Changing levels during ascent

[rjack321]

and when it comes to 20 foot to the surface it gets a lot more fiddly with a lot more dumping out both.

By the time at 20ft on a "real dive" I rarely have much gas in my wing. The 20ft stop and up is done just with the suit. Its easiest to dump relatively small amounts from the suit for me

Exceptions being short or aborted dives where I have a full tank. Some tech or cave dives where I have bucu gas in reserve. At those times I'll have wing gas still.

Laura has a good point -- this is all environment-dependent. If you are cave diving, the contour of the cave may require some "non-traditional" orientations (if the cave slopes down, YOU slope down) and running a lot of gas in the suit can be extremely uncomfortable to unmanageable.

There's only a couple caves I have found this to be true. "Alot" of suit gas is a bit subject to interpretation here.

There are some DIR folks out there that advocate the shink-wrap method of diving dry. I don't get this. Gas in the suit equals warmth. If you need gas to adjust your bouyancy, why not add it to a place that does double duty?

Agree, the "dive with a 20ft squeeze" concept needs to go. I suppose if you are diving dry in Malaysia or someplace with 25C water it doesn't matter. If you are diving dry for exposure protection then its counterproductive.

 

[TSandM]

I'm with you, Brian! I run as much gas in the suit as I can keep IN it, basically, and if I need more for compensation, that goes in the wing. But that's only in OW. In caves, I dive pretty shrink-wrapped, because it's just plain darned uncomfortable to have to go head down to follow a passage, get all the gas in the suit into your feet, and then never find a room big enough where you can drop your feet to get it OUT. So I just don't put much gas in the suit in the first place. I don't need much for warmth in 75 degree water, at least up to 2 1/2 hours.

 

[lamont]

Agree, the "dive with a 20ft squeeze" concept needs to go. I suppose if you are diving dry in Malaysia or someplace with 25C water it doesn't matter. If you are diving dry for exposure protection then its counterproductive.

I haven't heard that concept since 2004. Not sure who you guys are having an argument with...

 

[nadwidny]

I haven't heard that concept since 2004.

Read more.

Not sure who you guys are having an argument with...

Who's having an argument? All I said was that shrink wrapping was stupid and Richard and Lynne agreed. I don't see an argument there unless you're trying to start one.

 

[leabre]

I used to divide the gas between my wing and dry suit. During my Tech1 class during certain skills my bouyancy would go horribly awry... up and down while a bunch of gas would dump from the drysuit and then I would put it back in to compensate and it would dump again. My bouyancy was fine without the wid-water drills but crappy with them and I didn't have this problem in the past so I was baffled (it is a rare dive indeed when everything that can go wrong will go wrong repetively on a dive except in class). I thought I was going to fail the class becasue I couldn't maintain my depth, period, with this going on.

I changed tactics: add just the minimal amount of air I need in the drysuit to meet my warmth requirements (which is barely anything, a 6 CF argon bottle will last me 4-6 dives these days) and the rest in the wing. Never had another bouyancy problem after that and went on to pass the class the following day.

During ascent I breath in to ascend and, as needed, dump from the wing perhaps. Usually from 130 -> 50' i'll dump just a bit here and there but from from 50' -> 30' a little more as gas expands. I've just worked it out to where I can tell if I'm going to lose a stop if I don't dump ASAP! I usually nail it these days and if I'm off, it's not by anything significant.

It is something that takes practice but everyone has a different technique that works for them.

 

[rjack321]

I'm with you, Brian! I run as much gas in the suit as I can keep IN it, basically, and if I need more for compensation, that goes in the wing. But that's only in OW. In caves, I dive pretty shrink-wrapped, because it's just plain darned uncomfortable to have to go head down to follow a passage, get all the gas in the suit into your feet, and then never find a room big enough where you can drop your feet to get it OUT. So I just don't put much gas in the suit in the first place. I don't need much for warmth in 75 degree water, at least up to 2 1/2 hours.

Nadwidny and I know a cave where you will want suit gas and lots of it!!

 

[TSandM]

Nadwidny and I know a cave where you will want suit gas and lots of it!!

Yeah, but the hike is going to keep me out of that one!

 

[rjack321]

Yeah, but the hike is going to keep me out of that one!

Just bring a pack horse, donkey or Llama please.

 

[elan]

Thanks a lot guys, a lot of useful information. Like someone said it all takes time and practice.

 

[krawlings]

What is the best way to vent your dry suite when ascending a slow slopping exit point? I am having some difficulty getting air up into my upper torso from my legs and feet