new plate and wings

[DA Aquamaster]

I suspect some properly weighted divers dive with more weight than they admit to. Having little or no weight is currently considered cool in tech circles. Similarly diving with a near squeeze in the dry suit is also considered cool by some for reasons that totally escape me given my cold water history.

Moving to the mid atlantic coast from serious cold water (35-39 degree bottom temps being pretty common) I was surprised to see how many dry suit divers in this region still complain of being cold in water where I found a 3mm wetsuit and a 5mm hooded vest to be adequate. Part of the issue is the erroneous belief that any more air in the suit than you need to be snuggly squeezed in a dry suit is inviting bouyancy and control problems and the other part of the issue is the drive to avoid being over weighted.

I agree being over weighted is bad, and potentially very bad when you add heavy steel tanks, stage bottles deco bottles, a light cannister and various reels, and then decide to have a wing failure. I also agree you need to use the BC for primary bouyancy control, not the suit.

But reducing the gas in your suit below the level needed for optimum insulation just to reduce the weight you require does not make much sense. So feel free to inflate the suit (just) enough to loft the insulation and don't worry about not being able to control the resulting volume as it will not be a problem in a properly fitting dry suit.

 

[texdiveguy]

Better to be a few pounds heavy than a few pounds light.

 

[MattL]

The big thing is going to be are you going to be a dir diver are dive for your self will help you in a bp and wing. i have 2 wings one for my hp 100s and one for my 130 with more gas i like to have more left. For me i like to have aneft left to hold my bp rig up by it self with 10 more lbs of left. Fast math for this 130 are 13lbs neg so theres 26 bp 6 v waight 5 2 ilbs light can 3 ilbs for regs bands ect so i like to have a 50 lbs wing this not the math used for wight to stay down at 10 ft stop. that take time to find what works for you and more then liky will do this in your intro to tech class.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

The question you should ask yourself is are you leaning towards DIR diving or not. If so your teammates can help you. I have 2 wings, one for my hp 100s and one for my 130. With more gas I like to have more left in reserve. For me I like to have enough gas left to hold my bp rig up by itself with 10 more lbs of weight. Fast math for this 130 are 13lbs neg so there's 26lbs. Bp 6lbs, v weight 5, 2lbs light can, 3lbs for regs bands etc. So I like to have a 50 lbs wing. This not the math used for weight to stay down at 10 ft stop. That will take some time to find what works for you and more than likely your instructor or teammates will cover this in your intro to tech class.

I think.

 

[Doc Harry]

In my opinion, just about any brand or make is good with two exceptions:

-avoid a double bladder wing, there are better ways to get redundant buoyancy
-avoid OMS gear, their products aren't bad but their customer service is HORRIBLE

There is no such thing as one type of wing that will handle singles, doubles, etc. You may need more than one wing, so figure out what kind of tanks you will be using and get an appropriate sized wing. Getting a large wing and trying to make it work for everything is a real PITA, the dynamic instability of a large wing with smaller tanks will drive you nuts.

Have fun! See you out there!