Which change to make first?

[spectrum]

One you get into the drysuit and garment the placement of your BC features are going to be hosed anyhow. Since your initial drysuit dives will supervised / conservative I don't have any heartburn about doing it all at once.

After alln aside from length an inflater is an inflater. If you were all ready a butt dump diver then that should be a quick adjustment too.

Pete

 

[gcarter]

You have 100 dives with rental gear, I presume you did not get the same BCD every time, so you are used to fumbling for controls.
Go with option #1 and take a drysuit course. The instructor will help you with weighting and trim issues.

No, only 4 with rental gear

But I am getting the message. I am / was overthinking it and should just do #1, work them both out at the same time.

I appreciate all the responses.

 

[Peter_C]

But I am getting the message. I am / was overthinking it and should just do #1, work them both out at the same time.

That is what I would recommend too. Start in calm waters or a pool and practice. Everything will be different anyhow and why spend more time learning everything all over again.

As stated above with a drysuit in trim it will be very important to learn the butt dump. If you ever start corking it is the butt dump that will be your go to as you are swimming down. Do learn to use your BC and your drysuit for buoyancy not just the drysuit. That way you can quickly dump air and have less of a bubble in the suit to control. Again a little bit of practice will bring it all together. You are going to wonder why you ever dove wet...

 

[gcarter]

That is what I would recommend too. Start in calm waters or a pool and practice. Everything will be different anyhow and why spend more time learning everything all over again.

As stated above with a drysuit in trim it will be very important to learn the butt dump. If you ever start corking it is the butt dump that will be your go to as you are swimming down. Do learn to use your BC and your drysuit for buoyancy not just the drysuit. That way you can quickly dump air and have less of a bubble in the suit to control. Again a little bit of practice will bring it all together. You are going to wonder why you ever dove wet...

This is one of my reasons for switching to a BP/W. I love my Balance, but one the things I do find annoying about it is the fact that the dump valves are all on the back of the bladder - which means that it is not a straight pull to dump. The result for me has been that it makes it harder to pull than it should be, and harder to control the amount dumped. Not to overstate it of course, a minor annoyance, but enough that my tendency is to roll my left shoulder vertical to use the inflator to dump in order to get the desired control and ignore the butt dump most of the time. This is not always convenient.

 

[Agility]

No, only 4 with rental gear

I see I should refrain from posting shortly before midnight

 

[Peter_C]

I love my Balance, but one the things I do find annoying about it is the fact that the dump valves are all on the back of the bladder - which means that it is not a straight pull to dump.

The key to venting all the air from the bladder is trying to pull the dump valve over the top of the tank...not downward which although illogical as air rises, is often the most comfortable way to pull the butt dump, and what many people of do. Learn to pull the butt dump towards the sky, which is not a straight pull either.

 

[Michael Guerrero]

Thoughts?

I made the transition to drysuit and BP/W at about the same time and didn't take a class for either. I would recommend you just dive with someone who has been diving dry for a while. They should be able to give you enough tips to fix everything. It doesn't have to be a huge deal to transition. Or you can do it by yourself in shallow water (15' - 30').

I experienced no learning curve to dive a BP/W. I was actually surprised to see how it wanted to naturally put me in better trim. You will need to re-do your weight distribution, but otherwise it was the same for me.

 

[gcarter]

The key to venting all the air from the bladder is trying to pull the dump valve over the top of the tank...not downward which although illogical as air rises, is often the most comfortable way to pull the butt dump, and what many people of do. Learn to pull the butt dump towards the sky, which is not a straight pull either.

I hear what you are saying; but the Balance has the pull cords for both the right hand shoulder dump and butt dump routed through guides in such a way that such a technique would make them harder to pull - they would double back on themselves. Somehow I never thought about removing the pull cords from the guides... ah well, I ain't bringing the BP/W back regardless!

 

[Dirty-Dog]

I hear what you are saying; but the Balance has the pull cords for both the right hand shoulder dump and butt dump routed through guides in such a way that such a technique would make them harder to pull - they would double back on themselves. Somehow I never thought about removing the pull cords from the guides... ah well, I ain't bringing the BP/W back regardless!

I rarely used the actual pull cords on my Balance. I just reached back to my hip and grabbed it where it came out of the valve.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

 

[gcarter]

I rarely used the actual pull cords on my Balance. I just reached back to my hip and grabbed it where it came out of the valve.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

Just curious, are you managing to do that with cold water (5-7mm) gloves on? I would thing that grabbing the line in that way might be somewhat difficult with gloves.