scrubbo
Registered
So... I'm a big guy, and I've been an air hog ever since I started diving. And my Fiancee just started diving herself, and already she's using way less air than me. (She's on Dive 15, I'm on dive 80ish)
She has recently purchased everything except for her tanks from the LDS and ScubaToys, and is really enjoying diving. Today (after I convinced her not to swim like a madwoman at full speed... I couldn't tow the dive flag fast enough to keep up with her) she and did a dive at 15-30ft (lake diving, ain't it grand?) for 68 minutes. We both had AL80's. She had 3100 PSI, I had 3000. At the end of the dive, I had 600 PSI and she had 1200. Obviously I'm sucking gas quite a bit faster. 2400 PSI vs. 1900 PSI used is a pretty big difference. And I was working on my breathing on this trip. When I'm not paying attention to my breathing, I suck air like crazy. Slow, deep breaths was what I did.
So since she hasn't gotten tanks yet, I was thinking of giving her my old tanks and trying to up the cf of air I carry to try and try and equalize our bottom times. Of course, going on trips we'll always be using the AL80's that every outfit uses, but there's enough local lake diving and she's shown enough interest (We've gone every weekend for the last 4 weeks and she did the OW class for a month before that) for me to think that tanks are worth getting for her.
So, that means either AL100's or Steel. I know steel has a much more negative boyancy. Diving in the lakes, I don't think it'll be a big deal as being well weighted at the surface makes me a couple of pounds heavy at 30 ft. Diving the deeper quarrys and great lakes, however, makes steel tanks more worriesome. I have my dry suit rating and own a drysuit and even enjoy diving in it (I like the boyancy control with the DS better than with a BCD, really.) so it's really not a problem. If my BCD goes down, I can michelin man it enough to get off the bottom.
However, the AL 100's are cheaper, and the boyancy characteristics looked closer to what I'm used to on a tank (even if they're heavier to lug around.) But it looks like to get the extra CU out of it, you need to be over the standard filling PSI. 3300 PSI instead of 3000PSI. Do most LDSs fill tanks that need a higher pressure? I'm just worried that most of the places I run into will only fill to 3000 PSI and if so, will the added cost and effort really give much more air?
Does anybody run AL100s?
She has recently purchased everything except for her tanks from the LDS and ScubaToys, and is really enjoying diving. Today (after I convinced her not to swim like a madwoman at full speed... I couldn't tow the dive flag fast enough to keep up with her) she and did a dive at 15-30ft (lake diving, ain't it grand?) for 68 minutes. We both had AL80's. She had 3100 PSI, I had 3000. At the end of the dive, I had 600 PSI and she had 1200. Obviously I'm sucking gas quite a bit faster. 2400 PSI vs. 1900 PSI used is a pretty big difference. And I was working on my breathing on this trip. When I'm not paying attention to my breathing, I suck air like crazy. Slow, deep breaths was what I did.
So since she hasn't gotten tanks yet, I was thinking of giving her my old tanks and trying to up the cf of air I carry to try and try and equalize our bottom times. Of course, going on trips we'll always be using the AL80's that every outfit uses, but there's enough local lake diving and she's shown enough interest (We've gone every weekend for the last 4 weeks and she did the OW class for a month before that) for me to think that tanks are worth getting for her.
So, that means either AL100's or Steel. I know steel has a much more negative boyancy. Diving in the lakes, I don't think it'll be a big deal as being well weighted at the surface makes me a couple of pounds heavy at 30 ft. Diving the deeper quarrys and great lakes, however, makes steel tanks more worriesome. I have my dry suit rating and own a drysuit and even enjoy diving in it (I like the boyancy control with the DS better than with a BCD, really.) so it's really not a problem. If my BCD goes down, I can michelin man it enough to get off the bottom.
However, the AL 100's are cheaper, and the boyancy characteristics looked closer to what I'm used to on a tank (even if they're heavier to lug around.) But it looks like to get the extra CU out of it, you need to be over the standard filling PSI. 3300 PSI instead of 3000PSI. Do most LDSs fill tanks that need a higher pressure? I'm just worried that most of the places I run into will only fill to 3000 PSI and if so, will the added cost and effort really give much more air?
Does anybody run AL100s?