First Dive in Doubles

[b1gcountry]

I got them down to the local quarry yesterday and did three dives with them. It went a lot better than I thought it would. Didn't really have any problems...They are a lot more weight to muscle around above water though.

The closest I would compare it to would be diving a singles rig with a 10lb weight strapped to the back of the tank. I had to worry about my bubbles a lot more with it than I normally do, and I got my buoyancy messed up a number of times. The horseshoe wing I was using also took a little getting used to. I usually go a little head-down when using the rear pull dump. This didn't work so well with the wing since I couldn't dump the air in the right half.

I also turned turtle once and sunk into the bottom rather ungracefully. I don't think I was quite neutral, and when I added air to compensate, I pumped it into the DS, and I think it was escaping out the exhaust vent. All in all, I spent a lot more conscious effort fiddling with the air in my wing and drysuit than I normally do.

The first dive I did I wound up flooding the suit. It was also my first dive in drygloves, and when I started feeling a little cold around my wrist I figured they weren't sealed quite right. I didn't think it was too bad, but when I surfaced, my arm was pretty much soaked. Surprisingly, my hand was bone dry! Turns out the Zip Seal on the drysuit wasn't fully snapped in place. Oh well, when my new suit comes in I'll be glad I didn't opt for the zip seals.

All in all, I was surprised how well I did. Helicopter turns, trim, etc all felt pretty familiar. Reversing pretty much sucked though. I was able to move backwards a little, but it was hard to give a quick back kick and stop myself mid-water...and diving with my split fins probably didn't help any (No flames please, I was hoping to convince the quarry owner to sell me this one pair of rental fins that fit me perfectly, but he had thrown them out when the strap broke.) Any recommendations for a nice fin a little larger than the XL Jets, but a little smaller than Turtles? I've tried both of these, but neither works. I also tried some Quattros, but they were about the equivalent feel of the splits I was using.

Tom

 

[battles2a5]

Tom,

Sounds like you made it through the dive unscathed. My transition to doubles went pretty smoothly as well which surprised me after the horror stories I've read on this board. Just a couple of tips (after 25-30 dubs dives):
- Learn to love the horseshoe. You can use it to balance out your rig to offset a bottle or a heavy light.
- Vent early and often and you won't have any issues with air distribution (e.g. shouldn't be venting so much air it will be trapped in one side v the other)
- Just take it slow. You have more inertia with heavy doubles so things take a little longer.

As for your back kick, I don't want to start another holy war re: splits vs. jets but I think the splits may be the problem. You need a stiff paddle with some pop. My quattros work but by paddles do much better. I have the OMS Slipstream XXL, they are right in between the XL and XXL jet and they are much lighter. They look identical to the jets and they have tons of snap. Safe diving!

 

[TSandM]

A comment on the back kick in doubles . . . I've found that kick to be very trim-dependent, and most people's trim goes thoroughly to pot when they start in doubles. Almost everybody ends up rearing up a certain amount to avoid going head-down, and it takes a while to figure out the distribution of body parts (and equipment) that permits staying horizontal and still.

 

[tstormdiver]

Sounds like your first dives were much better than mine. My first dives were in a quarry with some new tech divers that were familiar with doubles. We were going to do a deep dive (95- 100'). I have dove the quarry many times & was familiar with it. I had also dove the tanks (LP85's) as singles in the same BP/W. After gearing up & jumping in, not realizing how negative the tanks were doubled, I proceeded to dump all the air from my wings. I immediately began to sink & descend uncontrollably. I kept trying to fill the wings & my drysuit. I finally got myself under control at 90', but my breathing was waaaay out of whack from the task loading. After all that, I decided that I'd had enough & called the dive. I ascended slowly & decided to sit out for a while to regain my composure. To make the situation worse, my instructor had shown up while I was down & then gave me the "that was a stupid move" lecture (which I deserved as I did bite off more than I could chew). After a few hours, I then did a shallow dive in the doubles & did fine. I've dove the doubles about a dozen times & am steadily gaining confidence. A bad first experience for me, but also a lesson well learned.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I am by no means a back kicking master, but I'll second the comment that fins may be an issue. Doubles have a lot of mass and it takes a fairly stiff fin and a couple of smooth kicks to get things moving. Then when you get that wired, add a stage bottle.

I'll also second the trim comment. Back kicking out of trim can aggravate the already present tendency to move upward if you arch too little and try to hard.

Bouyancy wise, you need to remember that you have perhaps 15 lbs of gas on board and are a lot more negative at the start of the dive. So even if perfectly weighted, you will need to split the bouyancy between the suit and the wing throughout the dive. I keep the suit where it needs to be to be comfortable and put everything else in the wing as it is easier to manage that way.

The advantage of keeping the majority of gas in the wing is that it is a lot more stable than trying to balance the negatively weighted tanks on top of the positively bouyant suit bubble. That approach will get you doing the dead cockroach imitation in short order where keeping most of the gas in the wing is much more like floating around under the goodyear blimp.

 

[b1gcountry]

The fins definitely were not ideal. I have only tried about four fins that fit over my size 13 rock boot. First were a pair of force fins during my first ever drysuit dive at a DUI Rally event. The suit was way too big, and had so much drag that I could hardly propel myself forward at all. The next were a pair of Mares Quattros, which were better, but I still had better results with my Tusa split fins. I also tried a pair of turtles, which just had too sloppy of a fit on my foot to get good results with. The best pair I found were an oddball pair of "ART" fins which were pretty stiff, and longer than standard Jet style fins. I managed to get pretty good control with them, but I couldn't find them anywhere. Not even on Ebay. I rented them from the quarry a couple of times, and was going to ask the owner to sell them to me before my dives. Unfortunately, a strap broke on them, and instead of replacing it, he just chucked them in the quarry...so I was left with my backup plan, which was using my split fins. I think my 'plan B' will be a pair of XXL Slipstreams like Battles suggested above.

 

[PerroneFord]

I use XXL Jets with my size 13 Rockboots. However, Salvo is selling a pair of fins that is just about PERFECT with Size 13 rockboots. Call them up and ask. If I hadn't already bought this set of Jets, I would have bought those on the spot.

 

[b1gcountry]

Also, about the extra gas weight...
I wanted to do a quick dive to kind of get a feel for the doubles, so I knew I wouldn't go down far or stay long, so I just used my AL BP instead of my steel BP. That probably would have left me about 6-8 lbs light with empty tanks, but was plenty weight for a quick dive with full tanks. I know it's kind of cheating, but I figure it is more like training wheels. I think that helped out a lot with getting the feel for them initially. I switched to me heavy steel plate for dives 2+3.

I definitely started to realize it was better to put most of my air into the wing, although I was putting more into the suit than I should have just because I was a bit cold (crappy hood, among other things). Also the comment about making a lot of small adjustments is pretty wise. Not necessarily that I did that, mind you...

I also had a harder time guaging whether I was neutral or not. I primarily use a frog kick, and I can judge buoyancy pretty well during the glide portion of the kick. I didn't manage as well as I normally do. A couple times I thought I was neutral, but when I stopped to hover, I either started sinking or rising. Then once that happened, my bubble started shrinking, or expanding, and I wound up sinking/rising even faster.

DIR-F will definitely be a pretty good challenge for me doing it in doubles this spring. I'm excited, it gives me something to work toward. (and something to do instead of touring the same school bus for the 25th time.)

 

[b1gcountry]

I use XXL Jets with my size 13 Rockboots. However, Salvo is selling a pair of fins that is just about PERFECT with Size 13 rockboots. Call them up and ask. If I hadn't already bought this set of Jets, I would have bought those on the spot.

So, would those be the "Salvo Classic Fin" in size XXL? Could be another option. Thanks Perrone.

 

[PerroneFord]

So, would those be the "Salvo Classic Fin" in size XXL? Could be another option. Thanks Perrone.

He actually had two different options on fins besides the turtles that were in the shop. My Rockboots fit nearly the same as the last boots I used. I went to the car, got the boots, and tried them in each of the three fins he had, and brought my XXL jets in for comparison. The fit on one of them was nearly ideal. I just can't remember WHICH! Sorry about that, that's why I suggested you call Salvo and speak to Barry directly. You can tell him I sent you to inquire since we did that fin/boot test.