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billt4sf
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Update Cold-water diving is *still* a PITA
Yesterday we drove for 4 hours, spent $600 on new equipment, $250 for rentals, 10 hours with Hepcat, and had no diving fun. Dinner with Hepcat was fun though!
We tried our new Backplate and Wings. Caution to those who are considering these: you will likely not be able to configure and use these yourself (unless you are very knowledgeable) so you better get a highly experienced mentor to help you we were *very* lucky to have Brian help us *for such a long period of the day* !! Thank you, Brian!
We spent the first three hours configuring the BP/W getting the webbing close to right. (As it turns out, the only way you can get it right is in the water). Brian did all of the work. After gearing up in our drysuits, we donned our rigs and went for a dive or so we thought. After a few minutes in the water, we had to return to the beach to adjust the webbing on Emilys BP and my weight belt. Round one.
On the second round in the water, we found the real problems. Emily did fine, she almost is ready to use the BP/W but I had tremendous difficulties. My configuration was a 17 lb BP (includes two 5 lb weight plates, one on either side of the BP), a steel HP100 tank, and 10 lbs on the weight belt. This was enough weight to descend fairly easily, but when I got down (20 ft or so) I had a tremendous squeeze and as soon as I put air into my drysuit I began rolling and ascending. I just felt like any air in the DS immediately went to whatever portion of my body was highest (left side, right side, feet, shoulders, etc.) and I could not maintain horizontal face-down position. In addition, my left shoulder strap was loose. It was extremely disconcerting, water got in my mask, I was bobbing up and down, and several times was momentarily panicked.:shocked2: I never got down and OK.
With Brians instructions, I doffed the weightbelt and the BP/W, and he went down and adjusted it again. (I was never sure why he had to descend to do this). Then it was a bit too tight. Also I had cramps and could not reach my feet / fins to loosen them! That was another painful discomfort.
Although Emily was able to be comfortable in her BP/W, she mentioned later that she was glad she had taken her seasickness meds, because with the viz at about 8 feet, she had to do quite a bit of turning around in pea soup to find us that would be enough to make her sick.
Some comments on the BP/W thing: these are not easy system to use the first time, maybe not even the third time. Now I know why jackets are so popular. First of all, they are very difficult to configure properly. You cannot adjust straps independently if you adjust the shoulder strap, that will affect the waist strap, and vice versa. And the straps are not easy to move through the openings. Quite frankly, that seems to me a basic design flaw with the BP/W system. Secondly, you cannot loosen a strap once you have it on or to get it on no loosening or disconnecting the shoulder strap to don or doff the BC & tank. Yes, you can wiggle out of it but why not make it easier? Not optimal. What about a drift dive where you doff the BC before re-entering the boat? Third, the straps stretch when they get wet and you cannot tighten them on the fly. Fourth, the straps have no padding. For this 62 y.o. guy, carrying a 60 lbs tank and backplate is do-able but my gosh, can I have a little help here?
Maybe we will get to where we love them, but we sure have a ways to go, and frankly I do feel that some of the issues are straight-ahead design flaws.
After talking with Hepcat, I think I might know why I was rolling around so much the steel tank, and maybe the weight plates. I remembered that I had this problem though not nearly as much --- when I dove a steel tank with drysuit and jacket BC. At least that BC has most of the weight in your front, easier to swim face down. But when I added air to the DS, that portion of my body went zing -- and if it was my left side, the air immediately vented.
So were not there yet. Still a ways to go. We did enjoy the day, though! It felt good to get out, and even if I did not have a successful dive, Emily did (more important, that). And with no surf, we didnt fall down! YAY!!
And we *really* enjoyed our dinner with Brian it got us all re-excited about diving, after our stressful day. Yes, we want to try it again. Thanks, Brian!!!
Yesterday we drove for 4 hours, spent $600 on new equipment, $250 for rentals, 10 hours with Hepcat, and had no diving fun. Dinner with Hepcat was fun though!
We tried our new Backplate and Wings. Caution to those who are considering these: you will likely not be able to configure and use these yourself (unless you are very knowledgeable) so you better get a highly experienced mentor to help you we were *very* lucky to have Brian help us *for such a long period of the day* !! Thank you, Brian!
We spent the first three hours configuring the BP/W getting the webbing close to right. (As it turns out, the only way you can get it right is in the water). Brian did all of the work. After gearing up in our drysuits, we donned our rigs and went for a dive or so we thought. After a few minutes in the water, we had to return to the beach to adjust the webbing on Emilys BP and my weight belt. Round one.
On the second round in the water, we found the real problems. Emily did fine, she almost is ready to use the BP/W but I had tremendous difficulties. My configuration was a 17 lb BP (includes two 5 lb weight plates, one on either side of the BP), a steel HP100 tank, and 10 lbs on the weight belt. This was enough weight to descend fairly easily, but when I got down (20 ft or so) I had a tremendous squeeze and as soon as I put air into my drysuit I began rolling and ascending. I just felt like any air in the DS immediately went to whatever portion of my body was highest (left side, right side, feet, shoulders, etc.) and I could not maintain horizontal face-down position. In addition, my left shoulder strap was loose. It was extremely disconcerting, water got in my mask, I was bobbing up and down, and several times was momentarily panicked.:shocked2: I never got down and OK.
With Brians instructions, I doffed the weightbelt and the BP/W, and he went down and adjusted it again. (I was never sure why he had to descend to do this). Then it was a bit too tight. Also I had cramps and could not reach my feet / fins to loosen them! That was another painful discomfort.
Although Emily was able to be comfortable in her BP/W, she mentioned later that she was glad she had taken her seasickness meds, because with the viz at about 8 feet, she had to do quite a bit of turning around in pea soup to find us that would be enough to make her sick.
Some comments on the BP/W thing: these are not easy system to use the first time, maybe not even the third time. Now I know why jackets are so popular. First of all, they are very difficult to configure properly. You cannot adjust straps independently if you adjust the shoulder strap, that will affect the waist strap, and vice versa. And the straps are not easy to move through the openings. Quite frankly, that seems to me a basic design flaw with the BP/W system. Secondly, you cannot loosen a strap once you have it on or to get it on no loosening or disconnecting the shoulder strap to don or doff the BC & tank. Yes, you can wiggle out of it but why not make it easier? Not optimal. What about a drift dive where you doff the BC before re-entering the boat? Third, the straps stretch when they get wet and you cannot tighten them on the fly. Fourth, the straps have no padding. For this 62 y.o. guy, carrying a 60 lbs tank and backplate is do-able but my gosh, can I have a little help here?
Maybe we will get to where we love them, but we sure have a ways to go, and frankly I do feel that some of the issues are straight-ahead design flaws.
After talking with Hepcat, I think I might know why I was rolling around so much the steel tank, and maybe the weight plates. I remembered that I had this problem though not nearly as much --- when I dove a steel tank with drysuit and jacket BC. At least that BC has most of the weight in your front, easier to swim face down. But when I added air to the DS, that portion of my body went zing -- and if it was my left side, the air immediately vented.
So were not there yet. Still a ways to go. We did enjoy the day, though! It felt good to get out, and even if I did not have a successful dive, Emily did (more important, that). And with no surf, we didnt fall down! YAY!!
And we *really* enjoyed our dinner with Brian it got us all re-excited about diving, after our stressful day. Yes, we want to try it again. Thanks, Brian!!!
