just finished SM course

[pconsidine]

I had 42 lbs
Spine pouch 2 waist pouches and a belt.
I’m a fat floaty bastard. Swimming in shorts I can breathe out completely and I don’t sink.

42lbs. of lead that is way too much drag- go steel.....

 

[pconsidine]

lp85s aren't 8lbs (total) buoyant when they are both near empty. You have small tanks, without much gas, and a ton of lead. Switch to lp85s, have more gas, and less lead too.

in lp85s (which actually weight about the same as al80s) you would be using about 35lbs of lead - a significant drop and have more gas (if you could get them filled right would help too)

totally agree -also like my HP100's , don't have to beg for over fills at LDS.

 

[rjack321]

Most of the SM divers in Vancouver BC are doing long fairly shallow dives on 32%, Al80s are not ideal but steel tanks don't work as well with the harness type BCs they prefer. So they match the tanks to the BC whereas most of us, pick a dive, choose the appropriate gas, decide on gas volumes needed, select cylinders based on volume needed - kind of approach.

 

[MichaelMc]

Most of the SM divers in Vancouver BC are doing long fairly shallow dives on 32%, Al80s are not ideal but steel tanks don't work as well with the harness type BCs they prefer. So they match the tanks to the BC

Why did most wind up with rigs that do not match the conditions? Those sound like razor type?

 

[rjack321]

Why did most wind up with rigs that do not match the conditions? Those sound like razor type?

Good question. They seem to love their razors up there. Which dont do bigger steel tanks well at all. As far as I can tell those folks are not doing 60m dives with 2 deco bottles (or even 45m dives with a single deco gas). They are recreational sidemounters, many cave trained, but doing long-ish 32% dives in Howe Sound. South Island, and the Sunshine Coast. There are still a few OC trimix divers up there, overwhelmingly diving backmounted doubles, not SM.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Why did most wind up with rigs that do not match the conditions? Those sound like razor type?

Yes, there is a group of divers up there who are all cave trained by Natalie Gibb who all dive the Razor. One, John Nunes, was my sidemount instructor. Eli Wolpin is an awesome photographer. I haven't dove with all the SM folks in Vancouver, but afaik, that group pretty much all dive the Razor.

 

[vovanx]

I had some trouble in the confined water dives rehooking lower bolt snaps on tank back up, was taking 20-30 seconds but today in the ocean i got both sides down to 5-10 seconds in trim so I think some more practice and Ill have it down pat.

I had the same problem and made a so-called "gear solution to a skills problem" by switching the lame bolt snaps with small slippery button to the OMS branded bolt snaps with large comfortable button.
google for "OMS BigGrip" - highly recommend.

 

[JBFG]

You can also check out the new xdeep boltsnaps. I want a pair badly

 

[vovanx]

You can also check out the new xdeep boltsnaps. I want a pair badly

wow.

will trade my OMS bolt snaps and double-enders for XDeep ones

 

[KentB]

Good question. They seem to love their razors up there. Which dont do bigger steel tanks well at all. As far as I can tell those folks are not doing 60m dives with 2 deco bottles (or even 45m dives with a single deco gas). They are recreational sidemounters, many cave trained, but doing long-ish 32% dives in Howe Sound. South Island, and the Sunshine Coast. There are still a few OC trimix divers up there, overwhelmingly diving backmounted doubles, not SM.

From what I’ve gathered there’s not much more do see deeper than rec depths thanthere is to see shallower.
Pretty much all SM divers here are xdeep or razor that I’ve noticed.
I see why more SM divers than BM double divers in the last year or so. I dunno they all seem to dive al80s