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I'd be surprised if the rig is substantially lighter overall than with steels. There is no free lunch -- carbon tanks will require you to use more lead to be neutral.

Another trick if you're using a spool is to hold the exit side hand still on the line and wind the spool toward it across your body. That minimizes the accelerate-coast cycle that happens when winding with the exit hand (spool fairly stationary).

This will crop up regardless of visibility. Cultivate an effective back kick to allow you to catch-up with the reel/spool winding. If there's substantial exit flow/current (probably not in a wreck, but perhaps on the exterior) and fairly open, you may wish to point into the current and wind up...

Sounds like it was a task-loading drill meant to be stressful. In actual practice, you'd leave the line and just exit. Come back with more gas for a cleanup dive. Or, if you know it'll always be silty (i.e., it's tight), then you'd be bumping things enough for reference that buoyancy will be...

Adjustment for salt is easy: ¼ lb for every 10 lbs of diver+gear weight.

I don't feel choosing High, Medium, or Low conservatism is terribly confusing (Shearwater's approach). It's pretty easy to do nothing (speculatively, as is the case with the majority of users), and there is a sensible default (Medium = GF x/85). When you say you feel DSAT is "a better choice"...

Yes, thick wetsuit+AL doubles is more common. The feasibility of steel doubles will greatly depend on your other equipment choices. Double AL80s, for instance, require about 10 lbs more ballast (negatively buoyant "stuff") than HP100s to be neutral. Typically, much of that ballast is in the form...

From an old retail posting: DIAMETER: 7.29 inches LENGTH: 25.2 inches WEIGHT EMPTY: 36.4 lbs BUOYANCY FULL: -12.1lbs BUOYANCY WITH 500 PSI: -5.2lbs Matches the consensus about the ~5 lb [eta: negative] empty buoyancy from past threads here.

No super glue for me, either. This is a good overview video, although he does tie the final knot wrong. Use a proper square/reef knot (reversing the direction in the second step, e.g., left over right, then right over left), not the granny knot version depicted.

You may not realize it, but the LP85s are 13.0L cylinders and HP100s are 12.9L. Approximately the same amount of gas at the same pressure, but the latter is more likely to be filled to a higher pressure in your area.

What matters is the empty buoyancy minus perhaps a pound for reserve air. Contrast this, for example, to an AL tank, with a positive empty buoyancy -- you have to then carry something else (e.g., lead or steel backplate) to compensate back to at least neutral. This is one reason steel tanks are...

I'd actually say you're "under" thinking it in this particular scenario, as there are various options. In many places, you can see the surface, so judging safety stop depth isn't difficult. If vis is bad enough that you cannot see the surface, then you can deploy a DSMB -- your buoyancy will...

Your speculation is rather immaterial, as lots of inventions have been applied in ways not conceived of by their inventors. The only question is whether it achieves a desired goal. The entire point of one of those factors (GFHigh) is conservatism when surfacing, which absolutely applies to...

If your computer or transmitter fails on an NDL dive, you're not going to die -- just end the dive.

Summary of prior threads: Modern transmitters are very reliable (moreso than SPGs in my case) Redundant pressure devices MAY allow you to continue the dive (however long that might be), but some failures mandate ending the dive (e.g., blown HP hose). If you have two devices, but rely on the...

Yes, based on average salinity, these are ballpark adjustments to fresh water weighting for single-tank diving in salt water, based on your body weight. Add 5 lb (145-190 lb), 6 lb (190-230 lb), 7 lb (230-270 lb). These assume about 40 lbs of gear (incl. tank), but a few lbs more or less won't...

Check with a different shop. A first and one second stage service should be under half that. For open water, recreational diving, a BPW is a great choice. Sidemount (even single-tank), not so much IMHO. It is so much more "fiddly" compared to back mount.

Stay horizontal for greater resistance to acceleration. Commit to jamming the inflator hose on, exhale hard to help offset the buoyancy increase, and let go after a sufficient # of mississippis (depth dependent as stated above). You don't have time to "inspect for fullness".

This is highly illustrative. There is zero total pressure difference, but a huge partial pressure difference. It will not take forever for molecules to even out the concentrations between the 2 tanks by diffusion. It will mostly be done in a matter of hours.

What you're saying is mostly correct, but the distinction others are trying to make has to do with that word "pressure". Gas transfer is actually driven by PARTIAL pressure. That extra word is very important. By definition, that is the product of ambient pressure and fraction of a particular...