Ryan Neely
Contributor
TL;DR: How do you doff your rig at the surface after a total buoyancy failure of both drysuit and wing if you're rig doesn't carry enough ditchable weight to make you buoyant on the surface?
My wife and I are recreational divers (for now), but we've been diving a backplate and wing and a long hose configuration since taking Fundies shortly after our Open Water certification about six years ago. We love the gear configuration for a multitude of reasons that aren't important to this post. Suffice it to say, it's the way we prefer to dive.
Recently, a triad of events have driven me to examine my gear configuration ... specifically, weighting requirements and positioning.
We dive predominately in cold water. I become cold quite easily, so I tend to wear thick undergarments. Right now, diving with a stainless steel backplate, a weight-integrated single tank adapter, and a single aluminum cylinder, I seem to be properly weighted with an additional fourteen pounds added to my harness.
I still consider this a balanced rig. I can swim up that weight easily and I can remain at a ten foot stop with a nearly empty cylinder without problems.
One of the things I've been working on this year is trim weight placement. I have a tendency to pitch head up when stationary in the water column, so I've been trying to distribute the weight (and raise my tank valve) to be somewhere closer to between my shoulder blades to counteract this pitching movement. So far, this has helped (though I suspect I need to work a bit more on core activation to really dial it in).
Where this leaves, however, is with a total of six pounds of ditchable weight.
This has never bothered me before. I had always taken the stance that when we moved to back mounted doubles, the amount of weight I would carry from a second cylinder would be equivalent to the amount of weight I wear in pockets (trim, ditchable, or otherwise).
Recently, however, I've been working toward a PADI Divemaster rating. This process has reminded me of some of the many skills we are taught through PADI's Open Water course that I have since forgotten or decided were not valuable. In particular, the skill of removing and replacement of the BCD while in the water (either at depth or on the surface in water too deep to stand).
I've never understood why anyone would want to remove their entire rig at depth (but that is a debate for a different thread). Doing so on the surface, however, seems like a sensible thing to be able to do for a couple of reason.
This led me to question two things:
In my mind, there are two things that would hinder this process:
So, here are my questions:
Thanks for your considered thoughts and opinions.
My wife and I are recreational divers (for now), but we've been diving a backplate and wing and a long hose configuration since taking Fundies shortly after our Open Water certification about six years ago. We love the gear configuration for a multitude of reasons that aren't important to this post. Suffice it to say, it's the way we prefer to dive.
Recently, a triad of events have driven me to examine my gear configuration ... specifically, weighting requirements and positioning.
We dive predominately in cold water. I become cold quite easily, so I tend to wear thick undergarments. Right now, diving with a stainless steel backplate, a weight-integrated single tank adapter, and a single aluminum cylinder, I seem to be properly weighted with an additional fourteen pounds added to my harness.
I still consider this a balanced rig. I can swim up that weight easily and I can remain at a ten foot stop with a nearly empty cylinder without problems.
One of the things I've been working on this year is trim weight placement. I have a tendency to pitch head up when stationary in the water column, so I've been trying to distribute the weight (and raise my tank valve) to be somewhere closer to between my shoulder blades to counteract this pitching movement. So far, this has helped (though I suspect I need to work a bit more on core activation to really dial it in).
Where this leaves, however, is with a total of six pounds of ditchable weight.
This has never bothered me before. I had always taken the stance that when we moved to back mounted doubles, the amount of weight I would carry from a second cylinder would be equivalent to the amount of weight I wear in pockets (trim, ditchable, or otherwise).
Recently, however, I've been working toward a PADI Divemaster rating. This process has reminded me of some of the many skills we are taught through PADI's Open Water course that I have since forgotten or decided were not valuable. In particular, the skill of removing and replacement of the BCD while in the water (either at depth or on the surface in water too deep to stand).
I've never understood why anyone would want to remove their entire rig at depth (but that is a debate for a different thread). Doing so on the surface, however, seems like a sensible thing to be able to do for a couple of reason.
This led me to question two things:
1.) In light of the balanced rig concept, just because I could swim the weight I carry to the surface, that doesn't necessarily mean that I would be able to float on the surface with that weight in the event of a total buoyancy failure (drysuit and wing).
2.) Were a total buoyancy failure to happen and I was able to make it to the surface, I'm not certain I would be capable of getting out of my harness to ditch my rig.
In my mind, there are two things that would hinder this process:
First, the weight of the rig itself (and all of the non-ditchable weight) pulls the harness down onto my shoulders such that trying to doff the unit as if the harness were a coat--pulling the harness wide to slip down my shoulders--is a challenge without some kind of counter support (especially should the harness get caught up on other equipment like dive computers, compasses, or my drysuit exhaust valve).
Second, trying to push a hand under the harness toward the centerline of my body in order to free one arm at a time no longer seems feasible given the massive dry glove rings on my suit (and the ones on my Santi drysuit are relatively small compared to the locking rings on something like an SI Tech glove system). I believe this second method is a part of the reason we are advised to make sure we can slip a fist through the harness when sizing it--to be able to push an arm through if necessary. This actually works quite well in a wetsuit, but I don't think it will work at all with a dry glove system.
So, here are my questions:
1.) How do you all handle or prepare for a total buoyancy failure with a heavy rig (be it from weight in pockets or from diving a twinset)?
2.) Am I missing (or have I forgotten) something obvious here that would make this concern make sense?
Thanks for your considered thoughts and opinions.
