scubaalblake
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So last weekend I was doing a couple of play dives on sm in shallow water. My main 12l tanks were off getting tested so I just grabbed a pair of 10l steels I have for ow diving. Rigged them up and jumped in to mess around with lights, clips and all the other stuff we like to fiddle with. Spent most of the dive tilted to one side because those 10s are not the same weight. About 2kg difference between them in fact! Swimming with 2kg difference between your tanks is an interesting learning experience I can tell you. But heck it was open water, lots of fish and I just floated most of the time.
So the next day I needed to dive with the same two mismatched tanks again and remembered I'd bought a couple of those weight pouches a few months ago. Stuck one on the band of the light tank with 2kgs in it and off I went.
Another no-stress dive, fish, clear water.....but something wasn't right. One tank kept twisting and trying to pull the reg out of my mouth. Checked bungees, mounts and everything else I could think of but it wouldn't sit right.......until I realised that the weight acts as a keel! Doh!
It will always try to sit underneath the tank at the bottom - whatever you try to do and in just strapping it on anywhere I'd created a gravitational rotational moment (I think that's what it's called from high school physics) on my left tank. And you can't beat the laws of physics folks.
So hopefully I've given you all something to laugh at and remember when you are not using your nicely balanced sm tanks you normally dive with:
A) add weights to balance them
B) make sure the weight is where you want the keel of the tank
My 12s are back from the test shop now so I'll probably never do that again anyway
Dive safe
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
So the next day I needed to dive with the same two mismatched tanks again and remembered I'd bought a couple of those weight pouches a few months ago. Stuck one on the band of the light tank with 2kgs in it and off I went.
Another no-stress dive, fish, clear water.....but something wasn't right. One tank kept twisting and trying to pull the reg out of my mouth. Checked bungees, mounts and everything else I could think of but it wouldn't sit right.......until I realised that the weight acts as a keel! Doh!
It will always try to sit underneath the tank at the bottom - whatever you try to do and in just strapping it on anywhere I'd created a gravitational rotational moment (I think that's what it's called from high school physics) on my left tank. And you can't beat the laws of physics folks.
So hopefully I've given you all something to laugh at and remember when you are not using your nicely balanced sm tanks you normally dive with:
A) add weights to balance them
B) make sure the weight is where you want the keel of the tank
My 12s are back from the test shop now so I'll probably never do that again anyway
Dive safe
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
