JohnAC
Contributor
When I started diving in 04, I did my check out dives and a couple more with a 7mm farmer john & jacket, Scubapro Stab Jacket and Standard AL80. Thats 14mm of rubber on my core. I floated like a cork. My instructor couldnt believe how much weight it was taking to keep me down. I ended the day with 36 lbs on my belt! YIKES
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After receiving a one peace 7mm ONeal suit as a gift, I made a trip to Catalina to dive the Park in Dec 05. With 35 lbs. on my belt my trim was horrible. I finned through the water like an airliner on approach to land, very tiring.
With help from one of my dive buddies, I moved 6 lbs in trim pockets up on my tank (now a NB-AL 80) for my next dive trip to Santa Cruz Island in Feb. 06. My trim was much, much better now with only 22 lbs on the weight the belt. I made several dives in this set-up.
Through much reading here on ScubaBoard, I began to see the advantages of a steel tank and steel BP/W set-up. A week or so ago I used an Eclypse 40, Steel 119 (no trim pockets) for the first time and dropped the weight on my belt to 16 lbs ! WOW !!! YAHOOOOO!!!!! I already posted about this, but man what a difference.
I now figure that I can maybe take off another 4 lbs from the belt. That would put me at 12 lbs. With only 28 dives logged, I am much happier about my buoyancy control and trim in the water.
In reflection, I wonder why some of the weight and trim issues werent covered in better detail in my OW classes. At the very least tank trim weights ought to be a standard training configuration.
Anyway, my thanks to all the posters here on ScubaBoard!
After receiving a one peace 7mm ONeal suit as a gift, I made a trip to Catalina to dive the Park in Dec 05. With 35 lbs. on my belt my trim was horrible. I finned through the water like an airliner on approach to land, very tiring.
With help from one of my dive buddies, I moved 6 lbs in trim pockets up on my tank (now a NB-AL 80) for my next dive trip to Santa Cruz Island in Feb. 06. My trim was much, much better now with only 22 lbs on the weight the belt. I made several dives in this set-up.
Through much reading here on ScubaBoard, I began to see the advantages of a steel tank and steel BP/W set-up. A week or so ago I used an Eclypse 40, Steel 119 (no trim pockets) for the first time and dropped the weight on my belt to 16 lbs ! WOW !!! YAHOOOOO!!!!! I already posted about this, but man what a difference.
I now figure that I can maybe take off another 4 lbs from the belt. That would put me at 12 lbs. With only 28 dives logged, I am much happier about my buoyancy control and trim in the water.
In reflection, I wonder why some of the weight and trim issues werent covered in better detail in my OW classes. At the very least tank trim weights ought to be a standard training configuration.
Anyway, my thanks to all the posters here on ScubaBoard!