bipolarbear
Registered
I just finished up a dive in Philippines where one of the divers on the boat (not my buddy, not part of my dive team) had a long go at me about my 'lack' of redundant buoyancy.
It was a warm water dive, water temp around 30 degrees on the surface. 26 degrees at planned depth (80m). I don't dive in caves, and I don't dive cold water; almost all of my diving is in Philippines / Thailand / Chuuk Lagoon etc so I typically dive in either a 3 mil full, 3 mil shorty or just in tec shorts and a t-shirt. Today I was in the latter.
Run time for today was two hours. I invariably pad the deco on dives like this so told the boat to expect us to surface at two hours and fifteen with an SMB at around the 90 minute mark. A nice scooter dive along a wall at depths between 80m and 35m, then ascending up a gradual slope up to a shallow bay around 8m in depth where we would do our long 02 deco. I was diving with double AL80s of 15/50 (we don't use standard gasses here and there's a hard bottom at 80m), an AL80 of air, an AL80 of 50% (only about 3/4 full) and an AL40 of 02. We splashed at the deepest point and I I switched to my air stage as we came up to around the 45m mark.
Dive was magnificent and relaxed. After the initial rush of the deep wall, it was a very leisurely cruise up into the (relative) shallows. Plenty of gas, no issues, we dived the plan.
Back at the shop the 'antagonist' (who was in a dry-suit, but dived the same profile as we did albeit with a different team) was adamant that what I'd done was dangerous. He said that it's irresponsible to do dives like this without a dry-suit. I would usually tell him to eff off but he's a vastly more experienced diver than I am (tech instructor and many thousands of dives, against my 300).
I was diving with aluminum tanks, with a 60lb wing and a carbon back plate. I was definitely heavy with all that gas at the start of the dive, but I'd actually added a few KGs as a tail weight because I'm always concerned about being positively buoyant on the final stop if I had an emergency and ended up sucking my doubles dry. Even on this dive I clipped my almost empty air stage to my SMB line and sent it up once on 02 deco as it's unpleasantly floaty.
I always dive with a scooter. A serious scooter, a Suex that's serviced and maintained. Additionally, I carry two SMBs which can be used as alternative buoyancy in case of wing failure (and I've practised this with a simulated failed wing, beyond what was required in trimix classes). I almost always dive on sites with a hard bottom shallow enough where in the case of a wing failure and an inability to use my SMBs, I could drain my doubles without busting PO2 limits and crawl my way up to my next gas or (on a *really really bad day*) hypothetically ditch the harness and take deco tanks.
Anyway, long story short, was this guy right or does he just not like diving with a dude in shorts and a t-shirt? To my mind, I had two forms of redundant buoyancy (i) my scooter; and (ii) my two SMBs. To be clear, I think that if I was diving in places with no hard bottoms I would either invest in a dual bladder wine or just go dry-suit. Thoughts?
It was a warm water dive, water temp around 30 degrees on the surface. 26 degrees at planned depth (80m). I don't dive in caves, and I don't dive cold water; almost all of my diving is in Philippines / Thailand / Chuuk Lagoon etc so I typically dive in either a 3 mil full, 3 mil shorty or just in tec shorts and a t-shirt. Today I was in the latter.
Run time for today was two hours. I invariably pad the deco on dives like this so told the boat to expect us to surface at two hours and fifteen with an SMB at around the 90 minute mark. A nice scooter dive along a wall at depths between 80m and 35m, then ascending up a gradual slope up to a shallow bay around 8m in depth where we would do our long 02 deco. I was diving with double AL80s of 15/50 (we don't use standard gasses here and there's a hard bottom at 80m), an AL80 of air, an AL80 of 50% (only about 3/4 full) and an AL40 of 02. We splashed at the deepest point and I I switched to my air stage as we came up to around the 45m mark.
Dive was magnificent and relaxed. After the initial rush of the deep wall, it was a very leisurely cruise up into the (relative) shallows. Plenty of gas, no issues, we dived the plan.
Back at the shop the 'antagonist' (who was in a dry-suit, but dived the same profile as we did albeit with a different team) was adamant that what I'd done was dangerous. He said that it's irresponsible to do dives like this without a dry-suit. I would usually tell him to eff off but he's a vastly more experienced diver than I am (tech instructor and many thousands of dives, against my 300).
I was diving with aluminum tanks, with a 60lb wing and a carbon back plate. I was definitely heavy with all that gas at the start of the dive, but I'd actually added a few KGs as a tail weight because I'm always concerned about being positively buoyant on the final stop if I had an emergency and ended up sucking my doubles dry. Even on this dive I clipped my almost empty air stage to my SMB line and sent it up once on 02 deco as it's unpleasantly floaty.
I always dive with a scooter. A serious scooter, a Suex that's serviced and maintained. Additionally, I carry two SMBs which can be used as alternative buoyancy in case of wing failure (and I've practised this with a simulated failed wing, beyond what was required in trimix classes). I almost always dive on sites with a hard bottom shallow enough where in the case of a wing failure and an inability to use my SMBs, I could drain my doubles without busting PO2 limits and crawl my way up to my next gas or (on a *really really bad day*) hypothetically ditch the harness and take deco tanks.
Anyway, long story short, was this guy right or does he just not like diving with a dude in shorts and a t-shirt? To my mind, I had two forms of redundant buoyancy (i) my scooter; and (ii) my two SMBs. To be clear, I think that if I was diving in places with no hard bottoms I would either invest in a dual bladder wine or just go dry-suit. Thoughts?
