A little help with my Hogarthian bp/w please

[GJC]

Ok thanks for the advice. One of the weight pockets is empty I just haven't removed it yet. It took a 2 lb weight there to keep me from rolling to one side when still and hovering.
I originally put the weight pockets on my tank straps, but when I was trying to dial in my trim/buoyancy I followed the advice of another user and tried just being still and seeing what happens. I found that with the STA I was slightly back heavy and when I stayed completely still I would toll onto my back. With a 2lb weight on top of my shoulder I can stop moving completely and stay in the diving position.

I appreciate any advice, solicited or not, so if this raises any other points please don't hold back.

Unless you only have one lung or you are carrying something heavy (like a big light or camera) on one side, I think you may be inflating only one side of your very large wing and that is what is causing your tilt. A smaller wing will help that. If you feel tilting while diving, you can try to shift the wing bubble by getting a little vertical and evening out the bubble from one side to the other.

 

[OMANDIVER]

Because everything I have read about DIR says that the valves should be reachable. Maybe this only applies to doubles, but I can think of situations where it might save my life if I were to make braindead mistakes prior to descending.

No you don’t need to do reach a single and it’s quite unnecessary. With doubles you need to but not a single tank. There is no dive agency that I know of that teaches turning off a valve with single tank with it on your back underwater. Frankly, forget it. But then I don’t know why anyone dives this configuration recreationally. BCD’s do a better, simpler job. Put it like this, I dive doubles and sidemount, but I use a good old bcd with one tank.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Both. I can reach it but it is a real struggle. In the water it is a little easier but still not how I think it should be. I'll take some pictures in a few hours and see what you guys think.

Reaching a single-tank valve has always been a struggle for me. I have short arms. No way can I reach it just standing up on land. If I'm horizontal in the water, have done a good bit of stretching, and am using my STA-less wing, and strain to the point of my bicep beginning to cramp, I can just barely turn the thing--I was able to do it well enough for a Fundies rec pass a few years ago. Now that I am diving doubles, reaching those valves is a heck of a lot easier. Reaching a single-tank valve is hard for many people, no matter what they do.

 

[tbone1004]

No you don’t need to do reach a single and it’s quite unnecessary. With doubles you need to but not a single tank. There is no dive agency that I know of that teaches turning off a valve with single tank with it on your back underwater. Frankly, forget it. But then I don’t know why anyone dives this configuration recreationally. BCD’s do a better, simpler job. Put it like this, I dive doubles and sidemount, but I use a good old bcd with one tank.

I teach it, and pretty sure GUE/ISE/UTD all teach it. You need to reach it, mainly for the beginning of the dive, people have died because of it before...

 

[OMANDIVER]

I teach it, and pretty sure GUE/ISE/UTD all teach it. You need to reach it, mainly for the beginning of the dive, people have died because of it before...

What agency is that you teach? And which one soecifically has that asa a standard?

 

[Dan_P]

No you don’t need to do reach a single and it’s quite unnecessary. With doubles you need to but not a single tank. There is no dive agency that I know of that teaches turning off a valve with single tank with it on your back underwater.

UTD, and I am sure quite a few others as well, teach checking the valves pre-dive and during the dive.

An argument against them could be that they're unnecessary - in some cases, maybe they are, but in others, the argument would be less clear; I like to be able to reach my valve if it gets entangled. Other scenarios may include the clumsy divemaster, a partial or entire roll-off on the line or a fixable first-stage failure (if capable, during gasshare).

Doubles are used plenty in rec diving anyway, and as well as that, it familiarizes the diver with their gear and sets a foundation for a later point in their diving (if they choose to proceed).

Unsolicited, this, but if one is interested in a good video on how to reach the valves to do e.g. a flow check, this one from Ben Bos is very handy:

So here are some pictures of what it looks like. It is riding a little low on me with no wetsuit because I have a very thick suit until my drysuit arrives. With my wetsuit on the top of the plate is about an inch or so below my primary vertebra and my hand can reach back and touch the top of the plate.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WueeK82OQsCLYOOL0OnAfAert0lBQM27
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1D2OUwLLXhC_HW194Qh_UEVw6CrPyb-q3
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vsxuc1UQq_0jaWkR8qYBPqmWTSXasdUQ
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1a9Tk0qYVEw1nUmSbR0mT0DpqhU8JjdqD
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Rtp2SfKRWEgxAzjkM9k7utmD-aYi_aQ4

I know it's a doubles wing on there, I have a single tank wing on it's way and should be here in a few days.

In regards configuration, I'm sure you'll have found plenty already, but here's another if you fancy (note, it's in Danish but volume off and you have a good visual step-by-step guide

It took a 2 lb weight there to keep me from rolling to one side when still and hovering.

Unless you only have one lung or you are carrying something heavy (like a big light or camera) on one side, I think you may be inflating only one side of your very large wing and that is what is causing your tilt. A smaller wing will help that.

Yep, probably.

I generally advise to look away from the gear - i.e. if the problem is that air has gathered in one side of the wing, or the tank has come undone or rolls you to one side, or air in a drysuit shifts position, or you have some equipment with you, the problem is not the gear:
It's that we don't detect that there is a shift, determine what is causing the problem, figure out a way to solve it and execute.
It's mostly technique and awareness - you can sit in prone position whilst legs heavy, for instance. It's done all the time in shorties and whatnot, and works just fine.

To illustrate, I've added this link:

Here's another you might find informative:

 

[divad]

...........

 

[tbone1004]

What agency is that you teach? And which one soecifically has that asa a standard?

I teach for NAUI. It is not in their standards, but it is in ours

A valve drill is in the GUE S&P for Rec 1. UTD's validated above. Don't have ISE, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't in there.

 

[OMANDIVER]

I teach for NAUI. It is not in their standards, but it is in ours

A valve drill is in the GUE S&P for Rec 1. UTD's validated above. Don't have ISE, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't in there.

I’m sorry, I don’t think gue or utd are mainstream recreational agencies and I think the op should stick with what he has been taught which isn’t gue or Utd. Turning your only gas source on a single tank off underwater strikes me as very foolish and isn’t any valve drill I’ve ever done.

 

[tbone1004]

I’m sorry, I don’t think gue or utd are mainstream recreational agencies and I think the op should stick with what he has been taught which isn’t gue or Utd. Turning your only gas source on a single tank off underwater strikes me as very foolish and isn’t any valve drill I’ve ever done.

you didn't specify mainstream agencies, you asked about agencies. I don't know what their valve drill entails, but mine does not include shutting it off. It is strictly how to reach back to manipulate it to turn it all the way on