"Balanced Rig"

[lamont]

You control it all.

You pick what wing to use.
You pick what tank to use.
You pick what gas to use.
You pick what exposure suit to use.
You pick what amount of lead to use.

etc etc

and you can't stay clear of discussing ditchable weight if you want to talk about balanced rigs.

Some rigs need them to be balanced.

You can balance a rig out great with a scooter. Just pull the trigger and go...

 

[JeffG]

You can balance a rig out great with a scooter. Just pull the trigger and go...

Just need to clear your ears fast.

 

[rjack321]

You have direct control over everything. You buy it don't you? You pick an exposure suit, not just for conditions, but for its characteristics. Same reason why certain Al tanks are used for deco/stage tanks. (for their characteristics, not by how much gas they hold) ie take the above problem and replace thick wetsuit with a drysuit and most of the issues disappear. Just change your undies type, to compensate to temperature.

Ding ding give the man a prize. Once you understand the rationale for the gear you end up selecting it because it has the characteristics you desire and it works. Not because someone in High Springs "told you so".

 

[b1gcountry]

Thanks for the explanation. That was definitely the most complete discussion I've heard about the definition of a balanced rig.

As for ditchable weight:
1. you have to be able to drop enough to allow you to swim a full rig up to your first stop, but also
2. you have to make sure you don't ditch too much so that once you reach the stop, you will be able to hold it.
3. Making things more complicated, you will also be breathing gas and making yourself lighter.

So then the safest amount of weight ditchable would be roughly the weight of the backgas you breath on the bottom. This would allow you to ditch weight at the start of the dive, and still be able to maintain your stops even if a team member has some total OOA situation and winds up breathing off your backgas during your whole ascent.

If you lose buoyancy at the end of the dive, you should be able to safely swim up your rig since its lighter. If you can't swim up you rig after reaching your rock bottom turn pressure, then you aren't diving a balanced rig.

Sound roughly correct, or am I inferring too much?

BTW, the original definition I was told for a "balanced rig" was one where you weight yourself for neutral without your rig, also weighting your rig to be neutral when empty. This would allow both you and your unit to be neutral on the bottom even when doffing and donning. I don't remember the source of this, and it definitely was not a DIR explanation, but this is what prompted the original question.

Tom

 

[Thalassamania]

BTW, the original definition I was told for a "balanced rig" was one where you weight yourself for neutral without your rig, also weighting your rig to be neutral when empty. This would allow both you and your unit to be neutral on the bottom even when doffing and donning. I don't remember the source of this, and it definitely was not a DIR explanation, but this is what prompted the original question.

That is an additional consideration that some (including me) add when diving in environments that present significant entanglement opportunities. It is not a DIR requirement.

 

[b1gcountry]

Thal-
I guess then, diving a wetsuit where compression is an issue, you could not acheive this at all depths, correct?

Tom

 

[limeyx]

Thanks for the explanation. That was definitely the most complete discussion I've heard about the definition of a balanced rig.


Tom

Yes, it was a good discussion but honestly, it's all been said before and the whole thread could have been avoided by using the search feature

 

[b1gcountry]

The problem is its been discussed too much, and most of the discussion was crap. Searching for "balanced rig" gave over 500 results, including the first four of:
Question and Answer (a game.) (Multi-page thread 1 2 3 ... Last Page)
Random Letter Game (Multi-page thread 1 2 3 ... Last Page)
Pick 1 and Post 2 (Multi-page thread 1 2 3 ... Last Page)
good pony reg?

OTOH, searching for "Balanced Rig" in the subject in DIR only, gives no results.

I did search. I didn't find what I was looking for.

 

[Warren_L]

If you put quotes around "balanced rig" you'll get better results.

 

[rjack321]

Yes, it was a good discussion but honestly, it's all been said before and the whole thread could have been avoided by using the search feature

A bunch of DIR threads have been purged. So we may very well need to revisit some of these oft' talked about subjects.