Heavy with doubles

[Ber Rabbit]

It’s funny how many principles sound so funny when reflected against other actions one is willing to hop into – like being OK doing first doubles dive to anywhere into a depth where any kind of narciness is a remote possibility, for example

You instructors you!

Actually I'm almost always narced at shallow depths (been narced out of my mind on a safety stop) and that's probably what made me give the "go" signal at 60 feet. I remember descending down the line from 60' to 135' and never feeling a need to clear my ears or put air in my wing; I knew I should be doing those things but in that mindset had no clue when so I watched my buddy and when he put air in his wing and cleared his ears I followed suit. I had this really peaceful feeling and was enjoying the dive and the security of the amount of air in the doubles. When he told me after the dive that I looked catatonic when I wouldn't respond to him I told him I thought I had been responding and I wasn't catatonic I was completely relaxed and calm for the first time EVER on a drysuit dive. Narced out of my freaking mind is what I was but I felt zero apprehension about the dive and that was a new thing for me--it just happened to make me look "catatonic" since he had never seen me relax. That wasn't my first uncontrolled ascent in that drysuit and I was always apprehensive when I dove it.

BTW I bought a new drysuit after that dive, I completely feared that one I had after that incident.

OH, he does tend to have a high level of "you should be able to do this easily if you're an instructor" tint to his training with me and since I'm so competitive I tend to feed on that and bite off more than I can chew.
Ber :lilbunny:

(ok, back to the topic )

 

[julio]

Try tanks at 70bar/1000psi and see if you can hold stops at 20 and 10' feet or 6 and 3 meters. If you floating up you need to add the more weight, but if not, you are okay.

 

[BarryNL]

I find myself a bit heavy with my double steel 100's and aluminum plate unless I am wearing a heavy undersuit with my 2.5mm neoprene drysuit. I have seen plenty of divers with WAY more gear than I use and wonder how they can remain neutral and still carry all the gear? I'm not using any additional weight. How do you tech divers get around being overweighted with gear? I can't imagine what it would be like in a tri-lam suit!

J

Selecting the best steel tanks helps. I started with some borrowed double-12 L which were 14.5kg each. With those I was significantly overweighted. When I bought my own I found some double-12s which were 13kg each (so 6.5 lbs less) which are pretty much perfect with a steel backplate and drysuit.

All steel tanks are not created equal(ly heavy).

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Finally got my tanks down to 600psi I needed three little puffs of air in the wing to hold the safety stop and I was wearing all but one fairly thin layer of my heavy exposure protection.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[adamd]

no they are 3500s they are a shorter tank about the same size as a al 63

 

[David P]

Actually I'm almost always narced at shallow depths (been narced out of my mind on a safety stop) and that's probably what made me give the "go" signal at 60 feet. I remember descending down the line from 60' to 135' and never feeling a need to clear my ears or put air in my wing; I knew I should be doing those things but in that mindset had no clue when so I watched my buddy and when he put air in his wing and cleared his ears I followed suit. I had this really peaceful feeling and was enjoying the dive and the security of the amount of air in the doubles. When he told me after the dive that I looked catatonic when I wouldn't respond to him I told him I thought I had been responding and I wasn't catatonic I was completely relaxed and calm for the first time EVER on a drysuit dive. Narced out of my freaking mind is what I was but I felt zero apprehension about the dive and that was a new thing for me--it just happened to make me look "catatonic" since he had never seen me relax. That wasn't my first uncontrolled ascent in that drysuit and I was always apprehensive when I dove it.

wow thats scary!