The point about the ankle weights in my earlier post didnt really have anything to do with drysuits, which (as I recall) was the original purpose of this thread. I dont have a problem with meanderings, but I hope that no one will be upset by my straying off target.
My post about the ankle weights was in reference to Uncle Pugs post where he said that adding ankle weights requires extra weight on the belt and that he would provide information to support his claim. I basically agree with him, but was disappointed that no one took the bait, so (after a couple of weeks waiting) I asked him to explain. I gave a specific example of an instance from my experience where I thought he was wrong. Sort of an exception that proves the rule, as I said in my post.
The particulars: double PS100s (sorry, I misspoke myself in my original post good eye WetDane) on my back with an AL80 for deco. 3mm new full wetsuit. Double wings for at least a margin of safety. Weight for trim and that was the point of my post. I was vacationing and borrowed some of the gear I was using. We took a practice dive to allow me to familiarize myself with the gear and make whatever adjustments were needed. I had a couple pounds of weight on my waist to allow myself to adjust trim and as a way to get a little positive in a big hurry if I needed to. I ended up more or less heads down, which I dont think can be caused by carrying too much weight at midpoint. Removing all the weight, although it helped a little bit, didnt come close to resolving the problem. What did work was moving some of the weight from my belt and adding it to my ankles. Bingo I found myself naturally leveled out. Over-weighted, yes, but I wasnt carrying much and I had limited options available. Mostly, I couldnt think of anything else that would solve the problem.
That said, there have been some obvious questions and comments about the deeper :goofy: dive that I mentioned doing with this configuration and whether or not I was a stone cold moron (my words) for making the dive. Again, thats maybe off topic, but of interest nonetheless. The particulars: an air dive to 59m in 25C water with air on my back and EAN50 for deco. Bad idea? Yep. Would I do it again? Nope. Been there, done that, never been so drunk in my life. Scratching hard at a pO2 of 1.6, thats for sure. I could tell you about all the planning that went into the dive and all the precautions we took, but it was and remains a bad idea. Although I had a great time on the dive, Im mostly glad that I got to live to tell about it. I got lucky, which is sometimes better than being good.
And, no, Id really rather not post this experience anywhere else, if for no other reason than pride. I probably should have kept my mouth shut even here. I can see this on RSD or Aquanaut although it might be interesting to be the first guy to get shredded by both PADI and GUE at the same time!
