GUE Fundies class report, days 1 and 2

[tracydr]

Sure wish we had more GUE divers in AZ. There are a couple but I'd love to have a regular group to dive with. We are probably moving next spring. I'm crossing my fingers that my husband finds a job somewhere that has a GUE community, plus decent diving. We have no idea where we'll end up. He's looking for a job as a professor at a university.

 

[PfcAJ]

UCF is always hiring. Mid way between the ocean and the caves

 

[tracydr]

UCF is always hiring. Mid way between the ocean and the caves

I believe that's one of the places he's applying. Not sure, he has a list of about 20. The schools just started posting for 2014.

 

[WhiteSands]

Hey glad to hear you had a good time at the course! All the best for the assessment!

 

[mruseless]

I've been monkeying around with my weighting, so I can stay horizontal and still. I can do this with a steel backplate and Mares Quattro fins, and 5mm wetsuit (I don't dive dry yet), but with an aluminum plate I end up a little foot heavy again. So I'm experimenting with a couple different things.

First, I used tank band pockets to put some weight up high. This worked okay but I felt too tank heavy (the rig wanted to roll me over). So I tried threading a weight belt through the upper slots on the backplate (under the STA), with a 2lb weight on each side of the centerline, and the buckle positioned on my side of the backplate right in the channel (sorry if that's a poor description, if I can figure out how to post pics I'll do so). This worked okay but slightly interferes with the backplate being perfectly flat against my back.

I've also thought about drilling a hole on each side of the backplate, then taking two 6" pieces of webbing and bolting these webbing straps, one on each side of the BP. With the webbing bolted in the center of the 6" length, I could feed the webbing ends through a weight and secure them with a triglide. Perhaps an even easier way would be to drill two holes and use heavy duty zip ties to attach weights directly to the BP.

So the question you are probably asking is why bother doing this? Why not use a weighted STA or a steel plate? My goal is to have an aluminum plate for travel, and to be able to easily add weight up high if I want to use a thicker suit or dive dry.

I know this isn't DIR, but has anyone seen anything like this done before?

Let me know if I should start a separate thread for this.

 

[PfcAJ]

I've said this before, but you dive the gear. The gear doesn't dive you.

Your body position and posture can do way more than fiddling with weights trying to get it 'just right' ever will. Plus, the second you strap on something new (a heavy deco bottle, or maybe an empty/floaty stage bottle or 2, or 3, or 4) that special weighting thing goes out the window. You're time is best spent learning how to trim out by using just your body. Sure, get the weighting as close as you can within the parameters of a backplate, weight belt, and perhaps some cam band weights if you're diving singles, while maintaining a balanced rig. But past that, its all posture.

 

[TSandM]

I think maybe part of the problem is the STA. I use camband weight pockets, and slide them up so they are adjacent to the plate, and I don't get the turtling tendency at all.

Although AJ is entirely right about posture being the center of it all, it is also true that, if your static weighting is sufficiently off, it's either going to require a posture adjustment that you're unlikely to remember when stressed, or it may not be fixable with posture. It's not a bad idea to spend some time getting your static weighting as close as possible. Then you can do more with posture when you do add the additional gear he's talking about.

How do you do at reaching your valve? If you're having problems with that, the likely answer is to move the tank up more in the cambands, which may solve your balance issue all by itself.

I've also seen a friend take tubular webbing and fill it with lead shot, and then ziptie it to the holes along the edge of his plate. You could do this with the tubular ankle weights, too. It doesn't permit the use of very MUCH weight, but if it's only a couple of pounds you are playing with, it might suffice.

 

[tracydr]

I've been monkeying around with my weighting, so I can stay horizontal and still. I can do this with a steel backplate and Mares Quattro fins, and 5mm wetsuit (I don't dive dry yet), but with an aluminum plate I end up a little foot heavy again. So I'm experimenting with a couple different things.

First, I used tank band pockets to put some weight up high. This worked okay but I felt too tank heavy (the rig wanted to roll me over). So I tried threading a weight belt through the upper slots on the backplate (under the STA), with a 2lb weight on each side of the centerline, and the buckle positioned on my side of the backplate right in the channel (sorry if that's a poor description, if I can figure out how to post pics I'll do so). This worked okay but slightly interferes with the backplate being perfectly flat against my back.

I've also thought about drilling a hole on each side of the backplate, then taking two 6" pieces of webbing and bolting these webbing straps, one on each side of the BP. With the webbing bolted in the center of the 6" length, I could feed the webbing ends through a weight and secure them with a triglide. Perhaps an even easier way would be to drill two holes and use heavy duty zip ties to attach weights directly to the BP.

So the question you are probably asking is why bother doing this? Why not use a weighted STA or a steel plate? My goal is to have an aluminum plate for travel, and to be able to easily add weight up high if I want to use a thicker suit or dive dry.

I know this isn't DIR, but has anyone seen anything like this done before?

Let me know if I should start a separate thread for this.

Consider a weighted STA. mine weighs 4 pounds and I have a short backplate because I'm 5'1". This leaves me with my can light (4 lbs), my two backup lights (~1 each) and maybe 2-4 pounds in a weight pocket. So, if needed, I could dump the weight pocket on my left hip and my lights. (Ouch). Depending on my undergarment, I need about 14-18 pounds, total, with an HP 80 tank.

---------- Post added September 18th, 2013 at 10:59 AM ----------

I think maybe part of the problem is the STA. I use camband weight pockets, and slide them up so they are adjacent to the plate, and I don't get the turtling tendency at all.

Although AJ is entirely right about posture being the center of it all, it is also true that, if your static weighting is sufficiently off, it's either going to require a posture adjustment that you're unlikely to remember when stressed, or it may not be fixable with posture. It's not a bad idea to spend some time getting your static weighting as close as possible. Then you can do more with posture when you do add the additional gear he's talking about.

How do you do at reaching your valve? If you're having problems with that, the likely answer is to move the tank up more in the cambands, which may solve your balance issue all by itself.

I've also seen a friend take tubular webbing and fill it with lead shot, and then ziptie it to the holes along the edge of his plate. You could do this with the tubular ankle weights, too. It doesn't permit the use of very MUCH weight, but if it's only a couple of pounds you are playing with, it might suffice.

What kind of tubular webbing? Any tips on where to buy tubular webbing? Sounds like a great way to make some inexpensive trim weights to work out the nuances of trim.

 

[mruseless]

@TSandM: I'm headed to the pool this afternoon to work on it, I'll definitely give the camband pockets another try and experiment with moving my tank up. I can just barely reach the valve, but I have poor shoulder flexibility. I haven't played with this much before, so it's a good thought.

@ PfcAJ: I'll definitely work on it. I agree I just want to get it right first. Right now I feel like I don't have it right yet. My posture is pretty good and I'm still feet heavy, so I have to move some weight up (I've already changed fins). It's just a matter of how to do it. It's possible I'm just overly sensitive to turtling because I'm not yet used to having weight on my back (it used to be all in my BC weight pockets in front of my hips). I felt a little bit turtly (is that a word?) even with a 6 lb steel plate on my back and no other weight.

@tracydr: The reason I don't want to use a weighted STA is that I would like to avoid traveling with weight. Of course, if that's my best option I may have to just suck it up and travel with a few extra pounds. Where did you find a 4lb STA weight?

 

[Roko]

Halcyon makes a great STA with a 6lbs removable weight. You can use it with the weight for cold water diving, or take the weight out for travel.

http://halcyon.net/?q=node/7

Sent from my Zeagle N2ition