First Time Diving Doubles

[crpntr133]

nereas, you gotta be a Tony Stewart fan to even be in Princess Penny's court. BTW, go Jr. go!!

I remember my first couple doubles dives and they weren't pretty either. Luckily I had an instructor for a couple dives and she got me in the ball park. My biggest challenge was to get trimmed out. Luckily I was way tail heavy and figured I was.

 

[pennypue]

Wow! Could it be that I am falling in love ... ?

:blinking:

 

[grazie42]

[Disclaimer: I´m not female]
Like everyone´s said, getting the rig tight, is a prerequisite. If you have any play in your harness, wingnuts etc you will have to "fight them" for control. (it seems you have this covered)

Doubles have a lot of mass and anytime they start moving in one direction, you will likely follow unless you take immediate corrective measures.

With regards to trim I think the place to start is getting the tanks so that you can do a valve-drill. Unless you can, you are just wasting your time as you won´t be able to dive them that way anyway. Also sometimes, specially in a new config, the "feeling" about trim isn´t really correct so having a buddy along to constantly give you feed-back about whether you are really heads/feet-up can be a great help (or a mirror in a pool, though that might appear slightly narcissistic to others ).

I dive my doubles with an aluminum bp and 4lbs on my weightbelt in a DS, I am a bit overweight but I need the belt to correct trim.

Anyways, the time it takes to get used to doubles (propably depending on whether you start out in doubles that are right for you) may be different but we´ve all been there, I had one or two "near-splats" as I was getting used to mine. Give it time and take up Penny on her offer if you can...

 

[tstormdiver]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. It's really appreciated. Even though I'll be dry for the next couple of weeks due o work, I also have a couple of people here at home that also dive doubles & have offered to help me to get trimmed out better. Personally, as long as they don't try to drown me, I'll take anyone up on their offer to help. I can use all the help I can get .
I know I could reach my isolator valve because my 7' hose kept getting tangled on it.

 

[tstormdiver]

Well, I tried those doubles again late last week at Mermet Springs. Much better this time. I stayed relatively shallow and only worked my way down to 46' at the deepest over the course of 2 dives. At first I still felt a bit unstable, but after a few minutes it all settled in & I had a great time! My trim started to settle out a bit & I was moving about much easier. The buoyancy still needs a lot of work & I need to velcro my hands to myself. This weekend I'll be working on buoyancy, valve drills & my hands. More work to do, more work to do.......

 

[TSandM]

Glad to hear the second time was better!

I can't remember how many dives in my doubles I had before they really started to feel like part of me, but it was quite a few (more than twenty, I'm sure).

 

[pickens_46929]

Thanks for the invite Penny. Unfortunately I'm going to be dry for the next couple of weeks due to work. ON Aug. 18th I may go to Pennyroyal with a newly minted diver. After that, I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I'd like to reciprocate the invite, if you're ever down this way towards Pennyroyal, feel free to look me up.

Tammy! Hiya!

I am not a big guy and absolutely love my LP 85's... I dive a stainless steel backplate though there are times I wish for an AL one... I agree with Penny and would not go with AL 80's doubled up... they are larger, more ungainly, heavier out of the water I think, and in reality have the same swing from just under neutral, say -2 lbs to being positive at +8 lbs or so... as the LP85s.

Likely it's a matter of band placement on the tanks, what hole you're using in the back plate, etc. to trim them up a bit... pool or shallow water work with lots of short dives and the same bouyancy control exercises you did when starting your diving in a single work wonders... having someone take pictures or film you underwater also helps because like you found, sometimes what you feel and the actual way your body is underwater are two different things.

Once you get it all adjusted and worked out, you'll be surprised to find out how nice doubles are... evnt to the point that when you switch back to a single tank it'll feel awkward again...

So advice...

1) stay with the current config... AL plate and double LP 85s

2) small changes... one at a time... nothing drastic... don't make 2 or 3 changes at once...

3) practice... practice... practice... in shallow 30 ft. or less

4) have a buddy take pictures or video... even if video using a still camera... it's still good to get the feedback

5) practice safety stops coming up from 30 ft. ... do 3 mins at 15 ft...

6) once you think you've got it figured out... now drain the tanks down to 500 psi or lower and go back to 30 ft and repeat... see if you can hold your 15 ft safety stop for 3 mins... if you can... can you hold at 10 ft. for 1 min... what about 5 ft for another min? The real test of whether you've got too much weight is that final stop at 5 ft. with less than 500 psi of air in your tank.

Have fun, be safe... practice, practice, practice!

 

[tstormdiver]

Last week I was working on my Dive Con internship during an AOW class. It was a small class (just 2 students). The instructor of the class is a technical diver & was going to use his doubles for the deep dive portion of the class. He suggested that I use my doubles for that portion also for the extra air in case of a mishap. He was there at the quarry the day of my first dive fiasco, so he knew I was a little nervous about it & was willing to help me if I got into trouble again, even though he also had students with him. We did 2 deep dives that day. the first dive was to 97ft. & the second was to 87ft. Everything fell into place. My buoyancy & control were perfect. I was so busy watching bringing up the rear & making sure no one strayed off that I didn't have much time to worry about myself. The head instructor of my LDS (also the technical instructor there) was also at the quarry & swam by a couple of times during the deep dives. He said he was impressed with my buoyancy improvement & that, except for a few minor & easily corrected issues with my trim, I was doing quite well. He said that he would get with me very soon to get things smoothed out. Those dives were a major boost to my confidence using the doubles. I still remember the lessons learned from the first dive in them, but feel I can now go further in my training.

 

[timle]

Well I'm late to the party but here is my story.

Coming from diving single Steel 3442 100s and AL80s, I put together a pair of LP108s to start my cavern and cave training. I jumped in the pool the first time and could not trim out. My head just wanted to sink, other than that things weren't too bad, sank fast, more air in wing, the usual drill.

The trim issue did not resolve itself until I moved the bands. I moved the top band as high as it could go before the tank starting to shrink towards the neck. A few more pool session like that and I headed to Paradise Springs to really get a good dive on them. Loved them in the water, hate them walking back to the picnic tables.

My wife on the other hand I doubled up the HP100s for her and she trimmed out immediately and didn't really have any major issues.

 

[tstormdiver]

My trim problems, right now, is more me & body position than anything. I was told I need to arch my back more, pull my shoulders back, pull my head back & look up a bit. I'm still learning to balance the tanks a bit & it messes with me a little.