Scuba Snopes

[fxrguy]

Back inflated BCD's will kill you...

 

[Abdullah]

Maintaining neutral buoyancy and reasonable trim is a terribly hard skill. People take years and several courses trying to figure out all the nuances involved. Few people actually master it. However, spearfishing with tanks is incredibly easy; no harder than shooting fish in a barrel.

Shooting fish in a barrel is harder than you think

 

[Kharon]

Per post on expensive regulators for cold water. Poster said his cheap reg never freezes.

Correlation (or lack there of) is not Causation (or lack there of). There are certain regulators (e.g. ScubaPro MK 17) which are sealed and designed well for cold fresh water diving (i.e. < 35 deg C) and they will be less likely to freeze up. There are also certain cold water practices that you can use to prevent a freezing regulator (e.g. not breathing it on the surface).

Very true, it's anecdotal and I'm not diving sub 35°F conditions. However, I also don't need a $600-800 reg to breath easily at depth and in 45-50°F water as many posts on the forum and my LDS suggest. Just not buying it.

 

[Tortuga68]

There are certain regulators (e.g. ScubaPro MK 17) which are sealed and designed well for cold fresh water diving (i.e. < 35 deg C) and they will be less likely to freeze up

Pretty hard to get any reg to freeze at 35C...

 

[johnmckenzie]

Pretty hard to get any reg to freeze at 35C...

Here is why it is not hard to freeze in water that temp. If you put your regulator into freeflow for a minute or two the temperature inside the 1st stage will drop to around -55 deg F (yes that is MINUS 55 degrees). So the even cold water is like a heating blanket to the regulator. That is why you want a lot of exposed metal on a reg for these conditions (no hose protectors). But < sub 35 deg F that water is too close to state conversion temp so you can easily get a freeze up. At any ambient temp a long freeflow will just continue no matter what you do. At least this is what I was told by my reg guru.

 

[boulderjohn]

Here is why it is not hard to freeze in water that temp. If you put your regulator into freeflow for a minute or two the temperature inside the 1st stage will drop to around -55 deg F (yes that is MINUS 55 degrees). So the even cold water is like a heating blanket to the regulator. That is why you want a lot of exposed metal on a reg for these conditions (no hose protectors). But < sub 35 deg F that water is too close to state conversion temp so you can easily get a freeze up. At any ambient temp a long freeflow will just continue no matter what you do. At least this is what I was told by my reg guru.

Perhaps you missed that he wrote 35° C. Nothing is going to freeze at 35° C. Of course, I have never dived water that hot, so I could be mistaken.

 

[johnmckenzie]

Perhaps you missed that he wrote 35° C. Nothing is going to freeze at 35° C. Of course, I have never dived water that hot, so I could be mistaken.

Opps. Yes I did. What I dummy I am. I was really rooting for Jimmy Carter when he tried to get he US to go metric. It would all be so easy then. 1 bar 2 bar 3 bar.....

Thanks for heads up. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[chrpai]

Perhaps you missed that he wrote 35° C. Nothing is going to freeze at 35° C. Of course, I have never dived water that hot, so I could be mistaken.

Come to Texas. I seem to recall Blue Lagoon and Twin Lakes getting that warm in the summer. Darn Texas bath tubs...

 

[Abdullah]

Perhaps you missed that he wrote 35° C. Nothing is going to freeze at 35° C. Of course, I have never dived water that hot, so I could be mistaken.

I have dived in 35C water and you cannot freeze a reg. I vented a tank down from 100 bar to 30 bar to do a buoyancy check, and the reg didn't freeze, but the tank valve did feel cool to the touch.

 

[fred3798]

Diving with a long knife strapped to your leg is cool.