back inflated sherwood bcd

[arnied]

My buddy and I just finished our ow cert and went out on our first solo dives . We both purchased new back iflated bcds it seemed as though we could not descend very easily. We were diving in 40 degree water with 7mm suits 30 lbs of weight after the dive both bcds seemed to have a lot of water in them. Any suggestions on what we might do to get down a little easier. More weight perhaps and why did it seem so hard to get the air out of our bcds and why was there so much water in them when we finished.
Thanks
Wes

 

[landlocked]

Congrats on the OW and welcome to diving.

I beleive that the water enters the BC when you hold the inflator hose over your head and depress the purge button while under water. If the BC is empty, no air is excaping and so water is allowed to enter the BC. I'm not sure about the particulars of your BC, but you may want to elevate your left shoulder just a little as you initially empty the BC of air to make sure that the purge valve is the highest point on the BC. That will help the air to excape without getting trapped. As far as proper weighting, this might help.

http://mindspring.com/~divegeek/bcwtbelt.htm

Good luck and good diving.

 

[ScubaScott]

Arnied - I have a similar BC - the Outback. Good BC for all intents and purposes. In hindsight, wish I knew about bp/wings setup before I bought it though..........

I just used my BC a week ago - in water with a current too strong to freeze. I wear a 7mm suit wetsuit, but 34lbs of weight. I suspect not enough weight was your reason for a difficult descent. As for a flood inside the BC, I haven't had that problem - perhaps what Lanlocked mentioned regarding the inflator vavle?

Welcome to the board......

SS

 

[BadFish]

cause that sounds like a lot of weight. You BC could be traping air and thus making it difficult to acend. A Backplate/wing config (i.e. Halcyon...etc) would help out, plus it adds weight so you can drop some off your weight belt

Most new divers tend to be over weighted. Have you tried getting netural at 15'

$0.02

BadFish

 

[MikeS]

Wes,

I have a SeaQuest Balance and the same thing was happening to me, I could not achieve negative buoyancy to descend and at the end of the pool session my BC was half full of water.

The DM helped me figure out the problem and since then it has not reoccurred. I was attempting to descend head down, following the slope of the pool. I tried to let air out of the back dump to decrease buoyancy. What I didn’t realize at the time is that with a head down orientation the BC bladder resembles two separate compartments one on each side. The pull dump only lets air out of the one side. I can confirm that as landlocked said if you open the valve and air isn’t coming out, water is going in. So air was trapped in one side and the other side started filling up with water.

To prevent this from happening I let all of the air out of the BC at the surface to start the descent. If done correctly I only need to add air as I descend. If for whatever reason I need to release air, I make sure that the valve I use is at the highest point. Descending with a heads up orientation helps. After I realized what was going on I never had water in my BC again.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Mike

 

[ScubaScott]

Originally posted by BadFish
cause that sounds like a lot of weight. You BC could be traping air and thus making it difficult to acend. A Backplate/wing config (i.e. Halcyon...etc) would help out, plus it adds weight so you can drop some off your weight belt

Most new divers tend to be over weighted. Have you tried getting netural at 15'

$0.02

BadFish

Badfish - Air in your BC would make it hard to ascend?? Don't think so, and that wasn't the problem anyways.

Overweighted? I'm 6'3", 200lbs with little bodyfat - 34lbs is the minimum I need to stay under the water. 7mm of wetsuit (its probably two-piece, which means 14mm thru the torso - which is what I dive with as well) is a lot of neoprene to submerge. His issues have nothing to do with being overweighted.

SS

 

[ScubaStan]

I have a similar situation to ScubaScott's...

I went on my first dive after purchasing a custom made wetsuit that was 7mm and 2 pcs which set the torso @ 14mm total. I didn't take this into account so I ended floating like a cork with only 20 lbs in by BC weight pockets, which had I had time to check my equipment beforehand in a pool, I might have caught this prior to getting on that boat. DM's put additional 15 lbs on me and I was neutrally bouyant. Now, I no longer utilize my integrated BC weight pockets, but rather use a cordura weight belt with soft weights totalling 34 lbs. I find this much more convenient in the water and out. Although, when I use a regular hood in place of my sleeveless shorty w/ attached hood, I can take about 10 lbs out to neutralize my bouyancy.

I am thinking seriously about dropping the BC I have now and going with a BC without Integrated weight system. I have looked into the bp/wings setup, but not too informed about that setup. Is it made for rec use or is it strictly more for tech diving?

EDIT: I am 6'2", 175, and low body fat.

 

[ScubaScott]

ScubaStan - Wings/backplate setup IMO, is definatley the way to go - I wish I had tried LY's BEFORE I blew $800 CAN on the Outback BC. Nothing really wrong with the Outback, but wings/plate combo is simple to use and effective for ALL types of diving (especially for me as I'm leaning towards more technical training and diving now). I'm still a total rec. diver, but would rather have BP/wings, than my brand new Outback. Check the BC section in here - tons of info and arguments - oops, discussions I mean, about the backplate/wings setup.

You may not believe me until you try it out Stan. Lost Yooper told me the same thing, but I had to try his before I believed it!

SS

 

[landlocked]

BP and wings seems highly thought of. Another option might be the Zeagle Scout.

 

[arnied]

Thanks Everyone for the advice I think not having enough weight is my problem I took my open water cert with the same 7mm suit and I beleive I had atleast 30 lbs of weight. I probably kept hitting my purge valve to descend and my bc was already empty and just started to fill with water which just complicated things. I added the last 2 pounds of weight I had on the second dive and it helped some but it was still diffucult to descend.
Wes