Hello everyone,
I recently bought an Xdeep Zen wing with a stainless steel backplate, along with Apeks regulators, and after about ten dives I have a few gear-related questions, please:
Over the dives in a 5mm wetsuit, I gradually dropped weights until I didn’t need any at all. However, I still feel a bit heavy, as I have to start the dive with air in the wing. I tested this with both 12L and 15L tanks. During the safety stop at around 5 meters, if the wing is empty, I start sinking back down…
Since I don’t have any more weight to remove in this configuration, what would you recommend? Switching to an aluminum backplate? I haven’t yet tested with a 7mm suit.
I’ll probably buy a drysuit in a few months, which should give me some extra buoyancy to offset, but in the meantime...
Apart from the suit, the only thing I'm still missing is a pair of fins, but I’m still undecided. At first, I thought I’d need slightly heavy fins, but given the buoyancy issue above and the fact that sometimes my legs drop, I’m wondering if I should in fact go for neutrally buoyant fins — but still fairly stiff and not too long for frog kicking. Ideally, I’m looking for versatile fins that will also work well when I switch to a drysuit.
After some research (and ChatGPT), it seems that most Apeks/Jetfins are not ideal (too heavy or floppy RK?), and the OMS Slipstreams or Tecline Powerjets seem to be recommended. Any thoughts?
Btw i am in Europe so no Deep6 Eddy please lol i know they are great but cannot have them anyway
I imagine that if I wait until I’m diving with a drysuit, the recommended fins might be different as i will need this time for heavy fins..?
And lastly, when I bought my regulator set, I got the hoses separately to set up a long hose configuration. After some research, I went with 60 and 61 cm for the necklace reg and the inflator hose. The first stage is an FSR, so the hoses exit sideways, and I find the setup a bit “messy.”
The Zen’s inflator is fairly short, so the hose ends up being a bit too long, and even the necklace reg has a bit too much slack. For those of you with a similar setup, what hose lengths are you using? I was thinking maybe something around 50 cm might be better.
Thanks in advance!
I recently bought an Xdeep Zen wing with a stainless steel backplate, along with Apeks regulators, and after about ten dives I have a few gear-related questions, please:
Over the dives in a 5mm wetsuit, I gradually dropped weights until I didn’t need any at all. However, I still feel a bit heavy, as I have to start the dive with air in the wing. I tested this with both 12L and 15L tanks. During the safety stop at around 5 meters, if the wing is empty, I start sinking back down…
Since I don’t have any more weight to remove in this configuration, what would you recommend? Switching to an aluminum backplate? I haven’t yet tested with a 7mm suit.
I’ll probably buy a drysuit in a few months, which should give me some extra buoyancy to offset, but in the meantime...
Apart from the suit, the only thing I'm still missing is a pair of fins, but I’m still undecided. At first, I thought I’d need slightly heavy fins, but given the buoyancy issue above and the fact that sometimes my legs drop, I’m wondering if I should in fact go for neutrally buoyant fins — but still fairly stiff and not too long for frog kicking. Ideally, I’m looking for versatile fins that will also work well when I switch to a drysuit.
After some research (and ChatGPT), it seems that most Apeks/Jetfins are not ideal (too heavy or floppy RK?), and the OMS Slipstreams or Tecline Powerjets seem to be recommended. Any thoughts?
Btw i am in Europe so no Deep6 Eddy please lol i know they are great but cannot have them anyway
I imagine that if I wait until I’m diving with a drysuit, the recommended fins might be different as i will need this time for heavy fins..?
And lastly, when I bought my regulator set, I got the hoses separately to set up a long hose configuration. After some research, I went with 60 and 61 cm for the necklace reg and the inflator hose. The first stage is an FSR, so the hoses exit sideways, and I find the setup a bit “messy.”
The Zen’s inflator is fairly short, so the hose ends up being a bit too long, and even the necklace reg has a bit too much slack. For those of you with a similar setup, what hose lengths are you using? I was thinking maybe something around 50 cm might be better.
Thanks in advance!
