OP
I was in my 7mm. I've probably done 40 Monterey dives in the last six months in it, but suddenly it didn't cut it anymore. Stupid warm water.
BP/W Dive Report
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cmburch
Contributor
A hooded vest or shortie may help with warmth, requires more lead to offset buoyancy. Glad to hear the BP/W is working well.
OP
Dives 3&4 with BP/W didn't go as well as the first two.
I tightened up the shoulder straps, which resulted in the D-rings being in the wrong spot, so clipping stuff off was sort of troublesome. It still felt loose though, so I'm going to tighten it up a bit further.
I had a lot of trouble venting my BC at the surface before descending. Some how I wasn't able to get the air to the butt dump, so I ended up doing PADI-style descents. No big deal, but I do prefer to lie horizontal for a minute before I descend in order to make peace with my ears.
Also, my tank was too far from my head so I could barely reach the valve. Last time I got it exactly where I like it, but I'm used to having the BC loop to gauge the tank position; with the dual cambands I'm having some trouble. I was sort of shooting for the end of the shoulder for the top of the top camband. Is there a rule of thumb I can use?
My trim also didn't feel very good, which I figure I could attribute to either of the earlier mentioned things, or the fact that I was using an AL80 this time instead of last week's LP85.
I felt like I shot my SMB pretty well after I managed to get it off my harness. The plastic suicide clip is impossible to work with 5mm gloves, gonna try to find a double-ender or something for it. Unfortunately, I got to the surface to see it half full again. I'm thinking I'll need to go find a more reasonably sized SMB if I want to continue to play with it from 35'.
My "perfect boltsnaps" haven't really been holding up the way I'd like, and some of my hoses feel way too long. My SPG ended up hanging 6" below me.
Anyway, I figure this is somewhat expected since the BP/W project changed pretty much every part of my gear except my wetsuit and fins. Thought I'd give an update.
Edit: Water was 51F and I was perfectly comfortable. There's something about <50F that just kills me.
I tightened up the shoulder straps, which resulted in the D-rings being in the wrong spot, so clipping stuff off was sort of troublesome. It still felt loose though, so I'm going to tighten it up a bit further.
I had a lot of trouble venting my BC at the surface before descending. Some how I wasn't able to get the air to the butt dump, so I ended up doing PADI-style descents. No big deal, but I do prefer to lie horizontal for a minute before I descend in order to make peace with my ears.
Also, my tank was too far from my head so I could barely reach the valve. Last time I got it exactly where I like it, but I'm used to having the BC loop to gauge the tank position; with the dual cambands I'm having some trouble. I was sort of shooting for the end of the shoulder for the top of the top camband. Is there a rule of thumb I can use?
My trim also didn't feel very good, which I figure I could attribute to either of the earlier mentioned things, or the fact that I was using an AL80 this time instead of last week's LP85.
I felt like I shot my SMB pretty well after I managed to get it off my harness. The plastic suicide clip is impossible to work with 5mm gloves, gonna try to find a double-ender or something for it. Unfortunately, I got to the surface to see it half full again. I'm thinking I'll need to go find a more reasonably sized SMB if I want to continue to play with it from 35'.
My "perfect boltsnaps" haven't really been holding up the way I'd like, and some of my hoses feel way too long. My SPG ended up hanging 6" below me.
Anyway, I figure this is somewhat expected since the BP/W project changed pretty much every part of my gear except my wetsuit and fins. Thought I'd give an update.
Edit: Water was 51F and I was perfectly comfortable. There's something about <50F that just kills me.
Last edited:
OP
Yeah, I added 4# to my weight belt for the AL80 (still working on figuring how much weight I need with the BP), but I was imagining that "diver incompetence" might be more of a factor.
And yeah, my SMB's probably a bit large for what I'm doing. I got it (recently) because I was paranoid about getting left in the middle of the ocean by a boat, but I figured I'd try shooting it since I had it. It's 6' tall with around 40# of lift, I think.
The buoyancy in the charts for the LP tanks is for rated pressure. If you're pumping the tanks up, they are even more negative.
I remember now that you have something like the DAN sausage. They take 7 times the gas to inflate than the little Halcyon. With a big sausage, you need to have your line sorted before you begin inflating it. And you need to be negative at the start or you will never have a full marker from a reasonable launch depth. And you have to be about 5 # negative to keep it standing upright at the surface.
Best way to practice is to have somebody with you to keep an eye on the line and your depth.
If you have a hard bottom and little or no current, it is nice to learn while kneeling on the bottom.
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