My steel doubles and wetsuit - no mix?

[Gombessa]

Foam must not be popular because the dive shops can't sell it for a few hundred dollars.

For deeper than recreational depths, there are other choices of rigid flotation.

I've heard Thal talk about something called "syntactic foam" and I've heard of people who went to great lengths to acquire foam blocks used for deep sea fishing nets. It's entertaining to hear about what amounts to the exact opposite of a v-weight

 

[DCBC]

That rule of thumb is pretty good. I have seen several people with tears in their wings yet I have not seen a ripped drysuit. I have only seen drysuits that have had their seals fail. Never a torn drysuit.

I've flooded a Dry Suit at depth. It taught me early in my career that all things can fail. It's usually just a matter of time before they do.

I believe a safe diver prepares for such an eventuality. I often use a double wing, carry a marker and often a lift bag. Does that make me over-equipped? Some may think so, but I call it prepared.

To those people that have problems with a double wing, all I can say is that once you have experienced catastrophic buoyancy failure at depth, come back and we'll talk. Until then, your speaking out of your ass.

I'm not saying that everyone needs to dive with complete redundancy. Some divers on SB are happy to dive to depths within easy access of the surface. The diving of others is more extreme.

Divers and their buddy's should prepare themselves properly. Recreational diving is suppose to be fun and safe. If it makes them feel better to dive with complete redundancy, great. Triple redundancy, fill your boots.

What they shouldn't do however, is throw stones at other diver's equipment choices. That's something that each of us should have the freedom to figure out on our own. There are too many self-professed experts here at times.

 

[Garth]

alright, let me start here....
I have no technical diving experience
I have no drysuit ( would like one though)
I dive steel singles to less than a hundred feet (deepest i've been is 115 in the Caymans)

so i'd like to make this statement that my experience is minimal, and education on diving in the early stages ( i would like to go a lot further, a lot...)

for the people who have had catastrophic buoyancy failure at depth, would it be in the cards to take a stage bottle to the surface and ditch all of your gear in order to survive? (I guess it couldn't be a oxygen tank though).

easy on me, though, cuz my name is not Big L... (haha)

 

[Garth]

you could even attach your reel! haha jk

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

I've flooded a Dry Suit at depth. It taught me early in my career that all things can fail. It's usually just a matter of time before they do.

I believe a safe diver prepares for such an eventuality. I often use a double wing, carry a marker and often a lift bag. Does that make me over-equipped? Some may think so, but I call it prepared.

To those people that have problems with a double wing, all I can say is that once you have experienced catastrophic buoyancy failure at depth, come back and we'll talk. Until then, your speaking out of your ass.

I'm not saying that everyone needs to dive with complete redundancy. Some divers on SB are happy to dive to depths within easy access of the surface. The diving of others is more extreme.

Divers and their buddy's should prepare themselves properly. Recreational diving is suppose to be fun and safe. If it makes them feel better to dive with complete redundancy, great. Triple redundancy, fill your boots.

What they shouldn't do however, is throw stones at other diver's equipment choices. That's something that each of us should have the freedom to figure out on our own. There are too many self-professed experts here at times.

Hey I am with you there.. I have been bashed on this board for saying a flooded drysuit affects your bouyancy. I suffered a failed neckseal on one in a cave and before I could react crashed into the silt bottom. Needless to say we were in zero viz. My DR classic wing could barley keep my at the surface. I like redundancy!!!

 

[cool_hardware52]

Hey I am with you there.. I have been bashed on this board for saying a flooded drysuit affects your bouyancy. I suffered a failed neckseal on one in a cave and before I could react crashed into the silt bottom. Needless to say we were in zero viz. My DR classic wing could barley keep my at the surface. I like redundancy!!!

A failed drysuit that can no longer trap gas will loose all of it's initial buoyancy.

This should be considered when sizing your wing.

Tobin

 

[Garth]

A failed drysuit that can no longer trap gas will loose all of it's initial buoyancy.

This should be considered when sizing your wing.

Tobin

yeah, that doesn't make sense. why would you be depending on your drysuit for buoyancy when this whole thread has been about its use in redundant buoyancy?

I agree Tobin

 

[joker31]

Anyone who doesn't dive with a speedo, tank, double hose reg, mask, and old school rocket fins is a true wimp...... garth, I love the tank bailout (esp. with the reel on my gear)

 

[Gombessa]

yeah, that doesn't make sense. why would you be depending on your drysuit for buoyancy when this whole thread has been about its use in redundant buoyancy?

They're opposite sides of the same coin. The maximum capacity you need from the wing is typically determined by the most negative you could possibly be, which will be at the beginning of the dive with either 1) wetsuit compressed at max depth or 2) failed drysuit.

Whether your drysuit can serve as redundant backup for the wing is determined by how much lift it can produce if the wing fails. People typically don't calculate this because a normal drysuit can balloon up beyond the capacity of most wings.

 

[walke121]

Foam must not be popular because the dive shops can't sell it for a few hundred dollars.

Seriously, rigid foam (like blue Styrofoam) is a very powerful tool for making a heavy rig safely dive-able. It doesn't change buoyancy noticeably with depth either, especially if you use the high density roofing grade foam. I also use it occasionally for small trim adjustments.

For deeper than recreational depths, there are other choices of rigid flotation.

I understand why a type of foam might be used to lessen the weight but I would hate having to wear so much extra ditchable weight to pull this off. A wing/drysuit combo seems to be the best choice to me.