My buoyancy is off with my new gear

[Ulfhedinn]

My buoyancy is off with my new gear and I'm trying to come up with a solution without going to a weight belt if I can but will if its what I need. This is my first venture into DIR gear set-up coming from a Zeagle Stiletto with 24lbs of lead. Any help appreciated. I assume I don't have to include everything on my but I thought it would be best to show my complete build at this time. This is what I go into the drink with every time I dive.

7mm Wetsuit
5mm Gloves
6mm Boots
5/7mm Hood

Hog Steel Backplate
Hog 32lb Wing w/ STA

Hog D1 First Stages
(2) Hog D1 Second Stage
"Brass and Glass" SPG

Dive Rite Frameless Single Pane Mask
or
HOG Predator Frameless Mask

Suunto SK7 Compass with DSS Mount

F1 Bat Fins w/ Spring Straps

Light Monkey 3W LED Backup Light (Right Shoulder)

Hoses are Phantom

Dive Rite Notepad w/ Cover
Dive Rite Thigh Pocket (Worn on right thigh)

Waistbelt Sheath w/Knife

Oceanic Veo 2.0 (Currently in my pocket awaiting wrist mount)

DIN-to-Yoke Spin-On Adapter
80AL Cylinder

 

[ligersandtions]

You didn't exactly say what the problem is. Are you light? Heavy? Is it a trim issue?

Do you own your Al80? If you're just renting for now, you might consider getting a steel cylinder when it comes time to buy. An HP100 is a nice cylinder....HP130's are pretty popular for socal diving.

I'm not sure I can offer much help online, but I see you're local, so if you ever want to get together and dive, shoot me a PM and we'll see if we can hook up schedules. We have lots of active GUE/DIR divers around here....always looking for an excuse to dive

 

[TSandM]

So, with the same tank, you were using 24 lbs with the Stiletto? Do you still have it? One of the things you need to know is whether it had any intrinsic buoyancy. (You may be able to get it off the Zeagle site, or third party reviews, but if no, you can simply put the thing in the bathtub and see how much lead you have to put on it to get it to sink, with the bladder empty, of course.) Add the intrinsic buoyancy of the Stiletto to the five pounds of ballast in the backplate, and that's how much less lead you need to carry. My guess is that you are still going to need something in the 16 to 18 pound range.

It's pretty hard to figure out how to put all that weight on your rig, and I wouldn't recommend it, for a lot of reasons. One is that, with that thick wetsuit, you will be quite negative at depth, and if you were to tear your wing on the Yukon, for example, you might actually end up in a situation where you would have to dump weight to ascent. (This, btw, is the reason why deep diving in thick wetsuits is discouraged by GUE.)

At any rate, you can use camband weight pockets to take some of it. You can create cylinders full of lead shot and ziptie them to the margin of your plate. You can use a tank weight. And you can use a weight belt or weight harness to take the rest of it. Some people try to use the ditchable weight pockets that mount on the waist strap, like the Halcyon ACB system or the similar ScubaPro tech ones. The problem is that they use a huge amount of real estate on the waistband, and interfere with the easy and proper placement of light canisters and left hip d-rings.

You CAN reduce your total ballast required by going to a steel tank -- but steel tanks, especially big ones, and thick wetsuits are a bad combination (look up "balanced rig").

 

[Rainer]

This really can't be diagnosed over the internet. It's probably mostly an issue of practice/comfort (you did say the gear is brand new), and possibly fit, weighting and technique. Why don't you try hooking up with some local GUE/DIR divers: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/socal-dir/

If you'd like to get a local instructors feedback, ring up Steve Millington: GUE Instructor résumé | Global Underwater Explorers

 

[Ulfhedinn]

You didn't exactly say what the problem is. Are you light? Heavy? Is it a trim issue?

Do you own your Al80? If you're just renting for now, you might consider getting a steel cylinder when it comes time to buy. An HP100 is a nice cylinder....HP130's are pretty popular for socal diving.

I'm not sure I can offer much help online, but I see you're local, so if you ever want to get together and dive, shoot me a PM and we'll see if we can hook up schedules. We have lots of active GUE/DIR divers around here....always looking for an excuse to dive

Own the 80s and Im positive. I float to the top

 

[Rainer]

Own the 80s and Im positive. I float to the top

Then you need more weight.

 

[Ulfhedinn]

So, with the same tank, you were using 24 lbs with the Stiletto? Do you still have it? One of the things you need to know is whether it had any intrinsic buoyancy. (You may be able to get it off the Zeagle site, or third party reviews, but if no, you can simply put the thing in the bathtub and see how much lead you have to put on it to get it to sink, with the bladder empty, of course.) Add the intrinsic buoyancy of the Stiletto to the five pounds of ballast in the backplate, and that's how much less lead you need to carry. My guess is that you are still going to need something in the 16 to 18 pound range.

It's pretty hard to figure out how to put all that weight on your rig, and I wouldn't recommend it, for a lot of reasons. One is that, with that thick wetsuit, you will be quite negative at depth, and if you were to tear your wing on the Yukon, for example, you might actually end up in a situation where you would have to dump weight to ascent. (This, btw, is the reason why deep diving in thick wetsuits is discouraged by GUE.)

At any rate, you can use camband weight pockets to take some of it. You can create cylinders full of lead shot and ziptie them to the margin of your plate. You can use a tank weight. And you can use a weight belt or weight harness to take the rest of it. Some people try to use the ditchable weight pockets that mount on the waist strap, like the Halcyon ACB system or the similar ScubaPro tech ones. The problem is that they use a huge amount of real estate on the waistband, and interfere with the easy and proper placement of light canisters and left hip d-rings.

You CAN reduce your total ballast required by going to a steel tank -- but steel tanks, especially big ones, and thick wetsuits are a bad combination (look up "balanced rig").

Thanks.. sounds like the smart and safe way is still to have some weight on a belt. I would love to get me the Whites bullet but financially I will have to wait tell summer.

 

[Ulfhedinn]

This really can't be diagnosed over the internet. It's probably mostly an issue of practice/comfort (you did say the gear is brand new), and possibly fit, weighting and technique. Why don't you try hooking up with some local GUE/DIR divers: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/socal-dir/

If you'd like to get a local instructors feedback, ring up Steve Millington: GUE Instructor résumé | Global Underwater Explorers

Thanks Rainer. I agree I do need some hands on feedback from some local DIR divers to assist with the problems.

 

[ligersandtions]

Own the 80s and Im positive. I float to the top

Did you change your weighting from your previous BC? I imagine you should be able to take some weight off, but maybe not a lot. I know it might not be helpful at this time, but you do need to do a weight check. I'd plan to overweight myself a bit, purge my cylinder down to ~500psi at 10', and remove weight till I'm neutral. But there's really no good way to tell you how much weight you'll need....everyone's weighting is different (same with ideal weight distribution).

Also, fwiw, a weight belt is really not that bad. Most of the local divers that I know dive with one....with weights ranging from about 4 pounds to 12 pounds (depending on the size of the diver and the type of undergarments they're diving).

 

[tbone1004]

if you were using 24lbs with the stiletto you'll need approximately 18lbs with the backplate. That is a LOT of lead for just a 7mm wetsuit though... You should be more in the 8 ish pound range with a SS backplate. Put it on a weightbelt and good to go. No way in hell you're going to sink without a weightbelt with just a SS plate and a 7mm if you're used to using 24lbs of lead. Lot of other stuff could be off and you need to get someone to properly weight check you.