Neutral and horizontal with guided dive op rental gear

[Adobo]

BP/W has nothing to do with that!!! Too simple for you to appreciate?
She was well trained. Period.
Could you do that in the beginning of your diving career?

Dude, you are going around in circles. And either you have an inability to comprehend what others are replying or you are not even bothering to read. Either way, makes no difference to me.

 

[Adobo]

Folks, you can do a proper weight distribution in any BC, given the ability to distribute weight. That is high enough trim pockets. And, separately, some BCs of all types are crappy. That is not the point.

How would you set up rental gear, weights and dive plan so your guided divers, who know about balanced distributions, have a balanced weight distribution?

Getting someone properly trimmed out seems to be an individual thing. If the diver shows up not knowing how to do that for themselves, the dive op would have to do it on an individual diver basis. Just like if someone doesn't know how much weight they need, the best the dive op can do is guess.

I wonder if the customers of this fictitious dive op would even want that "service" where in addition to helping them figure out their weighting, you also fuss with where to put the weight. At some point, people just want to dive - they are on vacation after all. Also, just because you get someone trimmed out, doesn't mean they will dive in a horizontal position. It is natural for humans to want to be vertical and unless someone has emphasized to a diver to be horizontal, the diver will likely go vertical whenever they stop or whenever they have a task to perform. At which point, what will you do? Nag the diver?

In an ideal, open water training would have covered all of this stuff. Sadly, there is no such thing as an ideal world.

 

[MichaelMc]

I wonder if the customers of this fictitious dive op would even want that "service" where in addition to helping them figure out their weighting, you also fuss with where to put the weight.

In our fictional future world, they did OW training with a balanced weight distribution and saw the light that diving leg heavy is less fun. They know their instructors moved weight around to get them there. And, as students, they helped their dive buddies with that process. They've also seen old school divers kicking up the bottom, and don't want to do that. Nor have to continually work hard during the dive to prevent it.

So yes, in this scenario they do want a balanced distribution. But certainly not to spend the whole dive getting there. And they may have forgotten their distribution, which was likely with other gear anyway. But they understand the basics. All the weight in one spot shared by all will usually leave them leg heavy. They want speedy assistance getting in the gear, in the water, and diving gracefully. But not like some lumbering sea horse, they were trained to expect better than that, and it is far less fun.

As they were trained balanced, it is less likely they went vertical to clear their mask. It's just more work. Having been trained balanced, they spent most of their training time horizontal and are used to it. Though they know other orientations make more sense in some scenarios.

So how does the dive equip them and run the dive?

 

[MichaelMc]

Just like if someone doesn't know how much weight they need, the best the dive op can do is guess.

Yes, it is just like getting them in the right amount of weight. The op does their best guess and adjusts as needed. But now it is amount and distribution. And always making a 'best guess' of distribution none is not a best guess, it is a cop out. As is adjust of never.

So what gear, weights and dive op steps would you use for that?

 

[Adobo]

Yes, it is just like getting them in the right amount of weight. The op does their best guess and adjusts as needed. But now it is amount and distribution. (And always making a 'best guess' of distribution none is not a best guess, it is a cop out. As is adjust of never.)

So what gear, weights and dive op steps would you use for that?

I would put trim pockets on both the top and bottom tank straps for all the rental BCs so there would be flexibility on where to put weights.

I myself don't dive with ditchable weight. For rental gear though, I suspect I would have the pockets that have ditchable weight.

Usually, I don't do singular dive days while on vacation. If I can only have one day to dive, I usually don't bother. Normally, I have a minimum of 3 dive days. From that perspective, people like me can invest 10 minutes or so on the first dive to get weighting and trim worked out. I do meet people though who only have one dive day. Not sure if these people want to eff around too much with getting trim dialed in.

Although there is no impact as to being able to get divers trimmed out, in my fictitious dive op, all the rental BCs would be BP/Ws.

 

[Luca Brasi]

I dive a BP/w , unless u r constantly changing kit configuration, I have found it to be one of the most overrated pieces of scuba equipment. A cheap jacket works just as well. New divers mostly need good instruction from DM who cares!

 

[MichaelMc]

I dive a BP/w , unless u r constantly changing kit configuration, I have found it to be one of the most overrated pieces of scuba equipment. A cheap jacket works just as well. New divers mostly need good instruction from DM who cares!

Yes jacket, back, or BP/W can be set for a balanced weight distribution, given trim pockets. Not the central point.

How would you set up a dive op, in our balanced in OW world, so your rental guided customers had balanced distributions? What gear, pockets, weights and dive op steps would you have?

What would your caring DM do? On the dock? In the water?

 

[Luca Brasi]

Back inflate w trim pockets ! Backplate and wing overrated

 

[MichaelMc]

Back inflate w trim pockets ! Backplate and wing overrated

Great. Any issues with sizes of lead? How do you handle when the guess was wildly off? Are steps different if they are doing more than one dive with you?

 

[Luca Brasi]

Check out dive , especially w rookies is the key! Good DM gets them on their way to a lifetime of fun in their cheapo back inflate.