30 or 40 lb. lift on Halcyon Eclipse?

[mtsidford]

I dive the 30# with a heavy E8 steel 119, canister light, ankle weights, stage bottle and have come up from 130 with no problems. As has my 290lb dive buddy who uses the same plus lots of lead to stay down from similar depths.

 

[JimmyC]

DiegoDiver,

Go 40, with time you can shave some lead and ditch the AL80 go steel PST or Worthington 100 or 120 your choice. with steel at the beginning of the dive, you'll be about 9 lbs neg in the tank and about 3 neg in the tank if you come up on 500 psi. you should be able to get you lead down to about 16 lbs in short order if you are using a 6lb plate, even lighter on the lead as you get more dives in. The 40 eclipse tucks in real nice around the tank so no tacoing. Hope this helps. As for DS(s) I have a CF200 but I use a Mares semi dry and it is pretty warm even is 44' water.

 

[countryboy]

.....Wetsuits compress and so do DS undergarments, quite a bit in the first ~30 ft of depth. If you are diving with a single tank, and a 5mil or thicker wetsuit, you do not need to be overweighted at the surface at the beginning of the dive by the weight of the gas you will be breathing. How can you hold your shallow stop at the end of the dive when you are 5-6 lbs lighter? Easy, at 15 or even 10 ft your wetsuit is compressed....

This is interesting... Do you know any approximate %'s as a ball park?

I always do my weighting (checks) post dive whenever I can.. I will need to try this out.

 

[cool_hardware52]

This is interesting... Do you know any approximate %'s as a ball park?

I always do my weighting (checks) post dive whenever I can.. I will need to try this out.

I don't have any figures to share, and bear in mind that there are a lot of variables. Not all neoprene is created equal, and old wetsuits loose thickness due to repeated compression.

Try this, weight yourself to be neutral at the surface with no gas in your wing, then swim down to 15ft. I have no doubt that you will need to add gas to your wing to stay at 15 ft. The amount of gas will give you a rough idea of how negative you became.


Tobin

 

[MonkSeal]

I dive the 30# with a heavy E8 steel 119, canister light, ankle weights, stage bottle and have come up from 130 with no problems. As has my 290lb dive buddy who uses the same plus lots of lead to stay down from similar depths.

Since this is DIR forum, ankle weights are not wellcomed

 

[countryboy]

...Try this, weight yourself to be neutral at the surface with no gas in your wing, then swim down to 15ft. I have no doubt that you will need to add gas to your wing to stay at 15 ft. The amount of gas will give you a rough idea of how negative you became...

Thanks for the info.. something else for me to try next time out..

 

[Xanthro]

I use the 30lb and can't imagine why anyone would want 40lb lift for a single tank.

With a HP 120 and steel backplate there's plenty of lift left to float your rig. Even if you add a weighted STA.

Sure, if you intergrate all your weight and you are a big person it might not be enough, but that's why you don't intergrate your weight. You need to be neutral without your BP/W as well, otherwise you'll pop up like a cork if you ever have to remove the BP/W.

If you add a canister light and argon system, you'll likely be wearing doubles, if you aren't you don't need the weighted STA.

 

[ID diver]

Xanthro,

Reading your post I am curious. Why do you need to be neutral without your BP/W? Thinking of all the gear configurations that people dive in; BP/W, STAs, weight belts, BCD with weight belt, BCD with integrated weights, etc; I don't see how people can be both properly weighted with the gear on and with the gear off. I understand that if you take off your BP/W you will change your buoyancy but that is why you need to hold on to your BP/W so it doesn't get away from you. If you are underwater your only air source is that cylinder. I know that in the rare situations where I have had to remove my BCD or BP/W I held on to it with a "death" grip because that is what it could turn into if I let my air source go.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I use the 30lb and can't imagine why anyone would want 40lb lift for a single tank.

With a HP 120 and steel backplate there's plenty of lift left to float your rig. Even if you add a weighted STA.

Sure, if you intergrate all your weight and you are a big person it might not be enough, but that's why you don't intergrate your weight. You need to be neutral without your BP/W as well, otherwise you'll pop up like a cork if you ever have to remove the BP/W.

If you add a canister light and argon system, you'll likely be wearing doubles, if you aren't you don't need the weighted STA.

I agree completely. I dive double 85's with a 40 lbs wing. Some how it works.

Tobin

 

[Xanthro]

Xanthro,

Reading your post I am curious. Why do you need to be neutral without your BP/W? Thinking of all the gear configurations that people dive in; BP/W, STAs, weight belts, BCD with weight belt, BCD with integrated weights, etc; I don't see how people can be both properly weighted with the gear on and with the gear off. I understand that if you take off your BP/W you will change your buoyancy but that is why you need to hold on to your BP/W so it doesn't get away from you. If you are underwater your only air source is that cylinder. I know that in the rare situations where I have had to remove my BCD or BP/W I held on to it with a "death" grip because that is what it could turn into if I let my air source go.

Sometimes you half to take off your BP/W and you can't have a "death grip" on it. Suppose you are stuck and your buddy is unavailable. You have to take the BP/W off in order to untangle, you don't want all your weight intergrated because now you'll be bouyant and your BP/W negative pulling you apart.

Same thing applies if you penetrate a wreck, or have to remove the BP/W to get into a tight space for a big bug.

Now, you could mostly dive in a manner in which you avoid ever having to take off your BP/W and thus it wouldn't be as important, but it's still better to be prepared.

Just wear enough weight off your BP/W or BCD to compenstate for the bouyancy of your exposure gear.