What size tank should I get I'm Confused.

[battles2a5]

I would agree with the above. New diver to new diver, my air consumption was cut by more than 1/2 in about 18 dives or so. The things that helped me the most were proper weighting (as stated above), keeping my arms crossed instead of using them for mobility, and general comfort level and relaxation. I still have a ways to go but I can see the improvement very clearly in my dive log. Speaking on which, 12 hours till Croatia! Woo-hoo!

 

[adrisen]

i was in the same sitution that you are in. I acctually hace HP119CF steel tanks to counter act the problem. My problem with that was at 5''2 lugging the tanks when full difficult. I also have a backplate and wing.

I found that changing some gear and removing weight did make a difference. (many will disagree, but that worked for me.) I found that I could now get 2-3 dives out of a tank on many dives.

I recently traded in my heavy bulky tanks that were less then a year old to new small HP steel 80's and I am thrilled. I get lots of bottom time on them

 

[JimC]

LP121's are common enough that you could find them quickly (121cf @ 2640psi) They are about the biggest tank going that is somewhat reasonable to dive.

That said, you have more issues than gas supply.. and increasing your supply will not fix them. Consider that your buddy is going to need extra gas too - to cover your ***.

 

[Tom Winters]

Listen up here Tager - you just flat-out are going to use more air than other people. Get the LP 121's and you'll be fine. I dive with them properly filled with 170 cubes of gas - I just like knowing that I have plenty of gas for my needs and anyone else in my vicinity.
In your case, it'll mostly be for just your needs.
They weigh in at 58 pounds loaded, but you won't notice that. Have fun.

 

[Tagerisatroll]

...CLIP

You could also have fallen into another new diver trap, the one of diving negative and finning up because you are worried about uncontrolled ascents. This is an inefficient strategy and increases air consumption. One way to check is to stop kicking for a few moments. If you sink, you are diving negative.

Yet another trap is being severely out of balance with your weights. If you have all your weight low (eg. in your integrated weight pockets), you may be so feet-low that you have to fin all the time to keep your legs up. That also uses air in an unproductive fashion.

So you can see that there are a lot of directions from which to attack your air consumption before buying huge tanks. I'm not implying that there is no role for big tanks, but they can be an issue to balance on your rig. It might be better to do some really shallow (20 foot) dives and work on the above ideas, before investing money in very large tanks you may eventually wish you had not bought.

I was wondering about my balance actualy because when I was diving the Delta in WA most of it was at about 15-20' and my wet suit was still very bouent, and on my last dive I was finding I was having trouble diving at depths over 30' when the suit compressed. I was actually going to move 10lbs of my weight up towards my chest see if this fixes the problem.

 

[wreckchick]

One problem that I see a lot that contributes to overweighting is that people don't know how to properly intiate a descent.

Remember, all air out the BC, ankles crossed, hands quiet, exhale .... exhale .... exhale some more... once you're 3-4 feet under, then you can inhale again.

What do you mean "having trouble diving"? If suit compression is causing you to feel overweighted at 30', you should probably take that 10 pounds and leave it on the boat. If you've said, I missed it, how much lead are you carrying?

Rachel

 

[PerroneFord]

Ankles crossed? Never done that! I can't think of any scenario where I'd want them crossed.

 

[limeyx]

Ankles crossed? Never done that! I can't think of any scenario where I'd want them crossed.

I think it's to stop people from inadvertantly finning on the weight check and then thinking because they are still going up, that they are underweighted.

(Oh, and as far as I understand it, you actually might want them crossed in one other case. If you are #1 in a cave and enter a restriction you cannot get through, I think you cross your fins to say "hey guys, I screwed up, please yank me back out of this hole"

 

[PerroneFord]

LOL!!!! OK.

Cross Ankles = HELP!

I'm sorry, I didn't even think about the finning and weight check thing. I'm in the habit of not being vertical so finning wouldn't do anything for my weight check. I guess if you were finning up it would REALLY screw things up.

Thanks

 

[TSandM]

Yes, NW Grateful Diver had me cross my ankles on the initial portion of descent to avoid inadvertently finning and driving myself back to the surface. It's just a temporary thing, to break a habit.