Switching to doubles - Am I in a rush?

[Trace Malinowski]

I haven't seen very many people on a charter boat with doubles unless there is a planned tech dive, however there have been a few occasions, and usually the biggest issue is the tank holders, and how to stow the tanks. If they are using the "cup" style holders, it can be an issue, but you simply work around these things. Im interested in what charter operators have to say about this. I doubt too many charters are going to flat out turn you away because of your doubles. In my limited experience with this they will ask you to limit your dive time if they see you with lots of gas, and/or ask you not to go into DECO, and that is all reasonable and understandable. It would be nice for some actual charter operators to chime in on this.

When I lived and worked in Key Largo in 90's, our shop had a good relationship with Paul at Quiescence before he died. At the time, some of the staff members were doing technical diving including the use of doubles, triples, and rebreathers. Several years ago, a friend and I drove to Key Largo from cave country to do some ocean diving. Some blonde woman running the show for Quiescence wouldn't let us on the boat with our UWATEC digital gauges and made us rent dive computers. As we unloaded doubles from the SUV she flat out refused to let us dive. I haven't been back. Maybe the shop has a new policy, but they lost my business. I only dive with Chris Brown at Silent World when in Key Largo knowing that Horizon Divers can accommodate me if Chris can't.

My advice is to check ahead anymore if you are unsure of an operator's policies. You'd think this would be less of an issue as technical diving grows in popularity, but many operators have polarized themselves as "recreational" as defined by the typical single tank + poodle jacket. But, in my experience Quiescence was the only dive center to just say no to doubles.

I worked for 3 charter services and only when I was living on Cayman Brac did I never see doubles on a boat.

 

[Diver Dave 69]

I do a little bit of wreck diving in the Northeast. I do not dive doubles yet, but would like to in the next season or so. Most dive boats around here have a variety of divers depending on the depth of the wreck.

You will see the new student with an aluminum 80 up to the advanced tech diver with CCR. Its all about what you ars comfortable with. Nobody is going to question you except yourself.

You need to know and be comfortable with your rig and the types of environments we dive up here. I started slinging a 40 cu. ft. pony last season and would never leave home without it.

With that being said, you will see a lot of doubles on dive boats up here.

 

[Steve_C]

Boats I usually dive off east coast allow two tanks + pony. Tanks can be singles or one set of doubles. Standard doubles fit in the tank holders. In my case an old back and a shot left rotatoer cuff rule out messing with doubles and adjusting valves behind me. So I do single + pony. (Yes I can adjust the one valve on the single using the right hand) Different rules on custom tech charters.

Took intro to nitrox with SDI. They give you a set of tables with the course with EAD tables on one side. Had to use them in the course (I did not do the online version). Carry tables with me for planning purposes. I did have to add some data to the MOD part of the tables since I like to keep max PO2 around 1.2 to 1.3.

 

[manni-yunk]

Boats I usually dive off east coast allow two tanks + pony. Tanks can be singles or one set of doubles. Standard doubles fit in the tank holders. In my case an old back and a shot left rotatoer cuff rule out messing with doubles and adjusting valves behind me. So I do single + pony. .

Down your way,yes - but in the northern part of the east coast, it is pretty common to allow 2 sets of doubles.

 

[AfterDark]

Down your way,yes - but in the northern part of the east coast, it is pretty common to allow 2 sets of doubles.

Down NC I asked if I could bring 4 tanks 1 set of IDs for each dive, they said sure without batting an eye.

---------- Post added February 24th, 2013 at 09:32 PM ----------

Boats I usually dive off east coast allow two tanks + pony. Tanks can be singles or one set of doubles. Standard doubles fit in the tank holders. In my case an old back and a shot left rotatoer cuff rule out messing with doubles and adjusting valves behind me. So I do single + pony. (Yes I can adjust the one valve on the single using the right hand) Different rules on custom tech charters.

Took intro to nitrox with SDI. They give you a set of tables with the course with EAD tables on one side. Had to use them in the course (I did not do the online version). Carry tables with me for planning purposes. I did have to add some data to the MOD part of the tables since I like to keep max PO2 around 1.2 to 1.3.

Steve, I've had 2 rotatoer cuff ops on my right shoulder. I use independent doubles. No manifolds, no reaching back, just 2 single tanks banded together and bolted to a backplate each with its own reg, SPG and LP hose.

 

[Chris Brown Tech]

When I lived and worked in Key Largo in 90's, our shop had a good relationship with Paul at Quiescence before he died. At the time, some of the staff members were doing technical diving including the use of doubles, triples, and rebreathers. Several years ago, a friend and I drove to Key Largo from cave country to do some ocean diving. Some blonde woman running the show for Quiescence wouldn't let us on the boat with our UWATEC digital gauges and made us rent dive computers. As we unloaded doubles from the SUV she flat out refused to let us dive. I haven't been back. Maybe the shop has a new policy, but they lost my business. I only dive with Chris Brown at Silent World when in Key Largo knowing that Horizon Divers can accommodate me if Chris can't.

My advice is to check ahead anymore if you are unsure of an operator's policies. You'd think this would be less of an issue as technical diving grows in popularity, but many operators have polarized themselves as "recreational" as defined by the typical single tank + poodle jacket. But, in my experience Quiescence was the only dive center to just say no to doubles.

I worked for 3 charter services and only when I was living on Cayman Brac did I never see doubles on a boat.

Thanks Trace. I just sold the shop to concentrate 100% on tech & CCR instruction, but my crew bought it and are still supporting tech.

Unbelievably there is still an operator in the Keys who wont let you dive shallow in the PM if you dove the Spiegel in the morning because its "a reverse profile"

It seems that everywhere in the world you will still find shops that wont fill your nice clean in hydro tanks and who dont want you anywhere near their boat. Ignorance breeds fear and dislike unfortunately.

 

[je76]

I switched to doubles after about 100 dives and I dive New Jersey regualrly.

My buoyancy was already developed and my ability to multi-task was good when I switched. I would recommend doing 10-20 dives at Dutch Springs before getting into the ocean. As mentioned above a pool dive or two wouldn't hurt either to sort out the new configuration. Spend the time in the pool working on your valve skills, taking the rig on and off and getting used to the change in buoyancy all that extra weight means. I did this and made a solid transition to ocean diving.

I now would not dream of diving the Northeast without my doubles, even on shallower dives. There is nothing wrong with a single and a pony but I find the inherent redundancy safer and the rig makes me more stable in the water. Granted as someone mentioned above you have to be able to don them but for boat diving you only need to make it to the rail to go in and my set of double 100s aren't that heavy.

---------- Post added July 6th, 2013 at 01:54 PM ----------

Every boat I have dove in the Northeast allows two sets of doubles. I have dove 5 different boats here.