Why did you start diving doubles?

[LG Diver]

OK- I've been following the thread about when people started diving doubles and one thing that I still wonder about is what prompted you all to start diving doubles.

About me: I currently have about 40 dives and the following certs: OW, AOW, Rescue, Nitrox, and the following PADI specialties- Nav, Deep, Drysuit, DPV. I currently own all my own gear except tanks (BP/W, drysuit, regs w/long hose and bungeed backup), and everything I've bought so far is DIR compliant (no can light yet). I'd like to eventually move towards tech, though I don't know when that would be. I'd like to do the FifthD-x Essentials course this year, but beyond that it's up in the air. All of my diving is currently with buddies, instructors, DM's that I've met in the course of my PADI training. They all dive single tanks and standard recreational setups, and have no desire to move to tech. Additionally, my wife is about to get her OW cert, and I'll hopefully be doing a lot of diving with her, which will all be simple, relatively shallow stuff for a while.

I'm finally ready to buy tanks, and I was all set to just go buy a couple of X8-130's and continue single tank diving but I've been reading the other thread about switching to doubles, and also been reading the FifthD-x forums a bit lately. All of this has got me thinking about getting a set of X7-100's or LP85's doubles instead. My thinking is that the more diving I do in doubles, the more I'll have the skills ingrained when I get to tech even if it's not for a while. So, if all my dive buddies are diving singles with recreational (non-DIR) setups, is moving to doubles a bit overkill? Should I save the move to doubles for when I have a more definite timeline for tech, and for when I start diving with others that are diving doubles?

 

[atedeschi]

I went to double I started with double AL80 about a year after I started diving and then two years ago went to double 120 because I was doing longer and deeper dives. If you are looking into tech it is not a bad thing to get used to double but find some one to use as a mentor so you do not get into bad habits or set something up wrong. Also only get one set because you can use them for two dives untill you start getting into deeper/longer dives.

Just a question: Why you going the DIR path?

 

[TSandM]

I went to doubles because I want to learn to cave dive. I figured that, given how hard it's been for me to learn to do anything in this sport, the more time I had in doubles before attempting anything like a cave course, the better off I'd be.

There's no particular reason not to dive doubles, if you're interested in doing so. You'll have WAY more gas than your buddies, so they'll gas limit the dives. And you need to educate them about your equipment and how it works, so they can help you if there is any problem. You don't necessarily NEED doubles for the dives you're doing, but there's no particular downside to using them, except the wear and tear on your body from hauling them around, and the expense of getting them filled.

 

[lowridersvt]

The reason i went double is because i live in the great lakes area and there is alot of shipwrecks here and i wanted to get into doing long penatration on deep shipwrecks and Now that i dive doubles i wont dive a single again. Other than vacation dives

I like the dir configuration even tho mine is a modified version it is better better that the old hose stuffer or independent doubles just alot more streamline and has better redundency and les task loading .

As for tank size i dive double e8 130 i started diving them as single then moved to doubles i would not go much smaller if you planing on going tech due to the depth or the penatration .

I use double lp 80 on shalower dive or current dive with newbies that i take out once in a wile

Oh yeah pic up the dir manuel its a life saver when it come to gear configuration and diving tips

 

[Tavi]

I live near the Great Lakes too.
I got doubles because of all the awesome shipwrecks here.
The deeper you go the better shape the wrecks are in.

started doubles at dive #85 and technical training at dive #144
NAUI has excellent technical courses!!

 

[Meng_Tze]

.. except the wear and tear on your body from hauling them around,...

??? Now you got me scared.

I went doubles because I went the cave route.

 

[TSandM]

??? Now you got me scared.

I think I've shrunk an inch since I started climbing hills with my body weight on my back! (And I didn't have an inch to lose . . . )

 

[Ben_ca]

For more flexibility during the dive... If I'm doing Pt Lobos and the vis is outstanding... I'll extend my dive out and do one long dive versus 2 shorter ones....

Also I hate changing tanks on the boats.... this was I can rest during the SI and enjoy the time more.

 

[LG Diver]

Thanks for the thoughts, all of you.

Just a question: Why you going the DIR path?

After having done a lot of research on DIR, including buying and reading "Dress for Success" and "DIR: The Fundamentals of Better Diving" I feel like I have a decent understanding of not only the DIR gear config but the overall philosophy, and it makes sense to me. While I haven't fully embraced some of the finer details (I still have a knob on my rear dump valve) I think that, in general, the system is very well thought out and it will take me as far as I care to go in diving, i.e., I won't need to re-learn a new gear config later down the road as I advance. Sorry- don't mean to hijack my own thread

So, nobody thinks it odd for me to go to doubles if all my current dive buddies are in single tanks (and most of them in Al 80's)? I'd probably go with a smaller set of steel doubles since most of my diving is beach diving.

Thanks again,
John

 

[Rick Inman]

I switched to doubles because this new buddy I had, who was a tech instructor, told me to, so he could (as he also told me) teach me to tech dive so he had a buddy.

He was selfish, and I was a good, obedient, submissive dive buddy.



Seriously though, I guess I switched to doubles because there was a reason to, based on the diving I was going to do. I did not switch just for the sake of diving doubles.