BC's with "Elevator" Lever

[amitsi]

I own one and I have tried it for multiple dives and its not gimmicky as people who own the older stuff will say...

Although, I would say it doesn't HELP with your buoyancy if you suck, you suck at it!...The major advantage u don't have to hold your inflator/deflator hose up to deflate

Another dis-adv U can't have a Integrated air supply which to me is wrrrrong to do anyways ...

 

[alm]

Sorry about asking this question again but, I couldn't find an answer in all of the discussion about how an owner of one of these will die if they don't go buy a BP/W.:11:


Also what is the best position to get all of the air out. Example my Ranger I need to make my left shoulder the highest part of the BC to use the shoulder vent.

Regarding the best position to get the air out..

I'm not an expert having only done one pool dive in the i3, but there I found that it vented
very well in almost every position I could put it in.. except flat on my back looking at
the surface.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

One thing I need to add:

Weighting is one of the most critical aspects of diving. You shouldn't be overweighted to the point where if you dump all your air on the surface you can decend feet first, this is true elevator diving. What this means is that if anything happens to your BC bladder as far as leaks or blow outs of various components and you lose your surface supporting air you're going down. This is one of the most dangerous mistakes made by current open water students and it has caused deaths.
Case in point: Down off a beach in Socal, two divers complete a shoredive and during the surface swim back in one of the divers becomes exhausted. He used up all the air in his tank both during the dive and on the suface swim back due to rough water which made snorkeling impossible. The conditions had deteriorated during the dive and surf had picked up. When both divers were almost on the beach in about 15 feet of water when the inflator hose on the exhausted divers BC had come off at the aircell causing all the air he was relying on to stay afloat to be dumped all at once. The diver sank and was unable to dump his weights and had no air to breathe in his tank. When the other diver turned to see how his buddy was doing he was gone. Needless to say they did a body recovery. All this could have been avoided if the diver was weighted properly.

To avoid this type of scenario you should not be able to sink when you dump all sources of trapped air on the surface. To decend you should have to tip head down and actually dive down like a porpoise, a freediver, or what they used to call a skin diver. This is the proper way to dive, not sinking feet first. For Tech diving the rules are different, but I'm discussing standard single tank recreational diving here.
Ultimately at the end of the dive you should have only enough ballast weight to keep you at 10 to 15 feet for you final stop with all your air expelled from your BC and drysuit if you use one, and using your breathing to hold the stop.
The reason instuctors weight the hell out of students is so that they can keep them down on the sand in 15 feet of water to get their skills out of the way so they can wish them a nice day and get the hell out of Dodge. The student then thinks this is the proper way of weighting themselves and this misconception can go on for years or until one sees how dangerous it is or has a close call. Some people on this board can dive with no BC at all, just a backpack with a tank strapped on it and a simple harness. I do this, I know Nemrod dives this way and probably a handfull of others. We have our weighting so dialed in that if we do use a wing it is very small and used only at depth very sparingly to take the edge off, that's it.

I don't know how you have your weighting set, you may be weighted correctly already.
But if you are a feet first diver you may want to consider lightening up your ballast and trying the method I described of diving down head first like an actual scuba diver not feet first like a hard hat commercial diver then you may begin to see why so many people have chosen to go with a much simpler minimalist secure system than a bulky BC.

Hope this helps

Eric

 

[RJP]

You should not be able to sink when you dump all sources of trapped air on the surface. To descend you should have to tip head down and actually dive down like a porpoise, a freediver, or what they used to call a skin diver.

This is the proper way to dive.

No, it's not.

 

[Nemrod]

No, it's not.

It isn't? Surely we are not suggesting a feet first uncontrolled descent. I was taught to descend in a swimming descent like this:

And as a freediver I certainly have always have done a surface dive head first with either a pike or bent hip dive from the surface. The PadI feet first dump your air and sink method is relatively new and usually results in silt and bottom damage and is not a very elegant means of descending. N.

 

[timle]

Presumably you have a full tank when you have to do this dip and dive maneuver. So what happens at 15ft when you do your safety stop and you are 5-6 lbs lighter?

If you can't decend by letting air out of your BC then you are either positive or neutral at best so at the end with a AL80 you are 5-6lbs positive - once you hit 15ft you are probably on a one way ticket to the surface.

You need to be as negative at the start of your dive equal to the weight of the air you plan on using.

 

[RJP]

It isn't? Surely we are not suggesting a feet first uncontrolled descent.

Who said anything about "feet first uncontrolled descent"?

I'm just saying that you should be able to descend at the beginning of your dive without having to "swim down like a porpoise."

The poster I was responding to was saying that the proper way to dive is to weight yourself so that you are still positive when you dump all your air at the start of your dive.

 

[timle]

But of course the only alternative to a dive and kick down - must be a rapid feet first decent, ending with a crash into the bottom. Thats how I dive - dump and sink as fast as I can until I smack into the bottom. Then I crawl all over the reef until I'm just about out of air. I hit my elevator button and ascend as fast as I can go.

 

[1_T_Submariner]

But of course the only alternative to a dive and kick down - must be a rapid feet first decent, ending with a crash into the bottom. Thats how I dive - dump and sink as fast as I can until I smack into the bottom. Then I crawl all over the reef until I'm just about out of air. I hit my elevator button and ascend as fast as I can go.

No need for them silly looking fins that way!!

 

[1_T_Submariner]

It isn't? Surely we are not suggesting a feet first uncontrolled descent. I was taught to descend in a swimming descent like this:

And as a freediver I certainly have always have done a surface dive head first with either a pike or bent hip dive from the surface. The PadI feet first dump your air and sink method is relatively new and usually results in silt and bottom damage and is not a very elegant means of descending. N.

The holding hands thing is sweet. You always know where your buddies are that way!