lift capacity needed for cold, open water diving with side mounted doubles

[rjack321]

Thanks. You are driving home that thought quite well!
Maybe bring a small lift bag then... or is that condidered not good form and dropping weight it must be?

People use large SMBs and lift bags as redundant buoyancy. Works ok in some circumstances.
In frigid water, massively flooding the point you are gasping for breath. Drop the lead now. You should absolutely dump it at the surface anyway (lots of people drown with their lead still). So unless your deco obligation is large don't screw around and drown trying to control your ascent. Dump some lead (10lbs will help a lot) and do you best to exhale. Better bent (unlikely at the this hypothetical maximum weight condition at the start of a dive) than drowned

 

[Schwob]

People use large SMBs and lift bags as redundant buoyancy. Works ok in some circumstances.
In frigid water, massively flooding the point you are gasping for breath. Drop the lead now. You should absolutely dump it at the surface anyway (lots of people drown with their lead still). So unless your deco obligation is large don't screw around and drown trying to control your ascent. Dump some lead (10lbs will help a lot) and do you best to exhale. Better bent (unlikely at the this hypothetical maximum weight condition at the start of a dive) than drowned

Makes sense. Thanks.

 

[WarrenZ]

If you have time and a bottom shoot your bag tie it to one of your tanks before you ditch it. Then recover your tank after you work out your wing issue.