26lb or 30lb wing?

[claymore]

I had personal experience with a wing that was not big enough. I have an Express Tech with the 24# wing that I bought for travel. One of the first dives I did at home, Minnesota, was a dive to about 100'. I was wearing a 7mil Farmer John 24# of weight and a big steel tank. Started the dive and went down the wall that starts at about 30' and drops to about 125-130'. As I desended I'm adding air and adding air. At about 70' I'm getting a little nervous because I am not stopping or even slowing down much. By 90' I KNEW I had to get to the wall or I was not going to stop desending until I hit the bottom.
It took me quite while to realize that I did not have a big enough wing to keep everything positively buoyant.

Lesson leaned, a wing that is litte bigger than you need (within reason) is preferable to one that is just big enough or to small.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I had personal experience with a wing that was not big enough. I have an Express Tech with the 24# wing that I bought for travel. One of the first dives I did at home, Minnesota, was a dive to about 100'. I was wearing a 7mil Farmer John 24# of weight and a big steel tank. Started the dive and went down the wall that starts at about 30' and drops to about 125-130'. As I desended I'm adding air and adding air. At about 70' I'm getting a little nervous because I am not stopping or even slowing down much. By 90' I KNEW I had to get to the wall or I was not going to stop desending until I hit the bottom.
It took me quite while to realize that I did not have a big enough wing to keep everything positively buoyant.

Lesson leaned, a wing that is litte bigger than you need (within reason) is preferable to one that is just big enough or to small.

claymore, what were you thinking by attempting that with a wing that was clearly too small?! My guess is you were NOT thinking. At least the OP has gone through the calculations. Dying is no way to learn a lesson, man.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I can ship a 32 lb to europe no problem. No sta needed.

 

[claymore]

Lorenzoid
I was not really aware of the amount of bouyancy the Farmer John would loose at depth at the time. That was a number of years ago with a lot of knowledge gained and lessons learned since that time.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

There is little indication when diving with an undersized wing. If you need 26 and the wing is 26, you have no clue you are on the edge, you can't see the dang thing when diving. Then one day you pick up something from the bottom or change your gear and you hit the button for more buoyancy near the bottom and you hear the OPV pop open and no more lift. Oh crap as you slowly realize what happened, followed by some real strong kicking / rototilling.

You don't die unless there is a compounding issue. You screw up a dive and work hard getting off the bottom being a few pounds negative. Divers should be able to swim up their rig with a failed BCD, undersized should be nothing but an irritant.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Lorenzoid
I was not really aware of the amount of bouyancy the Farmer John would loose at depth at the time. That was a number of years ago with a lot of knowledge gained and lessons learned since that time.

That's just what I figured. Glad the OP is not learning by experimentation that way.

 

[ams511]

claymore, what were you thinking by attempting that with a wing that was clearly too small?! My guess is you were NOT thinking. At least the OP has gone through the calculations. Dying is no way to learn a lesson, man.

I think you are being too harsh. Maybe things have changed but I do not remember ever talking specifically about bc lift during any of my diving classes. You just went out and bought a jacket BC which is usually in the 45 lb lift range and left it at that. Balanced rig, what is that? So I could see someone doing this not because they are careless but because they were never taught to care.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I think you are being too harsh. Maybe things have changed but I do not remember ever talking specifically about bc lift during any of my diving classes. You just went out and bought a jacket BC which is usually in the 45 lb lift range and left it at that. Balanced rig, what is that? So I could see someone doing this not because they are careless but because they were never taught to care.

Gosh, I thought it was implicit in my intended ribbing of claymore that he surely must have done this back when he was less experienced. He's been reading SB since 2007, and the topic of wing lift comes up frequently, so presumably he didn't make this kind of rookie mistake just yesterday. I did not mean to imply otherwise. No offense intended, claymore!

 

[Ana]

If anyone would like to get rid of a 24 ~ 26# wing, I'll be happy to take it off your hands, mine is starting to show its age.

If the price is right, I get a replacement ready for when I need it; while there's no unwanted gear feeling lonely and dry.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I had personal experience with a wing that was not big enough. I have an Express Tech with the 24# wing that I bought for travel. One of the first dives I did at home, Minnesota, was a dive to about 100'. I was wearing a 7mil Farmer John 24# of weight and a big steel tank. Started the dive and went down the wall that starts at about 30' and drops to about 125-130'. As I desended I'm adding air and adding air. At about 70' I'm getting a little nervous because I am not stopping or even slowing down much. By 90' I KNEW I had to get to the wall or I was not going to stop desending until I hit the bottom.
It took me quite while to realize that I did not have a big enough wing to keep everything positively buoyant.

Lesson leaned, a wing that is litte bigger than you need (within reason) is preferable to one that is just big enough or to small.

There are MANY people on this board who are even more ignorant than you were. I constantly see people spout off about not having to add air to their BC/wing and only pressing the button when they are on the surface. I often read that people say you should be able to simply swim up if your BC fails.. A lot of BS...

Cold water diving with a double layer of 7 mm suit and the suit compression is huge! It is amazing to me that people will spout off about their SAC rate, knowing the value to two decimals (like it is some constant)... People talkin about fine tuning their trim and eliminating every ounce of extra lead like it is some kind of right of passage (or accomplishment) and then... nobody seems to have real numbers for how heavy you get when a new thick suit gets crushed.

Where is the fanatical attention to detail - to quantitative analysis of the situation? I find it weird.

People argue that you can squeak by with a minimally sized wing and will also fail to acknowledge any practical uses for a moderate amount of reserve buoyancy capacity... I personally think this attitude is unwise and unsafe and I honestly can't understand how people will argue that you need this HUGE pony bottle (say 40 cu-ft) to bail out from 80 feet and this large bottle is necessary because you MUST plan simultaneous complications like entanglements and communication problems and incredibly accelerated breathing rates during an emergency.. yet you can get by with a "streamlined" wing or BC.

Personally, I would rather carry a small, minimally adequate pony bottle and a generously sized wing that will allow me to assist another diver in an emergency rather than a 40 cu-ft bottle for 95 ft dive and a wing with zero extra capacity.