Switching to doubles - Am I in a rush?

[elan]

Do it. I did it when I had 40 dives and never regreted. I did spend about 15-20 dives diving shallow from shores before I went for boat diving.
I would recommend finding a good mentor though or taking a class from a good instructor who have experience diving doubles. Diving doubles was actually easier than diving a back inflate with redundant air supply.

You do not have to jump to HP130. Find some smaller tanks like lp72 or lp85. They are easier to manage in the begining.

---------- Post added February 6th, 2013 at 07:09 PM ----------

I'll throw my 2 PSI in as well... and if you are in the NYC area and want to bounce this off some VERY experienced divers in person, the Sea Gypsies are meeting tonight at 7. So you can join us, have a drink with them and find out what they REALLY think!.

I switched to doubles last season after about 500 dives, many in the NYC area, in anticipation of going to tech training next season. I am VERY glad that I did it, I really like my current setup, it's a big stable platform and it's always good to have redundancy (need to know valve drills for that part).

It's also good to have extra gas underwater, but there is an additional issue with that for new divers. Most new divers know about NDLS from their class in theory, but really tend to just watch their pressure gauge, and unless they have a very low SAC end up being limited by gas rather than NDLs. Double tanks can put someone who is not watching their nitrogen accumulation carefully into a dangerous situation - specifically a potentially big deco obligation. I'm not saying that would happen to you, but if you really only have 30 dives I would have to agree with TSandM (I usually do), and say that you should dive more with a single tank, and get your skills dialed in before task loading with more gear.

On the other hand, if you really have hundreds of northeast dives and are very comfortable in your dry suit, etc... I guess you could go for it. Just be careful about your bottom time!

Mike

Do not you find that hitting an NDL has nothing to do with single/doubles?
I could easily hit the NDL with single HP100 and can hit it now with a single AL80.

 

[rongoodman]

I assume you're already diving dry? If not, I would get that dialed in next.

 

[AfterDark]

PADI needs to develop a doubles certification course. There's money to made!

 

[doctormike]

Do not you find that hitting an NDL has nothing to do with single/doubles?
I could easily hit the NDL with single HP100 and can hit it now with a single AL80.

It doesn't have "nothing to do with it" at all, not sure if you read my post. A diver who is not paying attention to NDLs can rack up a much bigger deco obligation with doubles than the same diver with a single tank.

But congratulations on your low SAC rate, if that was the point of your comment.

 

[KD8NPB]

My first tanks were double LP72s. I purchased them about a month after I finished my OW.

At first, with a center yoke manifold & Conshelf XIV for my first 30 or so dives, then, I finally upgraded to an isolating manifold with Apeks Tek3 1st stages (and Conshelf XIV 2nd stages...don't hate, it worked nice!).

They're still my primary tanks. They're not too heavy and I pump them up to 2500 psi which gives me about 150 CF of gas...more than sufficient for two or three dives, or one deep dive with a safety margin.

 

[Aquabot]

I think the real question should be are you comfortable in your abilities to switch to doubles? If not then slow down and back off to work the more basic essentials which would 1 boost your confidence and 2. Give you a better platform to work from with those basics mastered. Just my .02 here, but I really believe being comfortable and confident is key to success. Best of luck!

 

[eelnoraa]

I would say at 30 dives, it is a bit early. I am not saying your diving ability is early, I am saying that there are much diving to be done with single. Why not go as much as you can with single, then switch when the amount of air in your backgas is the limiting factor. As cool as double sounds, it is less run, less mobile in water. And yes, it is heavy.

 

[fdarden]

Doubles are not just for tech! I have been converting over to 50cf tanks doubled together for all my no-deco dives. So I think there are a ton of generalizations going on here. Doubles are worth getting used to, especially if you are going to do tech diving down the road. Only you can say if you are rushing things. Make sure you know how to operate the isolator valve, and the tank valves. Its going to be a pretty expensive road to go down, so be prepared. And on the boat, switching from doubles setup to singles setup is a pain. I finally got tired of maintaining two sets of gear, or reassembling a wing every time I wanted to do a deep dive and, say a reef dive. I considered the safety benefits as well. I went exclusively to doubles. Perhaps diving a lighter set of doubles would be a good starting point for newer divers that want to learn to dive doubles? The assembled weight on these is 48lbs. they only problem is that its expensive. But aren't you worth it? (LOL)

Frank

 

[Trace Malinowski]

30 dives is acceptable for switching to doubles. If you were coming to me for training, I'd probably suggest doing a twinset course along with drysuit and intro to tech. The three courses would require a week of training (probably 16 dives) and that should pretty much help you get dialed-in.

We'd start with trim, buoyancy, propulsion and drills in a single tank, add the drysuit, then the doubles. If you are looking for good doubles instructors I'd recommend Justin Bates in NYC; Bob Sherwood in Cape Vincent, NY; Wayne and Jason Fisch in Hillsborough, NJ; or myself.

 

[kylehorn]

Thanks for of these responses everyone. To address some of the things mentioned: At 6'2 205 the weight is not a major issue for me. I do dive a drysuit. And as far as my comfort level and confidence; I dont have any doubt that I can switch to and learn to dive doubles; I am comfortable in the water and with my diving. I posed this question to understand if there are benefits to staying on a single tank (like those mentioned by TSandM) versus going straight to doubles. Theres obviously pros and cons to each side, depending on who you ask.

I think that after reading these replies, I would benefit from just getting more dives in with a single and developing my fundamental skills. Then, in the beginning of the summer I could start to practice with doubles in the pool and move on to some shallow open water dives, plenty of that around my hometown. Thanks for all the valuable input everyone.