SMS 50 with steels

[Paul S]

It depends on the person. My fat butt, no. My girlfriend can dive the lt which is similar or less lift with steel100 worthingtons and a stage and do it safely. She's also tiny.

Surely you're both weighting yourselves to be the same buoyancy in the water (i.e. neutral), so why does it matter if you've got a "fat butt" or not?

 

[rddvet]

Surely you're both weighting yourselves to be the same buoyancy in the water (i.e. neutral), so why does it matter if you've got a "fat butt" or not?

I guess I don't follow. I am very negative. So even in a drysuit I need air in my wing to keep afloat. If you strapped two heavy steel 80s on me like the OP was asking about I would be super negative, so I would be using a significant portion of the wing for basic buoyancy. In a cave I don't want to be super heavy and relying on my wing which is at near max capacity for the majority of my buoyancy because I'm overweighted. It's not safe.

I guess I'm not sure how you didn't follow that, or maybe I'm missing something. I suspect you didn't take into account the tanks the OP was talking about. In Fl cave diving we don't typically dive al80s which you need to add weight for often. We're diving steel tanks and you can't just take weight away from those.

 

[Young33]

ok, well I primarily dive in fresh cold water around NW ohio and in the great lakes. I will be diving dry here year round. I currently do not have any tanks, but I was planning on getting two steel 80's or slightly bigger. However, I would like to have ditch able weight. Should I get AL's then? Also, I found a pretty good deal on the original nomad wing itself. Would that be able to work with a couple of steel 80's and still have ditch able weight? or would I would be too weighted down?

 

[Paul S]

I guess I don't follow. I am very negative. So even in a drysuit I need air in my wing to keep afloat. If you strapped two heavy steel 80s on me like the OP was asking about I would be super negative, so I would be using a significant portion of the wing for basic buoyancy. In a cave I don't want to be super heavy and relying on my wing which is at near max capacity for the majority of my buoyancy because I'm overweighted. It's not safe.

I guess I'm not sure how you didn't follow that, or maybe I'm missing something. I suspect you didn't take into account the tanks the OP was talking about. In Fl cave diving we don't typically dive al80s which you need to add weight for often. We're diving steel tanks and you can't just take weight away from those.

My thought process was that if you're weighting yourself properly you'd wear enough weight so that you're just about neutral in the water with no cylinders on. The amount you need varies with body type, obviously. Once you're at that point, and you add the cylinders, it will make everybody the same amount negative whether they're big or small. It's either a problem for everyone or no-one. Isn't it?

Unless you're telling me that you don't wear any lead in a dry-suit and you're still negative. If so I don't believe you've got a "fat butt" at all. You must be chiseled out of marble, literally.

BTW: We use steels in the UK too.

 

[rddvet]

My thought process was that if you're weighting yourself properly you'd wear enough weight so that you're just about neutral in the water with no cylinders on. The amount you need varies with body type, obviously. Once you're at that point, and you add the cylinders, it will make everybody the same amount negative whether they're big or small. It's either a problem for everyone or no-one. Isn't it?

Unless you're telling me that you don't wear any lead in a dry-suit and you're still negative. If so I don't believe you've got a "fat butt" at all. You must be chiseled out of marble, literally.

BTW: We use steels in the UK too.

I guess that's my point. If I weighted myself to be perfectly neutral or slightly negative and then strapped on steel 80s I would be so grossly overweighted at the start of the dive that I would be busting the opv almost on a 23lb wing. I weight myself to ensure I am able to safely hold a 10 foot stop without fighting to stay down. And that's with almost empty tanks. With steel 80s empty, I'm still overweighted.