of precision beyond that required for the diving I want to do. We all benefit from racing technology in our cars like ABS and electronic stability but we don't have to drive in Grand Prix. The paddle shifters in my wife's car are a bit over the top though but then she also wears a pink camo wing.

It's a pity they don't have technical drivers to teach people how to drive in socal!