Yet another wing sizing situation

[munitor]

I'm new to diving doubles, having gotten my Trimix/Deco/AdvNitrox last fall. I dive warm waters, mostly from shore with a swim of no more than 100m. I wear a 5mm wetsuit, and take about 14lb lead if I dive double AL80s with SS backplate (I have a large chest cavity and float easily in sea water). I put together a double set of HP100s with an AL backplate and calculated that a 42lb doubles wing should be sufficient, giving me about 10lbs extra buoyancy at 30m with full tanks. However when I tested the rig in shallow freshwater, I noticed it seems to take a full wing to stay comfortably on the surface. I realize I will get another 8lbs or so of lift from my body/suit/wing when I am in salt water, but I also realize that my 5mm won't contribute much at 60m depth. Did I size this wrong? Should I have gotten something in the 55lb range? If someone has some similar experience, I'd appreciate some advice.

cheers

 

[j2s]

Look into the DSS T-49 rather than go 55.....I dive w/both the 49 and 42....The 49 give you quite a bit more lift and is more streamlined........

 

[FoxHound]

The wing should work fine, anything in that range will work, i wouldnt go too much bigger as you will get less and less streamlined with a large floppy wing on the relatively small hp100 doubles

Something you may want to look at is some redundant lift. If you can't swim up the rig with no gas in the wing, its not a good setup. I've had wing failures before....balanced rigs and redundant lift got me out of a mess.

 

[munitor]

Thanks, Foxhound. Sounds like I got it about right. It does tuck in nicely once a little air is let out.

Regarding redundancy, the 42# wing I've got is an Oxycheq double bladder. Plus I carry a 50# lift bag. And a 7ft safety sausage with an overpressure valve. I think I'm good on the redundancy angle for lift.

---------- Post added March 5th, 2013 at 10:40 PM ----------

Look into the DSS T-49 rather than go 55.....I dive w/both the 49 and 42....The 49 give you quite a bit more lift and is more streamlined........

Is the 49 is more streamlined than the 42 because of the torus shape? It won't work for me because it's not double bladder, but it looks interesting.