So I'm putting together a set of vintage dive gear as I find it and I'm going to try to learn to dive it, but the water I dive in never really gets above 55 degrees. This means I'm wearing a minimum of a 7mm wetsuit. I've got an O'Neil J-suit, so it's a good suit and although it's not vintage, it is all black and for the time being, that's good enough. The thing is there's a big change in buoyancy with depth.
Last dive I wore my BPW, but I deflated the wing at the beginning of the dive and never touched it again throughout the dive. I was able to maintain my buoyancy much better than I had anticipated too, but only out to about 20'. Past 20' I started to become negative and the deeper I went the more negative I became. So if I were to plan a dive to 60 feet would I just need to wear less weight, swim down and plan on grabbing a rock to avoid an uncontrolled ascent at the end, or was there some better way. I've heard that the old suits compressed less, but it also seems that most of the old divers were diving warmer waters, so maybe this wasn't the issue.
Anyway, I'd like to hear peoples thoughts on it.
I just did a full vintage dive yesterday with double hose and everything up on the Sonoma coast with Fish & Beer (Jerry) from this board.
It was great! We were diving in 53 degree water and I used my new old school beaver tail 7 mil. I weighted myself probably too light for the depths we were diving (30 foot max) so I was carrying around rocks and trading them for lighter or heavier ones depending on how deep we were. It was a fun exercise. I was amazed at how little it takes to change things. I was grabbing rocks anywhere from the size of a loaf of bread to ones about half that size and it made a huge difference. This gives me an indication that for game collecting, if a BC is not to be used, the weight of the game has to be taken into consideration.
I also find that a 5 or 6 Lb. air consumption swing is only patially true. You have to account for the delayed retraction of a compressed suit and aslo the cooling of the suit which will reduce the size of the air bubbles in the suit making it heavier in the water. So at the end of a dive with an empty tank your swing might only be a few pounds and not the actual weight lost in air consumption. One sort of counters the other in other words. This is an advantage.
Here's my suit description:
I had M&B down in long beach make me a custom commercial wetsuit from some very dense material, the densest material available these days. It's denser than Rubatex G-231 (the old standard) and needs to be custom fit exactly or else you will not be able to move against the tight areas. The design of my suit is from 1961 and they've never stopped making that style complete with stainless twist locks and nickel coated zippers (upon request). Commercial Urchin divers prefer that cut and M&B is the premier maker of heavy duty retro suits.
Buoyancy shift is about as minimal as it gets with this suit.
Don at M&B also sent me some samples of other materials he can get. There's another product made that's a hair softer and resembles G-231 about as close as possible these days. Lined G-231 is still available, however there is a rumor going around that the glue they use to laminate the nylon or lycra to the outside fails after time because it's a water based solution, whereas the older stuff they used a solvent based glue that was much more permanent. Environmental regulations put an end to the good stuff.
Rubatex still does make original G-231 in skin/skin material (smooth both sides) but it is expensive. A suit made from that could run upwards of $1200. It would also be a glued together only suit which means no stitched seams. Skin outside is also less abrasion resistant and can be damamged quite easily on sharp rocks or abrasive objects.
I guess cost is all justified by income levels and want or need.
Some people spend $2500 on a drysuit and another $500 on undergarments, then drop $1400 on a can light and another $5000 on a scooter and swear they need all that stuff, so it's all relative I guess.
M&B's phone number:
(562) 422-3493
