New diver having trouble with the back plate wing BCD my instructor sold me.

[redacted]

Hi Mike! In fact I dove the next day and had a much better time. I did get heads-up vertical to dump air a few times when I was deep enough but I also used the lower valve (that really is on my left, how embarrassing, I'm glad my husband is not on this board). I'm quite sure that it is the Dive Rite recreational wing. I'm a nervous new diver at the age of 53, my husband and 18 year old son have been diving for 5 years and I trained this past spring with our 15 year old. The 15 year old has no problem with the wing or with anything else related to diving for that matter. Me, I suffered a barrotrauma to my ears in March from my confined water work and took some time off to recover. I finished my open water on my 29th wedding anniversary and left for our vacation in Grand Turk the next day. It was all so worth it to be on GT again. This is my first time as a diver. I loved diving around the coral heads with sandy bottom around them but the wall with the abyss was scaring me. It helped me to watch our depth on my dive computer as a cue to add or dump air.

I posted my question on our second-to-last diving day when I would get heads-up vertical, with my left are stretched up and not even a bubble emitting. But the next day after posting things went much better, perhaps because I spent hours reading about the issue that evening. Now I want to keep my skills fresh, and being land locked in middle Georgia, it will probably have to be in my dive shop's pool. I don't know if I will ever lose that feeling of imminent doom when I have all that weight on me and I'm about to roll in, but in a place like GT with my family with me and good DMs, diving really is sublime.

---------- Post added July 9th, 2015 at 08:09 PM ----------

Phil,

I had a lot of fun the next day and do feel that I want to continue with my recreational wing. I will experiment more with weight, that was my first saltwater experience and I'm thinking perhaps I was under weighted. I would put in what the DM gave me and they were aware of the weight from the back plate but maybe you are right, I needed more. I wish I was still on the island to try!

The easy solution is to simply add a couple more pound of lead which might make you a little over-weighted but should overcome your problem. The real answer is you need to think about those gas bubbles that are causing your problem. It is not just a matter of lifting the exhaust valve as high as you can. You have to get the bubble into a position where it will be exhausted. So you have to position your body so that bubble is located by the exhaust valve you are using. And I think that is what you ended up doing. Good job.

BTW, you can have that same problem with any BCD. But there are some that make it easier to manage that bubble than others.

 

[MrsP]

I thought I'd get an email if I had a response, maybe I need to configure for that! My last two dives went much better and now I am home wishing I was still there. I'm sure I will still feel doomed when I have all that heavy stuff on me with the neck of my 5 mil suit suddenly feeling too right. But once I'm in I calm myself down and start to enjoy. I will probably never dive without a professional DM except for in a pool. I appreciate all the responses, I did check back the night I posted but there weren't any yet. I am very lucky to be able to do this.

---------- Post added July 9th, 2015 at 08:37 PM ----------

I thought I'd get an email alerting me to replies, perhaps I can configure for this. I spent a couple hours reading whatever I could find on the subject and maybe it helped because I had a better time controlling my buoyancy the next day. I don't want to give up on my wing but I will probably never dive without paying a DM to come with my family and me. We would all have to have a lot more experience before we'd consider that. I'm a 53 year old mom and I feel very lucky to have the training and experience.

---------- Post added July 9th, 2015 at 09:00 PM ----------

Hi Collium, I checked back the night I posted and didn't have a reply yet but I did find online information about the butt dump and employed it the next day. I had a much better two tank dive the next day.

My home dive instructor fit the BP/W to me and to my son. My son has had no problem with it although he has heard his dad and older brother who have jackets react negatively to it. The DMs at our vacation spot did all have jackets and it appeared that the shop had only jackets in their rental gear. I have to admit that my home instructor did not teach me about the butt dump but he dedicated a lot of hours to me so I can't fault him. I'm pretty sure my wing is the Dive Rite Rec Series. I wish I was still a my vacation site and could practice the 90 degree rotation you described. I can go to my dive shop's pool.

I appreciate your observation about learning curve and think you are right about that. Now that vacation is over, I don't want my nascent skills, such as they are, to perish so I will have to go the the pool.

---------- Post added July 9th, 2015 at 09:15 PM ----------

The instructor did have my son assemble his own while he assembled mine for me.

 

[kelemvor]

Welcome to the addiction, MrsP!

 

[Colliam7]

Glad to hear that your next day of diving was much better. A few comments:

I will probably never dive without a professional DM except for in a pool.

You might just surprise yourself. Keep working on your skills, as you indicate you wish to do, and you may well find that there is no need to be accompanied by a dive professional, just a good dive buddy.

My son has had no problem with it although he has heard his dad and older brother who have jackets react negatively to it. The DMs at our vacation spot did all have jackets and it appeared that the shop had only jackets in their rental gear.

And, in such a case, people without much exposure to a BP/W may focus their negative attention on the thing they are unfamiliar with as an explanation for why you are having difficulty. Probably best to ignore much of those negative reactions, as they are quite possibly uninformed and therefore unhelpful, and seek out help from divers and dive professionals who have a broader understanding of both gear, and techniques for optimization of buoyancy and trim. Now, having said that, if some of the DMs comments were directed specifically to the wing itself, rather than simply a broader negative comment about the BP/W configuration, those comments may well have some validity.

I'm pretty sure my wing is the Dive Rite Rec Series.

That may be part of the issue. If it truly is a Rec Series, the wing itself - not the BP/W configuration - may be a bit too large for comfortable single cylinder diving. It has 45 lbs of lift, and you probably need no more than 30 lbs with a single cylinder in most cases. Larger wings don't fill as full with the same amount of gas, and you end up with a moving bubble of air in the wing, that creates a certain dynamic asymmetry, and can easily wreak havoc with your buoyancy and trim. I have owned Rec wings, and I can dive them with a single cylinder, but it takes some effort to maintain optimal trim and buoyancy control. While your instructor and all of the dive shop staff may sing the praises of the Rec Series, I won't, and would suggest that a Voyager Series would have been a better choice, simply on the basis of its somewhat smaller size (35 lbs lift). You might ask your instructor why he recommended that particular wing.

 

[Mike126]

MrsP - glad to hear things worked out. Pool work is a good idea. I do it regularly in the winter just to stay comfortable with my gear and practice equalizing. A good fitting BPW is a joy to dive. Most shops tend to not recommend them thinking they are strictly for wreck or more technical diving. As others have said the wing may be a little large. I dive a 28# Deep Sea Supply wing with my 7mm and do fine.

I would also recommend the Peak Buoyancy class.

Safe diving! [emoji3]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[The Kraken]

One thing that can help deflation is rotating your right shoulder slightly down to get the valve higher in the water column.

Safe dives . . . . . .
. . . safer ascents !

the K