DIR- GUE Balanced rig with a thick wetsuit - mathematically impossible?

[jadairiii]

....a zip tie on the corrugated hose can fail.....

Honestly, I have never seen a "static" zip tie fail. And not to play the "old man" card, but were are talking over 40 years of diving, with zip ties.

That said, I always double zip tie my corrugated hose at both ends......

 

[crofrog]

Honestly, I have never seen a "static" zip tie fail. And not to play the "old man" card, but were are talking over 40 years of diving, with zip ties.

That said, I always double zip tie my corrugated hose at both ends......

I've seen people pull the hose off the elbow while holding the power inflator over their head to vent gas.

 

[BlueTrin]

You and I were posting at the same time. You might find my post above a suitable answer.

It boils down to being aware that you are diving unbalanced; figuring out any changes you might want to make to dive balanced; knowing what removeable weight you have (can light, camera, DPV, stage bottle, other weights); ensuring that you have redundant buoyancy (drysuit, DSMB, lift bag); and ensuring that you know you can swim up your rig in case of a catastrophic failure.

Actually this post made me think: if you ditch weight and become positive so you cannot hold a stop, would you be then not diving a balanced rig?

I don’t think ditchable weights were mentioned during my Fundies.

 

[jadairiii]

I've seen people pull the hose off the elbow while holding the power inflator over their head to vent gas.

Sure, me too, but that would not be the fault of the zip tie. "static" being the operative word.

Zip tie is not going to stop some gorilla from misusing their dive gear.

 

[johndiver999]

Anything with the OPV isn’t a total failure. Just angle head up a touch and you’re gucci.

Top zip tie at the elbow would do you in. Bottom one at the inflator wouldn’t be a total fail as you can blow into the corrugated hose. Sucks but doable. Not really helpful if it happens near the surface or if you don’t have a hard bottom to land on though.

I pretty much don't trust the cheap zip ties that you find on 'BC's. I usually back them up with safety wire or constrictor knot with braided fishing line, or they make special designed clamps (like dive rite uses), those I trust to a large extent.

I've had several BC failures underwater and in practice and when you are heavy, it is not so simple to manage everything and somehow keep the gapping hole as the lowest point.

That is why I try not to depend too much on the BC, yet also try to make sure I don't have any more catastrophic failures because it sucks. especially if you have no ditchable lead.

 

[Celt]

I want to know more about this MTM you speak of.
I used to dive dry and it became such a pain in the ass I went back to quality custom wetsuits for all my cold water diving.
I had suits made from Rubatex G231N neoprene, one was 1/2” thick for urchin diving, and I had a 1/4” thick one.
JMJ Custom Wetsuits I hear makes some great wetsuits.

We’re talking about the same thing, I’m calling it Made to Measure, I used to deal with O’Dare wetsuits, my recent suit is built by Elios Sub, I like to mooch around on the bottom with my metal detector so I asked Stefano to add some reinforcement to the knees.

 

[rjack321]

That depends on the quality and type of material.
There are dozens of different blends and densities of neoprene for different applications.

It does not "depend"

If its "thick" by which I mean 6+mm its got air in it - which is how it provides insulation in the first place. No amount of magically $$$ neoprene is going to keep those gas bubbles from smushing to a 2mm thickness (or less) at 30m+

 

[jeffmg]

Actually this post made me think: if you ditch weight and become positive so you cannot hold a stop, would you be then not diving a balanced rig?

I don’t think ditchable weights were mentioned during my Fundies.

Don’t have your ditchable weight make you positive

Only ditch enough to make you able to swim up

 

[BlueTrin]

Don’t have your ditchable weight make you positive

Only ditch enough to make you able to swim up

But that’s not how you stated the dive already if you were correctly weighted? (minus gas in your tanks)

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It does not "depend"

If its "thick" by which I mean 6+mm its got air in it - which is how it provides insulation in the first place. No amount of magically $$$ neoprene is going to keep those gas bubbles from smushing to a 2mm thickness (or less) at 30m+

It’s obvious you know nothing about neoprenes and the many different densities available.
If you’re talking about off the rack suits in a dive shop then yeah, they use a basic generic material that is widely available for recreational use. Even so called “designer” suits and supposed upgraded brands that are available on the internet still use soft neoprene so it’s comfy and fits a wide variety of bodies.
But there is an entirely different level when you custom order a wetsuit from a builder that specializes in specific commercial applications. They have access to neoprenes that most standard wetsuit companies don’t even know about.