Why did you start diving doubles?

[JimC]

I too started diving doubles to cave dive. I started with a set of E8-130's and after a year of breaking my back got a set of 72's.

Funny enough a year later it was cave diving (locally) that got me out of doubles with sidemount. Now I enjoy the freedom of diving singles again in open water and it is fantastic.

 

[nereas]

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?

To answer your original question, I doubled up my first set of 80s with a new manifold for my first stage-decompression tech course. Prior to that time, a single 80 was fine for me for NDL diving. It all depends on your size and your SCR.

I am average height at 5ft-10in, and my SCR is fairly low at 0.75 cu ft/min average. For average sized divers, 72s or 80s are more than sufficient for NDL diving. For some big-and-tall divers, 100s+ may be more appropriate, especially instructors or divemasters.

Twin 72s or twin 80s are perfect for tech training tanks for the earlier portion of the training. Eventually you may want to get larger twin tanks, but you don't need larger ones at first. In your case, your wife could dive with the 72s in the singles mode after you have finished your tech courses with them in the doubles mode.

I do not recommend jumping into double tanks before your first tech class. There are all sorts of special procedures that you need to learn, such as valve drills, etc. As long as your tanks match, you can double them with a compatible manifold later.

To answer the second part of you question, I have four 130s which at the moment are configured into two sets of doubles, each with a manifold and its own backplate and wing. But I did not use these tanks until the last few dives of my last advanced trimix course, and then of course for tech diving since then. These tanks give you a nice large reserve, on all tech dives. But they are heavy out of the water and a pain to get onto and off the boat at the dock. This is why each set has its own dedicated backplate and wing. And they are really heavy, so out of the question for any type of beach diving.

I suggest you keep diving in the single tank mode to improve your skills, then switch to small doubles to begin your tech training, and finally put off the big doubles for as long as you can.

 

[LG Diver]

I do not recommend jumping into double tanks before your first tech class. There are all sorts of special procedures that you need to learn, such as valve drills, etc.

Thanks all for your thoughts. To clarify- if I decide to try out doubles, I'd definitely seek out some training such as the FifthD-x "Doubles Mini" or at least a couple of hours of pool time with my current instructor, who is a PADI Tec Rec instructor, to ensure I have the gear config down, doubles-specific procedures, and some help with trim. After reading some posts from others' first experiences with doubles I see that this could be a barrel of fun.

 

[TSandM]

Oh, do the doubles mini! Joe is SUCH a kick as an instructor. You'll have a great time, and learn a lot, too.

 

[TomP]

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

If you are going to invest in a set of doubles you should consider the type of diving you plan to do down the road and size accordingly. It seems like you're gravitating toward tech but your buddies clearly are not. You'll likely need bigger tanks and different buddies if you go that way.

 

[LG Diver]

If you are going to invest in a set of doubles you should consider the type of diving you plan to do down the road and size accordingly.

Very true- this is one of the reasons I've been checking out the FifthD-x forums lately. Seems that a good number of the DIR locals are diving double X7-100's or LP85's.

It seems like you're gravitating toward tech but your buddies clearly are not. You'll likely need bigger tanks and different buddies if you go that way.

Also true, though it'll be a while before I'm ready to truly go tech. In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out what the best way to go is during this time of "wannabe tech but not there yet" I'm already in a drysuit, bp/w, reg w/ long hose and bungeed backup, and Al 40 pony rigged like a stage. I figure the more dives I get in as close to a tech setup as I can get, the less new stuff I have to learn when I finally get to the tech courses.

 

[Diver0001]

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.

In my case it was because I was making the move to technical diving.

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.

In terms of just swimming around there are no special skills. Cyber diving just makes it seem as though it's something mysterious and difficult about it, especially you believe all the BS about how difficult and mysterious everything has to be before you earn your Indiana-Jones-Macho-Adventurer pin.......

The basic fact is that you'll need a couple of dozen dives in your doubles before you take your tek classes to be sorted in terms of gear. In fact, having too much experience with a given config may close your mind to things it should be open to....For the time being, just go out and make a few hundred dives.

In terms of how much better it's all supposed to be.... I'll say this. I still own two complete sets. One is my hog thingy and the other is a trad setup with a 15litre tank that I use when I'm doing something training related. I dive equally well in both. In fact, I think I could dive with a milk jug tied to my butt and a spare air bungeed around my neck and still demonstrate good skills and buoyancy. What you wear is not who you are in this sport irregardless of how much some people want you to believe that. What they're talking about is *looking* like you know what you're doing. If you're smart you'll get well informed, well trained and well connected and ignore them and go out and just do it.

So, if all my dive buddies are diving singles with recreational (non-DIR) setups, is moving to doubles a bit overkill?

This is the flip-side of the discussion. Why should your buddy's choice of gear matter? As long as you're both wearing gear that's fit for purpose I don't see the issue.

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?

yes on the first part, "who cares" on the second part. Once again, what your buddy is wearing is irrelevant as long as you both have gear that's fit for purpose.

R..

 

[JimC]

What he said ^2.

 

[TSandM]

You know, thinking about this, I realized that there isn't any particular reason why your buddies need to know anything about your doubles, really, so long as YOU can reach your valves. If YOU can't reach your valves, then you've added a whole bunch of failure points (o-rings and valves and manifold) and not gained any redundancy from it, because you can't utilize the gas conservation advantages that being able to turn off a post or isolate can give you.

Your buddies need to know how things work if you're incurring deco obligations, and can't abort a dive. But as long as you're staying recreational, and you can reach your valves, you should be able to deal with an emergency well enough to make an exit without your buddy having to intervene, except possibly to share air, which we should all be able to do, doubles or no.

 

[metaldector]

Living in Florida near the caves, doubles are really the only way to go, be that side mount doubles (two tanks) or back mount doubles. The only gas you've got is on you unless you can sip air though 85 feet of rock?! My steel single tanks are just sitting in the garage now, while I use the steel 95's almost every weekend.