Dual Bladder Wings - A Good Choice for Redundancy?

[PfcAJ]

Not this old dead horse again. Diving dry with aluminum tanks is idiotic and unworkable for the type of diving I do. Steel tanks and a redundant bladder are a good fit. Steel tanks and a wetsuit are idiotic for the style of diving others do, and a balanced rig and drysuit are a good fit. There, argument over.

Well I guess it’s settled then.

 

[EireDiver606]

Well, it's not balanced if the drysuit can't provide enough lift for you to swim up the rig. That's difficult to achieve, but technically doable I guess.

Also, there's nothing wrong with technical dives in a wetsuit. You just need to be careful about weighting. AL80 doubles with trimix and a couple deco stages are still reasonably easy to swim up with an aluminum or CF plate. Longer exposures where you're dragging more gas or more deco bottles are probably going to be extensive enough that you'll want a drysuit, but you can easily and safely do trimix driving in a wetsuit.

Yes I agree but in reality, just get a drysuit, it’s simpler.

 

[helodriver87]

Yes I agree but in reality, just get a drysuit, it’s simpler.

I use a drysuit for 99% of my diving, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with a balanced rig in place of redundant buoyancy for a certain subset of technical dives.

 

[EireDiver606]

Why are you mixing up inflator hoses? That sounds like a training problem.

Because in an emergency like a catastrophic loss of buoyancy, you’re likely to get identical inflators mixed up as @PfcAJ mentioned earlier. We’re all human, mitigate the risks before taking them. That means lose the extra wing.

So... It's not the only way, but it is the only way...?

I didn’t clarify what I was saying haha. I meant to write GUE isn’t the only way and that diving a balanced rig is the only safe way of diving.

I dive deeper than 30m in a wetsuit all the time. If I don't get blown out by Darien this weekend, I'll be diving wrecks in 60m of water on both Saturday and Sunday. It's about having a balanced rig, not the depth of the dive.

Sorry I didn’t clarify that diving below 30m with Steel tanks is a bad idea IF it’s not balanced.

 

[EireDiver606]

I use a drysuit for 99% of my diving, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with a balanced rig in place of redundant buoyancy for a certain subset of technical dives.

I mean if you’re doing technical dives already, you should have a drysuit and why use a wetsuit when you have a drysuit ? If you’re at rank 2, why drop down to rank 1? To me it doesn’t make much sense. I see what you mean for rec dives but when you’re in the water longer, you need a drysuit, simple as.

I’m not disagreeing with you but could please provide examples?

 

[helodriver87]

I mean if you’re doing technical dives already, you should have a drysuit and why use a wetsuit when you have a drysuit ? If you’re at rank 2, why drop down to rank 1? To me it doesn’t make much sense. I see what you mean for rec dives but when you’re in the water longer, you need a drysuit, simple as.

I’m not disagreeing with you but could please provide examples?

80 degree water, surface temp of 95+ (freedom units, bear with me). Diving on 18/45 backgas to 180-190 and deco with 50% and O2 in an 80 and 40 respectively. With an AL or CF backplate, double 80s, and a 3mm wetsuit, that dive is going to be far more comfortable than in a drysuit. And if you don't need the capacity that steels offer, AL80s are going to be pretty close to neutral at the beginning and swing positive with mix.

That hypothetical scenario covers a lot of tropical T1 or T2 diving. If deco is going to be long, sure, I'll probably opt for a drysuit. But if I'm careful to balance my rig, I'll be far more comfortable diving wet in those conditions.

 

[PfcAJ]

I mean if you’re doing technical dives already, you should have a drysuit and why use a wetsuit when you have a drysuit ? If you’re at rank 2, why drop down to rank 1? To me it doesn’t make much sense. I see what you mean for rec dives but when you’re in the water longer, you need a drysuit, simple as.

I’m not disagreeing with you but could please provide examples?

Wetsuit and Al80s is awesome. No sense in roasting in a drysuit if you don’t need to.

It’s not about “rank”. You’re not “less” for choosing not to sous-vide in a plastic bag when it’s a bajillion degrees out.

 

[MichaelMc]

Also, there's nothing wrong with technical dives in a wetsuit. You just need to be careful about weighting

Yes I agree but in reality, just get a drysuit, it’s simpler.

Bolding mine.

A dry suit being simpler than a wetsuit is a very unusual argument.
A dry suit is not simpler than a wetsuit, nor is it simpler than diving a wetsuit properly or responsibly.

 

[EireDiver606]

Bolding mine.

A dry suit being simpler than a wetsuit is a very unusual argument.
A dry suit is not simpler than a wetsuit, nor is it simpler than diving a wetsuit properly or responsibly.

It’s simpler in that it solves problems that a wetsuit has: buoyancy changes, thermal loss at depth, have to use lighter tanks which means you need more lead, not as comfortable as a drysuit.

 

[EireDiver606]

Wetsuit and Al80s is awesome. No sense in roasting in a drysuit if you don’t need to.

It’s not about “rank”. You’re not “less” for choosing not to sous-vide in a plastic bag when it’s a bajillion degrees out.

The rank was an analogy. If you have the right equipment would you not use it? I’m not saying anyone’s less because they dive a wetsuit. I use wetsuits all the time. What I’m saying is, would you not just use a drysuit even if it’s hot as it grants a lot of benefits compared to a wetsuit, one of them being comfort in the water for long exposures, no buoyancy change etc?