Utter Disaster + Pinnacle D/S Undergarments

[Flightlead]

Flightlead and I did about 3 hours in 45 degree water yesterday evening...I think he got most of the bugs worked out.

His trim was spot on by the end of the evening.

yep, I think I have the weighting and trim down. still need to make a few minor adjustments to the harness and do a final buoyancy check with 200 psi but the 8lbs plate and 10 lbs lead seemed about right.

still have a lot of difficulty getting to my valves. think I need to lay on the living room floor with a spotter

Brent, THANK YOU!

oh, and to those who say "don't give up" thanks for the encouragement but have no fear. to me a thing is not worth doing unless its difficult. perhaps that's why I've been married three times (grin)

 

[limeyx]

still have a lot of difficulty getting to my valves. think I need to lay on the living room floor with a spotter

Best thing to do here:

1) Get just the backplate.
2) get in undergarments and drysuit.
3) put on backplate. Reach back and make sure you can touch the top of the plate.

If you can do that on land in suit (fully zipped, and with all gloves etc. on) then you should be able to do it underwater.

If not, then
1) You may not be reaching back properly (you can do a search for easy ways to reach valves)
2) undergarments or suit are restricting you. You can try with just the undergarments to see if these are the problem.

 

[TSandM]

Flightlead, I've spent over a year fighting valve drills. I've learned how to manage my suit, and I posted a whole bunch of stuff on reaching valves on your other thread, I think.

But on Thursday, I found out that essentially ALL my problems reaching my valves were my exposure protection. In another suit and undergarment, doing valve drills was so easy it was ludicrous.

What we do to stay warm is what robs us of mobility.

 

[Flightlead]

Thanks all. I dove today at Clark Hill Lake (thanks for the hospitality Andy et al) and had a much better time of it. With a steel backplate and 10 lbs on a belt I was MUCH better trim, buoyancy etc. (cheated, borrowed yelhumpy's gaiters) even carried an al80 stage on the second dive, breathed it, parked it, abandoned it, picked it back up again several times all fine. at the end of the dive I ditched the stage and bled my back gas down to 150 psi and was juuuuust not quite coming off the bottom.....I could probably got with 8 lbs but I'll still with 10 for now.

now my main tanks are empty I am going to adjust the position of the isolator a bit, pointing it more directly upwards (that is, straight forward with the tanks laying horizontal).

I'll try again with the valves next time I get in the water.

Need to re-rig my stages to get them real tight into my body, thought is was tight but man they flop around in the water

feeling better about this

tsandm I'll search for your other valve related posts, thanks

 

[diveprof]

Thanks all. I dove today at Clark Hill Lake (thanks for the hospitality Andy et al) and had a much better time of it. With a steel backplate and 10 lbs on a belt I was MUCH better trim, buoyancy etc. (cheated, borrowed yelhumpy's gaiters) even carried an al80 stage on the second dive, breathed it, parked it, abandoned it, picked it back up again several times all fine. at the end of the dive I ditched the stage and bled my back gas down to 150 psi and was juuuuust not quite coming off the bottom.....I could probably got with 8 lbs but I'll still with 10 for now.

now my main tanks are empty I am going to adjust the position of the isolator a bit, pointing it more directly upwards (that is, straight forward with the tanks laying horizontal).

I'll try again with the valves next time I get in the water.

Need to re-rig my stages to get them real tight into my body, thought is was tight but man they flop around in the water




feeling better about this

tsandm I'll search for your other valve related posts, thanks

Enjoyed diving with you yesterday. Who would have thought 8 folks would show up to enjoy local diving in January in 51 degree water - with all but one in wetsuits. I thought that your trim looked good (excepting of course during the hill climb at the end of the dive ). Hang in there and enjoy your class.

 

[limeyx]

T

Need to re-rig my stages to get them real tight into my body, thought is was tight but man they flop around in the water

Dont rig the stages too tight to the body, they need to be a bit "floppy"

- if you have 2 stages on the left, you need enough "slack" for the outside one to be clipped to the D-ring
- as you breathe the stages, the butt will get light and want to "ride up" this is a good thing (if you are not in a cave) as it gets the stage out of the way a bit more. If you rig it too tight, it wont be able to ride up and will likely get in the way a bit.
- a bit of slack gets the stages further from your body to free up access to rear dump, SPG and argon regs.


See the photos here:
DIR-diver.com - Stagebottle rigging

This is (IMO) a good way to rig stages, and the lengths are about right (although you can make the lower boltsnap length of line even a little bit longer if you want and it's not an issue)

 

[Flightlead]

Dont rig the stages too tight to the body, they need to be a bit "floppy"

- if you have 2 stages on the left, you need enough "slack" for the outside one to be clipped to the D-ring
- as you breathe the stages, the butt will get light and want to "ride up" this is a good thing (if you are not in a cave) as it gets the stage out of the way a bit more. If you rig it too tight, it wont be able to ride up and will likely get in the way a bit.
- a bit of slack gets the stages further from your body to free up access to rear dump, SPG and argon regs.


See the photos here:
DIR-diver.com - Stagebottle rigging

This is (IMO) a good way to rig stages, and the lengths are about right (although you can make the lower boltsnap length of line even a little bit longer if you want and it's not an issue)

I'll check that link out. I will rig one of my stages a bit looser I assume. I will need to play around in the water with this to get it right. I would like to rig the top snap so it pulls the top of the tank in tightly, I have moved my D ring up an inch to help with this. It really was too floppy but I didn't have both my stages on....one was enough for my first dive with stages.....and climbing the hill is a killer!

does anyone rig their SPG to come over their left shoulder or under to the arm to clip on the upper D ring instead of the hip D ring?

 

[limeyx]

I'll check that link out. I will rig one of my stages a bit looser I assume. I will need to play around in the water with this to get it right. I would like to rig the top snap so it pulls the top of the tank in tightly, I have moved my D ring up an inch to help with this. It really was too floppy but I didn't have both my stages on....one was enough for my first dive with stages.....and climbing the hill is a killer!

does anyone rig their SPG to come over their left shoulder or under to the arm to clip on the upper D ring instead of the hip D ring?

Well, without seeing the stages in the water it's hard to say, but you should not need to move the D-ring from its normal place to accomodate stages (the D-ring should be level with the shoulder, where you can easily locate it for clipping on/off).

Climbing hills with stages does hurt for sure Sometimes we leave ours at the bottom and then come back for them. Beware that if you incurred real deco, carrying the stage up a large hill (even the doubles) may not be that good for you.

I can't be of much help on rigging SPG's over the shoulder.