How much weight can YOU swim up?

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Your'e all saying is that you can not dive without a BC..
Guess what, thats EXACTLY what people did back in the day. Thats exactly what Ive done on certain dives just for the heck of it..

If you properly weight yourself in a 7mm, you really need a BCD.

Back in the day, you had to underweight yourself in a 7MM and dive down if you did not have a BC. At depth you were fine, but the ascents tended to be faster (60FPM) and safety stops did not exist. Personally I don' really want to go backwards..., I like seat belts, air bags and other modern safety features.

 

[gcarter]

Your'e all saying is that you can not dive without a BC..
Guess what, thats EXACTLY what people did back in the day. Thats exactly what Ive done on certain dives just for the heck of it.
Unless you wear quite a bit of exposure protection, no you dont really NEED your BC.
You can dive perfectly fine in a 5 mill full suit with no air in your BC for the entire dive. Sure, its handy to have some extra flotation on the surface and you dont need to keep moving, but you don't NEED it.
Oh yeah, that applies to the BC as well. It might dump faster than it inflate, but pressing both buttons at the same time in the pool isnt quite how it works. Its had time to "pre-inflate" before you realize its stuck - thats kinda HOW you know its stuck..

I guess trying it for myself isn't worth a damn, so I'll just leave you all to your "omfg-im-gonna-die-without-my-BC club"..

That's nice. I don't own a 5mm suit. The best I get away with here is dropping to a single layer 7mm and I get to take off my hood. A fair bit of my diving is done in a two layer 7mm + 7mm with a 5mm hood, 5mm gloves, and 5mm boots. I wear 18 lbs + a steel tank in fresh water. A BC isrequired, not handy.

As to being able to do so in a 5mm... maybe you are right and not everyone NEEDS a BC with that level of exposure protection. That doesn't mean that they would ENJOY the dive with the extra work required to compensate. Either a bit of extra weight to be able to get down and maintain a safety stop resulting in being overweighted at depth and having to work harder OR being light enough that it is work to get down and work to hold the safety stop. If that's the kind of not needing you are talking about, I'll pass. I don't dive for a workout, I dive for fun.

 

[Tigerman]

That's nice. I don't own a 5mm suit. The best I get away with here is dropping to a single layer 7mm and I get to take off my hood. A fair bit of my diving is done in a two layer 7mm + 7mm with a 5mm hood, 5mm gloves, and 5mm boots. I wear 18 lbs + a steel tank in fresh water. A BC isrequired, not handy.

As to being able to do so in a 5mm... maybe you are right and not everyone NEEDS a BC with that level of exposure protection. That doesn't mean that they would ENJOY the dive with the extra work required to compensate. Either a bit of extra weight to be able to get down and maintain a safety stop resulting in being overweighted at depth and having to work harder OR being light enough that it is work to get down and work to hold the safety stop. If that's the kind of not needing you are talking about, I'll pass. I don't dive for a workout, I dive for fun.

I never said it would be FUN (unless youre in a shorty) I said it shouldnt be NECCESARY.
I havent tried in a 7mm suit simply because I rather use my drysuit when water get that chilly, hence I dont have a 7mm to play with..

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[gcarter]

I never said it would be FUN (unless youre in a shorty) I said it shouldnt be NECCESARY.
I havent tried in a 7mm suit simply because I rather use my drysuit when water get that chilly, hence I dont have a 7mm to play with..

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

I hear what you are saying but for my part practicality is part of the equation for necessary. I would not dive like that.

 

[Tigerman]

Do you carry any redundant lift? If you do the bc no longer is a necessity, if you dont - why not?
If you can not swim up your rig without extra lift you really should consider the options if your BC somehow get compromised, i.e. by a valve coming off or a puncture..

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[gcarter]

Do you carry any redundant lift? If you do the bc no longer is a necessity, if you dont - why not?
If you can not swim up your rig without extra lift you really should consider the options if your BC somehow get compromised, i.e. by a valve coming off or a puncture..

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

I always have a lift bag / DSMB with me.I also wear my weight split, no more than 5 in each pouch, and a belt when necessary to take any extra - ie diving in salt water with an aluminum tank instead of my steel. I have multiple options and can respond in a graduated fashion. I regularly practice weight removal and shooting the bag.

 

[Tigerman]

Being prepared owns

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[Rich Keller]

Knowing how much weight you can swim up is an interesting exercise and should show how important it is to be weighted properly in the first place. You can dive without a BC if you are properly weighted as we did before they were invented but you will not be doing any hovering. I still weight myself basically the same now as I did then even when using a BC so all I use it for is to adjust for suit compression and the difference between a full and empty tank. Doing it this way the BC is a connivence at best and not something I depend on especially in an emergency. This also allows me to use a smaller more streamlined BC and still have a lot of lift capacity in reserve if needed. I try to depend on the equipment as little as possible so if the BC fails, I didn't really need it to begin with. I use a neoprene dry suit so if that fails there is still some built in lift to the suit. As a last resort a weight belt that can be easily dropped. All of these precautions relay on the built in physics not the mechanics of the equipment.

 

[Nemrod]

I see this statement or some variation thereof made on a regular basis on this forum - by experienced divers.

Being overweighted at depth and properly weighted at the surface is a normal state for anyone who dives in a compressible wet suit, with the gap widening as the exposure protection gets thicker. So yes, there is in fact a need for a BC in single tank recreational diving when wearing any amount of exposure protection. It is not just handy, it can in fact be very necessary.

Actually, I dove for years without a BC in up to .25 Rubatex neoprene with no BC. Admittedly, that becomes a challenge and I would agree given the availability of a BC now, why bother, but still, up to 3mm, I do it now much of the time and only use a BC because it is required on most boats. You just have to learn to unlearn everything you do and do it differently, the key is, Swim down, Swim around and then Swim back up. Really quite simple.

It works like this equipped with a steel 72 or similar, at the surface a Rubatex suit is not compressed at all and you are buoyant, you must SWIM down. At 15 or so feet the suit crushes a bit and air bubbles compress and escape and you become neutral and by the time you reach depth, full tank, you will be negative slightly. Thus you SWIM around. As the tank is depleted you slowly become neutral or more so and at the end of the dive you should be near neutral, you might even need to pick up a convenient ballast stone . Now at the end of the dive it is time to SWIM back up. As you reach the surface, the Rubatex suit regains it's buoyancy or nearly all of it and you are fine on the surface for a face down, snorkel assisted swim to shore or boat. Safety stops, are you kidding, we SWIM up at 60 FPM direct.

Yes, it is possible to do an open water hang safety stop, it requires skill.

Important considerations, genuine Rubatex suits do not crush nearly to the degree todays soft neoLycra does and thus the resulting buoyancy swing is less for a given thickness. The tank needs to be something with the characteristics of a steel 72. And, it is much more practical in 3mm or less, even fun.

With a BC, I strive to be at depth with little or no air at all in my BC, a puff or two, so that at the end of the dive I need to dump it. And, I am accustomed to being slightly bouyant on the hang.

Your lungs can be quite an adequate mini-BC

Your results my vary, Jimmy Crack Corn, I do not care.

N

 

[Tortuga68]

It's true that there is some expansion of air in the wing as they ascend... Most seem to have maybe a couple pounds of air in the wing, so they might gain at most a pound of lift as they ascend

Just quoting James for convenience... the OP is about swimming up 5, 10, 15, 20+ pounds of weight, so any gain in lift from your BC (or wetsuit) is pretty minor in comparison

But what I really need to know, is not how much I can swim up, but how much excess weight can I keep stabilized at the surface while I orally inflate? Isn't that the point of the question?

If you have a catastrophic BC failure, oral inflation isn't going to work


Another thought, re: full tanks - if your tank/s are full, the need to get to the surface is not urgent