Worried about weight & wetsuit choice with Aldora's steel tanks

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Trying to sort through a bit of a conundrum. I'm hoping to make it out to Coz in early or mid June. I have always used Aldora in the past, but here's the problem: I dive a steel backplate, and am worried I will be drastically overweighted with their steel tanks. My past trips have been in the winter and I've worn a 5mm suit (necessary for me on those looooong dives in 79-80 degree water), and did not need any additional lead with their HP120 tanks, and was possibly a tad overweighted in this scenario.

In June I would probably want to wear a 3mm, but without that extra buoyancy of the 5mm suit I'm worried I would be way too negative and diving would be unnecessarily difficult.

So the options are:
  1. Use my BP/W and a 3mm and just deal with being overweighted
  2. Use my BP/W and a 5mm and hope it's not a ridiculous wetsuit choice for June in Cozumel
  3. Rent a BCD to eliminate the issue (downside - I have my trim & accessories totally dialed in with my BPW have not used a traditional BCD since my training 100 dives ago)
What are typical water temps in early and mid June? If I was happy in a 5mm in February, would I be crazy to use it in June?
Surface water temp is 84 now. At depth on most of my dives this past week, it was 80-81. Use the new 117 tanks Aldora has. So, so, so much nicer than diving with a 120. They are a bit fatter, but 5 inches shorter!

Here are the tank specs:
3500ish psi water
HP 120 -8.8 lbs
HP 117 -9.12 lbs

700ish psi in water
HP 120 +0.65 lbs
HP 117 +0.35 lbs

Grab your suit of choice and go dive!
 
Use the new 117 tanks Aldora has. So, so, so much nicer than diving with a 120. They are a bit fatter, but 5 inches shorter!

Do they have enough 117 tanks for everyone or need to request them in advance?
 
My son and I dived HP100s with Aldora. A little shorter than an AL80, same diameter. Plenty of gas for us, used 4 lbs less weight than with an AL80.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom