Yes, with a full tank. The idea is that holding a normal breath is making you buoyant enough to offset the weight of the air in the tank. You then exhale fully and hold that exhalation while you descend. On the way back up, with 500 psi in the tank, you should be able to hold your safety stop with no or very little air in the BCD.
Unknown Diver airlifted to hospital - Venice, Florida
- Thread starter DandyDon
- Start date
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The Garmin uses a very different system in air vs in water; in air it uses radio, u/w it uses acoustics. The u/w transmission interval is 4 secs. I do not know what the transmission interval is for the above-surface radio signal; Garmin is not very forthcoming with the actual operating information. You just have to trust them, I guess, like with Apple.
More like 5-6 pounds at the beginning of the dive. One has to compensate for the weight of the gas to be used from the tank.
CT-Rich
Contributor
Try typing "balanced rig" into the search bar. you will find plenty of posts from people calling ditchable weight unnecessary or fluff.
"Two words: Balanced. Rig.If you can swim up with full cylinders and compressed wetsuit, you don't need ditchable weight."
"Yup, I had to chuckle when demoing to my far-more-experienced-but-oldschool-BCD-sporting dive instructor just how easy it is to get in/out of my fixed DIR / Hogarthian harness. No clips, buckles, padding, ditchable weights or other fluff required when you have a proper balanced rig."
"I've got 860+ dives and at least 800 of those have been with no ditchable weights. Some of us believe in diving a balanced rig and managing the risks that could require ditching weights in a different way. There are also very real risks that come from ditchable weights, namely losing them..."
CT-Rich
Contributor
I was only addressing the statement that the post I was referencing was saying he had never seen any posts about non-ditchable weight. I don’t want it misconstrued to say it had anything to do with the accident. I only pulled up some quotes from post that mentioned non ditchable weights from a quick search of SB.
Just catching up here, to be clear they weight you heavy to stick on the bottom because you are rooting around for fossils and sharks teeth in the sand. I was about 4lbs heavy but could easily swim it to the surface with an uninflated BC and in point of fact did. While ultimately her gas was her responsibility, she trusted the crew to check her gas but no one of the boat after her fins hit the water checked that she was okay after entry and they almost lost her.
There are only a couple of charter groups in Venice and its not a large community so everyone knows what is going on down there, especially when you have to make a call over VHF that you are headed for the dock and need an ambulance. A little harder to hide the situation.
There are only a couple of charter groups in Venice and its not a large community so everyone knows what is going on down there, especially when you have to make a call over VHF that you are headed for the dock and need an ambulance. A little harder to hide the situation.
CT-Rich
Contributor
My main tanks were originally a twin set. It doesn’t always register with me the correct direction to turn the valve to open them, since they are mirror images. That has made me very particular on checking my air myself in all cases. I could see someone on a boat closing on off thinking he was doing me a favor….
Unless it is a negative entry, I always am breathing off my reg (I can switch to the snorkel later) and I am positively buoyant on entry. I know people that splashed with their valves closed and were negative. Fortunately, it was off a dock and they were only in 10 feet. They considered themselves lucky.
TrimixToo
Contributor
It seems worth mentioning here that a DM I know fairly well jumped into the water with the valve closed on a single tank. On the way down, the DM reached back and turned on the valve. As no training I know of taught this for DM at the time I was impressed by the calm, correct action under pressure.
Other actions were possible, too--how long does it take to release and shrug off a BC if you can't reach the valve, for instance? Or ditch weight?
I think the message to take away from that experience is that keeping calm and *thinking* when things go pear-shaped is something that can save your life, or someone else's.
Other actions were possible, too--how long does it take to release and shrug off a BC if you can't reach the valve, for instance? Or ditch weight?
I think the message to take away from that experience is that keeping calm and *thinking* when things go pear-shaped is something that can save your life, or someone else's.
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