Interesting BP/W experience, help needed please!

[GreatDane335]

Hi all,

I finally got myself a bp/w and went to the pool at my LDC yesterday to test it out, sort out weighting and work on my trim.

The first incident that happened is that my rear dump valve cord got stuck in the harness, I couldn't get it out by feel so I decided this would be a good opportunity to practice removing the gear underwater.
I removed my gear and all of a sudden I became very positively buoyant (full 5mm wet suit in approx 3.5 meters fresh water). This came as a surprise because when using a jacket style bcd I would always have a weight belt and with the bp/w I don't need one. To stop my self ascending I just held onto my gear, undid the tangle and put the gear back on. My first question is what is the best option to do when removing the bp/w underwater in order to ensure not getting into an uncontrolled ascend?

The second thing that happened is that when going into a head down position, it felt like I went from neutrally buoyant to positively buoyant with my feet wanting to go to the surface. While in a horizontal position there where no problems and I was able to control my trim. The way I found to counteract this was to add weight to my waist weight pockets. Obviously this is not ideal as I am now carrying extra weight. I was using a short 12L steel cylinder. Are there any other options I have to stop this happening without adding additional weight? I tried lowering the cylinder as much as possible on the back plate but there wasn't much space to move it.

Thanks in advance.
Dane

 

[Bobby]

The buoyancy issue when removing your gear is what it is. You will need to hold on to your equipment to stay down. When going to a head down position you are keeping your head at the same depth and allowing your waist to go shallower. The air in the wing rushes to the bottom of the wing when you go head down which is slightly shallower than when you were horizontal which causes you to become positive. If you go head down your need to keep your waist at the same depth. Then you will continue to be neutral, adding more weight than you need is not the answer.

 

[Insta-Gator]

Be patient. It took me 6 or 8 dives before I worked out the details of how to dive with my BP/W. Weighting, BP & tank location for trim, changing from fresh to salt water, thickness of wetsuit, etc. It's an ongoing process of adaptation. I do not carry any additional weight while diving my BP/W, so I fully expect I'll become a cork if I doff my gear and let go. Once you get all the personal details worked out you will love diving the BP/W, just be patient.

 

[PfcAJ]

Do you have a little ball on the pull dump cord? If so, cut it off. It's not needed.

 

[tbone1004]

what Bobby said, then what AJ said but sort of. I actually prefer the little balls especially when diving with thick gloves on, but mine are on VERY short leads. Just enough to get my fingers between the ball and the dump itself. Most of the time you'll see them with pretty big things put on them and those are just excessive, you can also remove it and tie a pretty good sized knot on the end to get a hold of it in gloves. In my cave rig, they are just a small knot since I don't have gloves on.

The ones below are mostly OK if you keep the line short.

 

[george_austin]

so I decided this would be a good opportunity to practice removing the gear underwater.
I removed my gear and all of a sudden I became very positively buoyant (full 5mm wet suit in approx 3.5 meters fresh water). This came as a surprise because when using a jacket style bcd I would always have a weight belt and with the bp/w I don't need one.

- Nice. Brain fade is what I call this. Don't worry, we all have them some days

 

[cool_hardware52]

https://www.deepseasupply.com/index.php?product=1333

We ship our wings without a "Toggle" or knob on the OPV. The knobs routinely get fouled on either the left hip dring or between stage / deco bottles. Some locales require by statute that the toggle be in place when the goods are sold, but that does not prevent the diver from modifying the goods after purchase. The kit linked above includes the parts to convert for many, but not all brands of wings.



Tobin

 

[george_austin]

https://www.deepseasupply.com/index.php?product=1333

We ship our wings without a "Toggle" or knob on the OPV. The knobs routinely get fouled on either the left hip dring or between stage / deco bottles. Some locales require by statute that the toggle be in place when the goods are sold, but that does not prevent the diver from modifying the goods after purchase. The kit linked above includes the parts to convert for many, but not all brands of wings.



Tobin

Interesting-est post of the day - that the lawyers and municipalities have so infested our lives that they are even regulating the concept and placement of tiny bits of plastic festooned onto dive equipment. As Mr. Spock would say . . . . "Fascinating"

 

[GreatDane335]

The buoyancy issue when removing your gear is what it is. You will need to hold on to your equipment to stay down. When going to a head down position you are keeping your head at the same depth and allowing your waist to go shallower. The air in the wing rushes to the bottom of the wing when you go head down which is slightly shallower than when you were horizontal which causes you to become positive. If you go head down your need to keep your waist at the same depth. Then you will continue to be neutral, adding more weight than you need is not the answer.

Thanks for the advice Bobby, what you are saying about keeping my waist in the same position while dropping my head makes perfect sense. I knew adding more weight was not the correct solution but I wasn't able to access SB while underwater hence I tried an alternative solution.

---------- Post added September 21st, 2015 at 05:22 PM ----------

Be patient. It took me 6 or 8 dives before I worked out the details of how to dive with my BP/W. Weighting, BP & tank location for trim, changing from fresh to salt water, thickness of wetsuit, etc. It's an ongoing process of adaptation. I do not carry any additional weight while diving my BP/W, so I fully expect I'll become a cork if I doff my gear and let go. Once you get all the personal details worked out you will love diving the BP/W, just be patient.

I have only done 2 dives with the bp/w and I already enjoy it so much! I know it's going to take a bit of getting used to but that's why I'm practicing and also it gives me more reason to go diving

Do you have a little ball on the pull dump cord? If so, cut it off. It's not needed.

what Bobby said, then what AJ said but sort of. I actually prefer the little balls especially when diving with thick gloves on, but mine are on VERY short leads. Just enough to get my fingers between the ball and the dump itself. Most of the time you'll see them with pretty big things put on them and those are just excessive, you can also remove it and tie a pretty good sized knot on the end to get a hold of it in gloves. In my cave rig, they are just a small knot since I don't have gloves on.

The ones below are mostly OK if you keep the line short.

I landed up getting the Halcyon setup and the knobs look very similar, I will give both methods a try and see which i prefer, most of my diving is in tropical water so at the moment I don't wear gloves but that doesn't mean I won't ever not wear gloves.

so I decided this would be a good opportunity to practice removing the gear underwater.
I removed my gear and all of a sudden I became very positively buoyant (full 5mm wet suit in approx 3.5 meters fresh water). This came as a surprise because when using a jacket style bcd I would always have a weight belt and with the bp/w I don't need one.

- Nice. Brain fade is what I call this. Don't worry, we all have them some days

Haha well I'm glad I'm not the only one. It's funny that there are just somethings that slip your mind when you are used to certain ways.

https://www.deepseasupply.com/index.php?product=1333

We ship our wings without a "Toggle" or knob on the OPV. The knobs routinely get fouled on either the left hip dring or between stage / deco bottles. Some locales require by statute that the toggle be in place when the goods are sold, but that does not prevent the diver from modifying the goods after purchase. The kit linked above includes the parts to convert for many, but not all brands of wings.

Tobin

Thanks Tobin, luckily I live in South Africa so while I don't intentionally break the rules, laws and rules isn't something that is widely enforced .

Will your kit work on the Halcyon eclipse wing?

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

Tobin, sent you a pm, but thought I would ask here as others might be interested. Will this kit work on Halcyon wings?