Has anyone tried to streamline their gear to improve efficiency?

[Nemrod]

I think of streamlining as simplifying, minimizing, everything with a purpose, no more or less equipment than needed. Not in terms of hydrodynamic drag. While you can reduce your flat plate frontal area, the human body is an awfully poor motor, significant reductions in energy required to move a diver over some distance by "streamlining" are really just good chatter. But, unlike some, I have actually swam various rigs over distance, in a pool. The idea is not without merit but do not expect a huge gain by reducing one hose.

An Oxycheq 18 Mack V wing or a horsecollar BC or no BC can reduce drag and it can be noticed, but again, if you want to feel more like a fish, which we are not very good at emulating, take up free diving.

N

 

[spectrum]

I agree with Doc if I'm reading him right. Being minimalist/sleek in your configuration has limited value. More important is to swim in trim so you pass through a lesser space.

As for your experience without fins I assume "full gear and no fins" means in booties. In this situation the problem is that your feet were exceptionally streamlined and highly contrary to your experience with fins.

Pete

 

[lemke]

What Nemrod said... start freediving! I've taken my freediving experience into scuba. Full foot fins, backplate, a PROPER sized wing (Oxycheq 18 or Torus 26), steel tank, no weight belt, SPG clipped to my waist (no console), Air2 octo (I'm not dead yet), primary reg routed under my arm with a 90 degree fitting, full wetsuit with integral hood, no bags, pouches, or anything attached to my harness, and a line cutter bungied to my wrist and slipped in my glove. Let me know if I missed anything...

 

[CaptainHornblower]

Doc is right on the money. The topic of being more streamlined makes for good internet chatter. You see folks on SB quite a lot talking about how having one less hose makes them more streamlined or how one style of BC is more streamlined than another etc etc. And then when you make that change you're gonna see a real difference in the amount of air you are using because you have become more efficient in the water and use less energy. Again, good internet diving stories.

I think streamlined and efficient is important even if you're just poking along checking things out. If it wasn't we wouldn't use fins at all. All they do is make you more efficient and go faster, use less Os, get less tired, etc.

What I was wondering wasn't so much tucking in or getting rid of an extra hose, I was wondering if anyone has ever made some kind of a hydrodynamic cover that would cover up a tank, 1st stage and BC. Something that would present more like a rebreather. It seems that would go through the water with a lot less resistance that our typical set up. I've never heard of any kind of device like that. I wonder if anyone's tried it.

 

[Bob DBF]

Has anyone tried to streamline their gear to improve efficiency?

Has anyone tried to put a pink bow and lipstick on a pig to make it better looking?

To paraphrase Doc
For most, the difference would be nothing more than an interesting dalliance.


If you want to streamline, freedive.


Bob

 

[lemke]

I think (not so well sometimes) that there was a discussion about this on the "Decostop" website. But I think it had to do with prolonging battery life/range of scooters by reducing your drag, or something to that effect.

 

[Stoo]

I'm afraid I need to disagree with the "poo-pooers" in the crowd. I do agree that fiddling with bits of gear produces minimal advantage, but I am constantly amazed at the number of divers trying to move their bodies through the water in a practically vertical position. The ability to easily maintain a near horizontal trim has many advantages... Less work required to move forward, reduced air consumption, less kicking up silt and on and on...

I suppose as an avid photographer, I pay more attention to how someone "looks" in the water, and I gotta tell you, that the vast majority of divers truly suck at this! (Present company excluded...)

I took this picture this afternoon, of my wife and a friend of ours. Both have maybe 50 - 60 dives in cold water. They are in 80' of 40° water, one in a drysuit, moving under an overhead chunk of wreckage with about 4' of clearance. After they passed (and I had just moved through the same gap), there wasn't a hint of the silt being disturbed. They both get great mileage and can hang motionless on a deco or safety stop and maintain the depth accurately. Even with this small number of cold water dives, they look like seasoned divers... there's no reason why everyone shouldn't be able to move through the water like this, except that most Instructors don't even make the attempt to make it happen...

This is the entire set of images... this one wasn't a "lucky shot"... https://www.facebook.com/stuart.seldon/media_set?set=a.10152835867079505.1073741879.632159504&type=1

 

[chillyinCanada]

Well, I know where to start...
And its not by cutting my hair, I've done that after the pic was taken
View attachment 190207
I could try to get that hose less "out there", but really - I think I have made choices as to my diving that has a bigger impact

The first thing to do that would really help you is to shake off that other diver holding you back. Other divers hanging off your arm will always be a big drag!

 

[Tigerman]

Haha yeah, thats a point

Sent fra min GT-I9300 via Tapatalk

 

[Bob DBF]

I think streamlined and efficient is important even if you're just poking along checking things out. If it wasn't we wouldn't use fins at all. All they do is make you more efficient and go faster, use less Os, get less tired, etc.

What I was wondering wasn't so much tucking in or getting rid of an extra hose, I was wondering if anyone has ever made some kind of a hydrodynamic cover that would cover up a tank, 1st stage and BC. Something that would present more like a rebreather. It seems that would go through the water with a lot less resistance that our typical set up. I've never heard of any kind of device like that. I wonder if anyone's tried it.

Yeah, Cousteau was doing it back in the 60's and '70's, may be earlier.

You are somewhat correct. Double hose regulators need the regulator main diaphragm close to your lungs (on your back, or on your chest). But, Cousteau and the Calypso team had many systems with valves on the bottom and tubing to mount the regulator in the optimal position.

It is too bad that a lot of the experience and knowledge obtained by Cousteau and his team is quickly being lost.

Look at some of the pictures from the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau:
Vintage Scuba Museum
I have to thank Ryan for his on line museum of Cousteau equipment...etc.

Here is just one example of a system with valves on the bottom:

Here is another example with valves top and bottom (the bottom was for the reserve air):
This are 5000 psi titanium tanks with a yoke fitting on top for a double hose regulator.

And here is a chest mounted regulator system with valves again easily accessible on the bottom of the pack:

Please visit Ryan's web site for many more pictures and information.

Thanks to Lewis H for this post of his I found.



Bob
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"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana