mongoose
Contributor
Guys,
I simply cannot believe it is supposed to be this difficult. I am a fairly smart and capable guy, and I'm rock-solid in my rec rig (Zeagle Ranger, AL80). Been diving about a year & a half, with approx 100 dives. We were diving manifolded AL80's, with BP/W's. I had a 40lb(I think) oxycheq wing. It was shop gear, if that makes any difference.
I was finishing out an Intro to Tech course this weekend. All through the course, I had absolutely insurmountable difficulty controlling the rig. It literally was like juggling three monkeys and a live octopus while playing basketball on a tightrope, all the while deriving an equation for the Newtonian event-horizon radius of a black hole of twelve solar masses.
I was completely, utterly, absolutely, incontrovertably OUT OF CONTROL along and around every axis. I could not stay level, couldn't stay pointed in one direction, bounced off the bottom, into walls. The slightest, barely perceptible movement would cause a violent, careening reaction, that, ultimately, no matter how hard I would combat and struggle against the rig, no matter how hard I would flail with my hands and arms, would result in me face up, toward the surface.
It was like watching a bottle rocket ping around the walls of a freight car. It was so bad I couldn't even follow the dive briefing on the surface, just dreading the train wreck that I knew was waiting for me downstairs. I just wanted it over with.
Finally we were getting ready to do line drills. The viz absolutely sucks. 3, 4 feet max. We get downstairs, and, right on schedule, the *&^# starts to hit the fan with my control, just like on every dive, and finally I bang my fist on the platform and I thumb it. I am enraged to the point of being a safety liability and I know it. I'm holding everyone back and I know it. To hell with this. I've had it. Nothing is worth this level of frustration. The DM signals relax, relax. No. No relax. No stay still. Me OK, me fine, but me surface. You, me surface now. The very competent and patient instructor takes me to the surface, and waits until I exit the water in exhausted humiliation, then heads back downstairs to the competent people.
I know it's new. I know I'm carrying a lot of weight, and have to use a humongous air bubble in the wing to keep it neutral, and that bubble expands and contracts. But this is wrong. It cannot be this way. It just feels wrong. I should not have to fight the gear I'm diving. Here's the crazy thing...at times in the pool and the lake, it seemed like I had it down, for a few seconds.. then BAM, I'm tumbling and cartwheeling again.
***? I guess what I need to do is build my own doubles rig, and just dive it over and over and over, forever if necessary, until I've mastered it.
Thanks in advance for any comments...
--'Goose
I simply cannot believe it is supposed to be this difficult. I am a fairly smart and capable guy, and I'm rock-solid in my rec rig (Zeagle Ranger, AL80). Been diving about a year & a half, with approx 100 dives. We were diving manifolded AL80's, with BP/W's. I had a 40lb(I think) oxycheq wing. It was shop gear, if that makes any difference.
I was finishing out an Intro to Tech course this weekend. All through the course, I had absolutely insurmountable difficulty controlling the rig. It literally was like juggling three monkeys and a live octopus while playing basketball on a tightrope, all the while deriving an equation for the Newtonian event-horizon radius of a black hole of twelve solar masses.
I was completely, utterly, absolutely, incontrovertably OUT OF CONTROL along and around every axis. I could not stay level, couldn't stay pointed in one direction, bounced off the bottom, into walls. The slightest, barely perceptible movement would cause a violent, careening reaction, that, ultimately, no matter how hard I would combat and struggle against the rig, no matter how hard I would flail with my hands and arms, would result in me face up, toward the surface.
It was like watching a bottle rocket ping around the walls of a freight car. It was so bad I couldn't even follow the dive briefing on the surface, just dreading the train wreck that I knew was waiting for me downstairs. I just wanted it over with.
Finally we were getting ready to do line drills. The viz absolutely sucks. 3, 4 feet max. We get downstairs, and, right on schedule, the *&^# starts to hit the fan with my control, just like on every dive, and finally I bang my fist on the platform and I thumb it. I am enraged to the point of being a safety liability and I know it. I'm holding everyone back and I know it. To hell with this. I've had it. Nothing is worth this level of frustration. The DM signals relax, relax. No. No relax. No stay still. Me OK, me fine, but me surface. You, me surface now. The very competent and patient instructor takes me to the surface, and waits until I exit the water in exhausted humiliation, then heads back downstairs to the competent people.
I know it's new. I know I'm carrying a lot of weight, and have to use a humongous air bubble in the wing to keep it neutral, and that bubble expands and contracts. But this is wrong. It cannot be this way. It just feels wrong. I should not have to fight the gear I'm diving. Here's the crazy thing...at times in the pool and the lake, it seemed like I had it down, for a few seconds.. then BAM, I'm tumbling and cartwheeling again.
***? I guess what I need to do is build my own doubles rig, and just dive it over and over and over, forever if necessary, until I've mastered it.
Thanks in advance for any comments...
--'Goose
