Wreckie:
As you can see, ask 10 people about gear configuration and you will get 10 different answers. The only point I will make is dive with what you are more comfortable with. Every piece of gear has its plus and minus.
DSAO
Stages
- Thread starter Wreckie
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As you can see, ask 10 people about gear configuration and you will get 10 different answers. The only point I will make is dive with what you are more comfortable with. Every piece of gear has its plus and minus.
DSAO
NEWreckDiver:
bu how many deo bottles. Would you do two or three and a stage and use steel?
You need to be correctly weighted without the deco and stage bottles.
bwerb
Hoser/English Translator, eh
Can't you also clip-off an empty aluminum bottle to an upline and it will "ride the line" up and if you need more gas you can clip a full aluminum to the same line from the boat and it will ride it down to you? Just one more fun little trick with AL bottles (and something I'd love to see).
matt_unique
Guest
MikeFerrara:
Depends on how you are configured in my opinion. You cannot configure your weight as though the bottles are not there - they are there and their weight is relevant unless of course as mentioned above there is some reason you would drop them off mid-dive. I'm a novice tech diver but I would never drop them off or remove them for any reason short of entanglement necessity.
--Matt
100days-a-year
Contributor
80s suck as deco bottles for me due to their butt-light attitude as they get used.Als also are stupid to overfill which is routine with steel.46s overfilled to 3500 gives you 60 cuft of gas in a small package.I use al40s for most of my diving as it's usually light deco,but have noproblem with bouyancy with steel.As stated,rarely a never or always.
matt_unique:
You do need to plan for the fact that you might have to ditch all of your tanks. (you would be foolish if you didnt) If you have the proper Wing or BC you will be able to carry the extra weight of the deco bottles.
Then if you do need to ditch the tanks all you need to do is to dump some air out of your wing.
I personally clip off my deco tanks to an equipment line prior to getting back on the boat. It just makes it easier to climb a latter.
matt_unique:
In open water we carry them. In caves we drop them.
Either way since they cna come off, they just might for one reason or another.
Also, most of us don't wear any additional weight when using steel doubles so steel stages are just lots of extra weight that we don't need and you only have so many choices as to where to put it.
I had to carry a guys steel stage once in addition to several al80's. I didn't like it. If I had to carry three or four it would just stand me om my head and I'd be stuck right there. LOL
flw
Guest
bwerb:
No, cos once you've got a reg on said stage cylinder it is actually very slightly negative - or at least the Al 7s used in Europe are, I tried it once from 6m.
Al cylinders make lousy drop cylinders, they don't 'drop' well, steel are much better, as they tend to go down rather than sideyways in the current, - we use 12l fabers as bail out cylinders on the line
flw:
It works with out al tanks when they have helium in them.
It works for AL80s provided they're "standard" 80s and are very nearly empty. If you have more than 500psi or so in them they won't go up. If you breathe 'em down to 100-200 psi they will with most regs on them.
You can also "send down" a new AL80 this way on the line; its negative, but not grossly so and can be "caught" by a diver on the line without having it ram them with outrageous accumulated speed.
Doesn't work with AL40s though, but there's almost never a reason to care with those as they're pretty small and light, and ride well in the slipstream anyway.
You can also "send down" a new AL80 this way on the line; its negative, but not grossly so and can be "caught" by a diver on the line without having it ram them with outrageous accumulated speed.
Doesn't work with AL40s though, but there's almost never a reason to care with those as they're pretty small and light, and ride well in the slipstream anyway.
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