Bcd Question

[tbone1004]

oh, make bloody good sure that as soon as you are horizontal at whatever planned depth you are, that you readjust both your weight belt and your waist belt. This is something that a lot of people are unfortunately not taught in their OW class, but your rig shifts and the suit compresses and the combination of that can lead to both of those belts being far too loose. Your shoulders don't need adjustment as they don't really do much under water, but the waist belt and weight belts both have to be snug

 

[redacted]

Unfortunately, your seahawk with 54 lb of lift is just so much more than you need. You are just going to have to wrestle with that excess air and material until you either switch to ice diving with heavy doubles or get a BCD more suited to your needs.

As you are learning, doubling your required lift does not double your pleasure or your fun.

 

[TheHuth]

Awap, that's an interesting thought that had t occurred to me. I saw someone yesterday with a really small bcd, and was thinking that might be kind of nice. Now that you mention it, the Seahawk might really be overkill.

 

[george_austin]

Awap, that's an interesting thought that had t occurred to me. I saw someone yesterday with a really small bcd, and was thinking that might be kind of nice. Now that you mention it, the Seahawk might really be overkill.

Might be overkill? You're diving a steel 72 with 54 # of lift in your BCD, A Steel 72 is 6 # negative - You probably wear 8 lbs of lead in a 1/4 inch thick wetsuit? You're probably doing shallow dives since you're new but theoretically, at a point deeper than 30 fsw you aren't going to need any lead at all so the reason for a BCD vanishes as well, let alone one with 54# of lift.
I'd look into trading the SeaHawk for a little stab jacket, BP/W with 18# of lift and maybe some other gear thrown in.

 

[REVAN]

@TheHuth - Simply diving more without changing anything isn't going to correct your problem. After reading your descriptions, I'll encourage you (as some others already have) to check into your weighting situation. You have probably already looked to see that you don't have weights

Many people don't realize that BCs are inherently unstable in just about every degree of freedom available. If you have air in it and you are underwater, it will be trying to either send you to the surface or the bottom and roll and reorient you to either your side or head-up or head-down; anywhere except where you actually want to be. The more air that is in it, the worse it will be, and you'll have to constantly fight it to prevent these things from happening to you. These are just a few reasons why I like diving without a BC.

Your easiest and most stable diving will happen, when your BC is basically empty, or as close to empty as you can get it when you are underwater. Do a thorough weight check the next time you are out; about 500 psi in the tank, you want to display neutral buoyancy at about 15 feet depth with shallow relaxed breathing and an empty BC. If you can get the weight right for that situation, I think you'll find that the rolling to the side tendencies will be greatly attenuated.

Note - you can do the weight check with a full tank as well and then subtract the weight of the air from your weight belt. It's about 4 pounds for an Al-80, so about 3.5 pounds for a St-72 will get you in the ballpark.

If you minimize the air in the BC when you are diving, the size of the bladder is less of an issue. That said, I always encourage divers to go with as small a BC as they can get away with. For me, it is usually no BC at all for most of the diving I do. If you are inclined to get new gear, the BP and small wing is a good way to go for a recreational single tank diver. Freedom Plates and are awesome, if you can find one (not made anymore and kind of rare because people who have them don't let them go). With a BP/Wing, you can always remove the wing if you want to.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Hi--I've had the rolling issue before and in my case, it was due to poor distribution/placement of weights and/or amount of weights. Also, I know you said you are within the size chart numbers for a size small, but I don't usually use those as an end-all decision but rather a rough guide of where to start. Everyone is built differently and it may not necessarily mean that it's the perfect fit for you at that size. It sounds like there's extra room which is causing it to sway a bit. Are you able to go back to the dive shop and find out what options you have?

 

[TheHuth]

I guess you could look at the BCD having two components that "size". The harness size is a proper fit for me. In fact, its tight with a 7mil wetsuit and 5mil hooded vest. I havent tried it with a drysuit, but it may actually be too small for that. The second component is the lift capacity. As another member pointed out, my bcd has 45# of lift capacity. When I was buying it, I figured the more the merrier. But now I realize that may have been a flawed idea.

A few people have stated why not take it back to my dive shop. I bought it used, so thats not an option here. But this is a high quality bcd. If I bought wrong, I can just resell it and buy something else. I just need to nail down if my problem is the BCD, or me. It might be as simple as me not having enough experience in it.

Also a few people have mentioned weight distribution. I really dont want to go to a weight belt. I like the idea of having weight integration. However this may not be a case of being able to have my cake and eat it too. Thats one of the reasons I might consider swapping for a BP&W.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I guess you could look at the BCD having two components that "size". The harness size is a proper fit for me. In fact, its tight with a 7mil wetsuit and 5mil hooded vest. I havent tried it with a drysuit, but it may actually be too small for that. The second component is the lift capacity. As another member pointed out, my bcd has 45# of lift capacity. When I was buying it, I figured the more the merrier. But now I realize that may have been a flawed idea.

A few people have stated why not take it back to my dive shop. I bought it used, so thats not an option here. But this is a high quality bcd. If I bought wrong, I can just resell it and buy something else. I just need to nail down if my problem is the BCD, or me. It might be as simple as me not having enough experience in it.

Also a few people have mentioned weight distribution. I really dont want to go to a weight belt. I like the idea of having weight integration. However this may not be a case of being able to have my cake and eat it too. Thats one of the reasons I might consider swapping for a BP&W.

Many newer divers that I speak with concerning a BP&W are absolutely adamant about *never* using a weight belt.

I've come to learn that there are several misconceptions at play.

1) Often these folks struggled with *massive* belts durning their open water training with rental gear, and were conditioned that once they were certified and purchased their own BC they should "Upgrade" to a weight integrated (and more expensive) BC. The lasting message is weight belts are a beginner solution and better quality BC are weight integrated.

2) Most BOW students are over weighted, often by a *lot*

3) Most jacket BC's, particularly the "upgraded" "High lift Capacity" "Full Featured" "Weight Integrated" are inherently buoyant, due to lots of foam padding, and designs that make full venting difficult.

Once the diver understands that switching to a back plate and wing may leave them with 4-6-8 lbs on a belt, not 14-16-18 their adamance about weight belts starts to fade.......

Keep an open mind regarding weight belts.

Tobin

 

[REVAN]

IMO: weight belts are better. I like to split up my weight between a belt and a neck weight. I usually don't have more than 4 pounds on the belt, and max of 10 pounds with my 7mm suit.

 

[TheHuth]

I wear an ostomy appliance. Thats kind of the end of the story for weight belts.