Questions about Dual bladder wings

[TONY CHANEY]

Have you ever known of a dry suit to leak so badly it cannot sustain buoyancy? I've NEVER heard of such a thing, not even 3rd hand.

Yes. About three years back I was looking at buying a friend's used DS. A Sealion I think was the mfg. A cheap bag suit with very little undergarment. Anyway we were at the local quarry and as we started the dive I felt a trickle of water going down my back which got worse and worse until it go to the point I could almost no longer maintain buoyancy. Turned the dive and once on the suface it was almost impossible to walk with what seemed about 60 gals. of water inside. Not a true 100% buoyancy lost heading to the bottom like a North Carolina lawn dart (Harrier aircraft if you didn't get it) but a true flood. Think along the lines of diving with waders. Inspection showed a small hole in the back of the neck seal due to the constant rubbing of the long hose (rubber on rubber). Never was that deep and had a good floor below me. Had it been in the ocean on a deep dive I care not to think about the result.

 

[PfcAJ]

Profitability is where a lot of the goober equipment in diving comes from.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Profitability is where a lot of the goober equipment in diving comes from.

Care to expand upon your posting?

 

[rlynch]

What were saying is
1) heavy tanks (steel) + wetsuit + dual bladder = bad
B/C suit at depth = 0 buoyancy, heavy tanks makes you 100% reliant on a single system and an often not utilized backup.
2) lack of consistent training by user in dual bladder oh **** scenarios = 0 buoyancy = bad
3) lack of consistent use of dual bladder in oral inflate mode (both doing it,stowing it, and generally keeping it up to snuff ) = bad
4) lift from drysuit even when "flooded" = possible out for a dive (I've had what I consider gallons of water in my suit before. It sucked, I was cold, it was semi deep, and I'm still here. (Twice once locally, once in Seattle)). I still worked the suit.
5) seeing people try to orally inflate a dual bladder bunged wing more than a little is usually comical. = bad, esp. at depth.
6) a leaking drysuit can still annoy you with lift... To the point it's dangerous and your flooding it. Been there pulled my neck seal and dealt with it. I didn't know as much as I do now but better than taking a ride. That was with steel tanks too...

Scenario ... I pull off my dump valve on my BC, it has a hole, salt crystals, whatever, it's not working, in 108's and a wetsuit, + the dual bladder wing. I dirt dart to the bottom after jumping off the boat... Say we're at proteus it's 125ish, I've got what 2 minutes before I hit the deck if I realize my issue immediately. I start to grope for my tied off second wing inflator...unless your practiced that, your hitting the wreck, unless your buddy can help you or you get it freed and start to orally inflate the options are dwindling rapidly. Now I'm fighting bungees that want to keep the wing tight..... To me it seems like a whole lot of drama that can be avoided..

Or I hit my drysuit inflator that I've done a 1000 times before and call the dive...if I forgot to hook it up, I find the hose and hook it up and head back for a beer. I might hit bottom but unless I didn't add a hose to my regs it's there.


I'll take possible over no way any day. I've tried to swim up 16lbs of lead and its tough in a pool.

A drysuit can supply a ton of lift if needed. It's way more expensive but I've got tomorrow to pay it off... Topside...

I'd alway rather be wet, cold, and pissed than sitting at the bottom.

Trace I can see you rocking it, but in truth not many others..like anything if you can rock it, always, go right ahead... Problem is too many think they can and are proven wrong at great expense.

I've had a wing failure at depth so I'm biased. I was in a wetsuit in lp85's at the time and swam it up from the Dixie arrow.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

What were saying is
1) heavy tanks (steel) + wetsuit + dual bladder = bad
B/C suit at depth = 0 buoyancy, heavy tanks makes you 100% reliant on a single system and an often not utilized backup.
2) lack of consistent training by user in dual bladder oh **** scenarios = 0 buoyancy = bad
3) lack of consistent use of dual bladder in oral inflate mode (both doing it,stowing it, and generally keeping it up to snuff ) = bad
4) lift from drysuit even when "flooded" = possible out for a dive (I've had what I consider gallons of water in my suit before. It sucked, I was cold, it was semi deep, and I'm still here. (Twice once locally, once in Seattle)). I still worked the suit.
5) seeing people try to orally inflate a dual bladder bunged wing more than a little is usually comical. = bad, esp. at depth.
6) a leaking drysuit can still annoy you with lift... To the point it's dangerous and your flooding it. Been there pulled my neck seal and dealt with it. I didn't know as much as I do now but better than taking a ride. That was with steel tanks too...

Scenario ... I pull off my dump valve on my BC, it has a hole, salt crystals, whatever, it's not working, in 108's and a wetsuit, + the dual bladder wing. I dirt dart to the bottom after jumping off the boat... Say we're at proteus it's 125ish, I've got what 2 minutes before I hit the deck if I realize my issue immediately. I start to grope for my tied off second wing inflator...unless your practiced that, your hitting the wreck, unless your buddy can help you or you get it freed and start to orally inflate the options are dwindling rapidly. Now I'm fighting bungees that want to keep the wing tight..... To me it seems like a whole lot of drama that can be avoided..

Or I hit my drysuit inflator that I've done a 1000 times before and call the dive...if I forgot to hook it up, I find the hose and hook it up and head back for a beer. I might hit bottom but unless I didn't add a hose to my regs it's there.


I'll take possible over no way any day. I've tried to swim up 16lbs of lead and its tough in a pool.

A drysuit can supply a ton of lift if needed. It's way more expensive but I've got tomorrow to pay it off... Topside...

I'd alway rather be wet, cold, and pissed than sitting at the bottom.

Trace I can see you rocking it, but in truth not many others..like anything if you can rock it, always, go right ahead... Problem is too many think they can and are proven wrong at great expense.

I've had a wing failure at depth so I'm biased. I was in a wetsuit in lp85's at the time and swam it up from the Dixie arrow.

Total BS!

 

[PfcAJ]

Care to expand upon your posting?

Spare air. Air integrated computers. Dual bladder wings. Flip up fins. "Airtrim" BCs. Etc etc.

The companies get their dollars, so those are great products, right?

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Spare air. Air integrated computers. Dual bladder wings. Flip up fins. "Airtrim" BCs. Etc etc.

The companies get their dollars, so those are great products, right?

I told you nothing of my kit, so where are you getting all of this? Is it pertaining to me?

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Ok, guys, let's stop arguing over wussy little girlie-man tanks and pieces of extraneous gear like wings and watch a couple of senior citizens show us how it's done in triples and in submersibles.


[video=youtube;UVNJgDiygbc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVNJgDiygbc[/video]

I love the ending. Mrs. Mitchell must have been an incredible lady. If you live long enough because you "did it right" who knows what you might see along the way? Then again, we are all going to die someday. So, you might as well die comfortable. Some divers prefer wetsuits for tech diving. Whatever you choose to dive I hope you never let how a dive is made overshadow what you get to experience.

 

[Dave1w]

Have you ever known of a dry suit to leak so badly it cannot sustain buoyancy? I've NEVER heard of such a thing, not even 3rd hand.

Yes, Wifey had a total failure of the material in her drysuit zip at about 30m. Got very cold, as well as having to pull herself back up the shot line (with assistance) due to a fully flooded suit past what a 30lb wing could lift.

 

[PfcAJ]

I told you nothing of my kit, so where are you getting all of this? Is it pertaining to me?

No, unless you have goober gear

---------- Post added February 11th, 2013 at 05:21 AM ----------

Yes, Wifey had a total failure of the material in her drysuit zip at about 30m. Got very cold, as well as having to pull herself back up the shot line (with assistance) due to a fully flooded suit past what a 30lb wing could lift.

The wing needs to be big enough to float the rig without a person in it. Water in water is neutral, so a flooded drysuit shouldn't sink you unless the wing was too small.

All these puzzle pieces need to be in order. If not, it's a total crapshoot, unfortunately.

---------- Post added February 11th, 2013 at 05:36 AM ----------

Yes, Wifey had a total failure of the material in her drysuit zip at about 30m. Got very cold, as well as having to pull herself back up the shot line (with assistance) due to a fully flooded suit past what a 30lb wing could lift.

The wing needs to be big enough to float the rig without a person in it. Water in water is neutral, so a flooded drysuit shouldn't sink you unless the wing was too small.

All these puzzle pieces need to be in order. If not, it's a total crapshoot, unfortunately.