Guide for Big guys (and gals) for diving

Hi,

I figured I might as well post this, it might help make diving more enjoyable for people who happen to be horizontally challenged like myself.

A quick note about me:

I caught the diving bug in 1995 while on a trip to Florida. I did one tank in Key West (Resort course) and loved it. I next went to Cancun 3 times over the next few years and did another 28 dives through the resort courses. Last year I decided to get certified up here in Canada before a trip to Venuzuela where I completed my 4 open water dives and another 6 tanks.

This January I went to Cozumel for 19 days, of that I dove on 14 days. 26 tanks drift diving, 2 shore dives and 2 night drift dives. I am very comfortable underwater and own all my own gear with the exception of weights and tanks. I consider myself to be an intermediate level diver. I have near perfect bouyancy control and reasonable air consumption. I eventually plan to become a dive instructor, I will begin the process after another 100 dives or so. I have a teaching background, and enjoy the subject matter.

My kit is as follows:
Sherwood Avid BC
Sherwood Maximus regulator with sherwood standard octopus
Mares M1 Dive computer
Prescription dive mask
Mares Plana Avanti Fins
Ocean Run 3 mm shorty wetsuit

Currently I'm only interested in warm water diving.



Anyhow, Here is my guide for bigger people who love to dive and dive well.


First things first, lose the weight belt. Go integrated when you have the chance to buy a BC. I can't comment on the wings or many other BC's but my Sherwood Avid fits like a glove and is extermely comfortable (I could almost fall asleep while diving).

Have the proper amount of weight. Beg, borrow or steal a tank with 500 PSI (asuming an aluminum tank). use it to deterine your proper amount of weight. This should be done when you get to your destination. Especially if you are used to diving in fresh water and are planning on diving in salt water.

Never use the inflator button unless it is an emergency, (It's not an elevator). Use your exhaled breath to adjust your bouyancy when necessary. This is safe and effective, you will be happier with the extended bottom time.

Breath normally, slow full inhale, slower full exhale. You should not feel like you are starving for air after you have exhaled.

If you buy a regulator, I would recommend that you buy one with which you can adjust the air flow. (I dive with a Sherwood Maximus). You simply cannot overbreath it, even when the Octo is in use.

Use a tank that matches your body size and will compensate for the difference in bottom time of yourself and your buddy. Example: If I at 250 lbs am diving with someone who is 160 pounds (who happens to be in better shape) they will use less air than I will. Therefore I should step up the size of the tank that I use. Once you are in the water, the physical dimensions of the tank you are using are pretty much unimportant. Remember that you are already properly weighted.

I do not have problems equalizing. I can do a rapid decent, equalizing all the way down. Therefore I like to be the last one to descend. This will also extend my buddies bottom time even more, especially if other smaller divers have problems equalizing. I won't be wasting my air waiting for them to equalize.


Well I hope this helps.

Lanshark
Headed to Honduras next...

lanshark once bubbled...

Use a tank that matches your body size and will compensate for the difference in bottom time of yourself and your buddy. Example: If I at 250 lbs am diving with someone who is 160 pounds (who happens to be in better shape) they will use less air than I will. Therefore I should step up the size of the tank that I use.

Click to expand...

I don't agree with much you said... but the biggie is quoted above.

You are going about this wrong. If you get a bigger tank to allow you and a 'better' breathing buddy to hit, say... 750psi at the same time, then you are not thinking through OOA scenarios.

You should base your turn point on the heaviest air consumer and the smallest tank (between you and your buddy).

If you don't use the smaller tank in figuring out turn time/ascent time, then if you have an OOA towards the end of the dive, your buddies smaller tank won't have enough air for both of you to ascend and do a safety stop... because you, with your higher consumption, along with him, are now sucking his smaller quantity of air.

There are threads that probably explain this better... I'll see if I can find one.

Make sense?

lanshark once bubbled...


Currently I'm only interested in warm water diving.


First things first, lose the weight belt. Go integrated when you have the chance to buy a BC. I can't comment on the wings or many other BC's but my Sherwood Avid fits like a glove and is extermely comfortable (I could almost fall asleep while diving).

Never use the inflator button unless it is an emergency, (It's not an elevator). Use your exhaled breath to adjust your bouyancy when necessary. This is safe and effective, you will be happier with the extended bottom time.


Well I hope this helps.

Lanshark
Headed to Honduras next... [/B]

Click to expand...

Some of your suggestions are good and some are not. Your a warm water diver....... where do you plan to instruct? And the reason I ask is you mention all tropical locales that you've dove, and no mention of dives here in the north. If you've dove up here in months between Oct and May, you'll know cold water diving can and does have its own issues and concerns that may not always be revalent on warm water dives.

Integrated weights are not the answer for everyone in every situation. When diving (cold water) with thick wetsuits or heavy underwear in drysuits, the weight in the pockets can get up to 30lbs+.... thats a lot of extra weight to carry around in your BC. I thought that was the way to go when I got my new BC, but now I'm leaning to go back to a weight belt/integrated pocket combo.

Your suggestion of not to use the inflator button is based on what? Extended bottom time will be negligible, if any at all. And your more likely to run into some other problem by continually pulling your reg from your mouth. Why wouldn't you use the power inflator? In case of a stuck button, simply unconnect the inflator hose - then use the oral inflator......

SS

lanshark,

Not to sound like I'm sniping, but you lack experience.

Some valid points you made:

- Using a tank that fits your air consumption. But ALWAYS make sure that you will have enough should an OOA situation arise. Remember the "rule of thirds": 1/3 out, 1/3 back, 1/3 for emergencies.

- Long slow inhales & exhales WORK.

The "not-so-valid" points:

- Integrated weighting. For many larger people putting ALL the weight in the BC may be impractical or actually impossible. The weighting is best split in various ways such as belt, BC, harness, tank weights, etc.

- Air consumption: this improves with experience. Many new divers tend to hold a lot of air in their lungs all the time. This is mostly due to anxiety. When they start to become more confident and practised in their skills, they relax. And voila! The air consumption isn't such an issue any more.

- Experience will also help with bouyancy control. While learning how to control the tidal volume in your lungs is key to this, that does not mean that using the BC is verboten. Nor will the latter affect air consumption.

- Weighting in general: a proper weight check is done in full gear (including exposure protection but excluding a tank) with an empty BC at the surface. Go back & review it in your Open Water manual for the full drill. In the end the person should add about 4 pounds to compensate for an 80 cf alumninum cylinder at 1000 psi or less. If they are diving steel it will ALWAYS be negative, even if nearly empty. So while the last step can be skipped, the tank DOES need to be figured into the equation in the total weighting.

- Regs with adjustments: not necessary. A good, well-balanced reg is all you need. Brand is very much a personal preference based on the type of diving one does, where, and how often.

- A rapid descent is not always the best. What happens if you have a problem? Or if the vis starts to deteriorate? Or you can't SEE the bottom? A diver ALWAYS needs to be in control descending and ascending.

Welcome to the world of diving. The journey has just begun... enjoy!

~SubMariner~

I dove with him a couple of weeks ago
in Cozumel with Papa Hogs. He's a real
fan of integrated weights and they worked
fine for him drift diving. I'm a bigger air
hoover than he is and I was using a bigger
tank to compensate for the air consumption
so it didn't ruin the dive for the other folks.

More air gives you a little more time to
decompress while drifting too. I like the
extra margin too.

Nice to hear from you again lanshark!

using a bigger tank to be able to stay as long as your buddy who is using a smaller tank can get you into trouble.

If you are doing a shallow reef.... not as big a deal.

On the other hand, if you are deeper, you could have a problem.

You have a lp120.

Your buddy has a lp85.

If you both decide that your turn pressure is going to be1500psi with ascent starting at 1200psi, then that could be cutting things too close. The smallest tank needs to decide the turn. That smaller tank needs to have enough air for both of you to make a safe ascent with a stop. Having a larger tank to compensate for higher air consumption does no good if you have an OOA situation.

Lets say that you both reach 1200 at approx. the same time... you have breathed a whole lot more air. You are at 125ft. Now you have a freeflowing reg and by the time you even think about getting to the line and ascending, your tank is empty. No prob.... my buddy is right here and they pass me a reg. Great! Well, now your high air consumption is even higher. Your buddies probably went up too. Now that smaller tank is supporting 2 divers. Tank is at 900 PSI. You find the line and start your ascent. If you do have enough air for the ascent and a stop, you have very little safety margin.

Or maybe you didn't find the upline until he was at 800psi. No big deal... they have plenty of air. Until you have an OOA... now you both are gonna run out of air during the ascent.

Your buddies tank contains YOUR air in case of an emergency. You want to make sure there is enough for both of you at all points of the dive.

The smallest tank needs to determine the turn point. Yes, if you are at 20ft... not too big a deal. Could become a very big deal on deeper dives.

Just something to think about.

You're absolutely right, I should have placed a caveat with the information that I provided. I should have specified that I was only was speaking in terms of warm water diving. (Yes, I eventually plan on heading south permanently).

I'm currently 250 lbs and was using 20 lbs of lead with a 3mm shorty. My point was that even my amount of experience tells me that integrated is the way to go (I'll add provided that it will comfortably support the amount of weight for the type of person you are and the type of diving that you are doing. Obviously you shouldn't try to use more weight than the BC that you are using can comfortably lift. I will never use a weight belt unless it's absolutely necessary in addition to my integrated weights ( would want as little as possible on a weight belt) (Dry suit diving etc).

As for my recommendations on air conservation. The type of dives we were doing in Cozumel were multi-level drift dives (With computer). With the bigger tank I and my dive buddy could actually finish the dives when scheduled, we would both finish with about 1200 PSI left. The Dive time was based on 35-50 minutes or 750 PSI whichever comes first. Why would I want to purposely shorten someone elses bottom time by using a tank that is too small for me. On a number of occasions on the dive boats we had divers blowing through an 80 cu ft tank at 60 feet in 25 minutes. I'm sure their dive buddy was really happy about it.

My reasoning for not using the elevator button is that the deeper I go, the more air I need to use to inflate the vest to stay neutrally bouyant. That's air I could use myself, as far as I am concerned, every little bit helps. remember that little jar diagram on day one of the first course we all took? Same thing applies here.

My pet peeve is that when I get on a dive boat. the O-ring on the rental tanks that I will be using for life support should be in perfect condition. On multiple occasions I've had to change tanks even though the O-ring looked good but leaked like a seive anyway. I'd offer to change the O-ring and use one of my spares but they would just tell me to use another tank instead. Fortunately there were always extra tanks on the boats. Sometimes it would take up to four tries before we could find a tank with an O-ring that looked good and actually was good. I would look at other divers and be blown away by the amount of air leaking from their O-ring and in some cases, the rental gear they were using. The dive master would even have gear that I wouldn't dive with.

This happened at two dive shops I dealt with in Cozumel, Dive with Martin and Papa hogs.

The Other issue that bugs me is that I expect a tank to be full when I mount my regulator. I hate shortened bottom time because of tanks that are at 2750 PSI instead of the rated 3000 or so. On a dive, that can be an additional 5 minutes or more of bottom time.

The air you will use to inflate your BCD at depth to maintain neutral is a very small ammout, it won't make a difference, it's not more than a breath or two.

I dive with a number of people that in the 200lbs+ range that have noraml or better than normal air consumption, being a "big" diver doesn not necessarily mean you have to be awful on air.


I can't comment on much else since I dive only in cold water, although the rule of thirds seems a bit extreme for a shallow reef dive, and although it may seems simple enough, it's actually can be a tricky rule.

Well, Lanshark, Welcome to the world of Big Beautiful Divers! (some of you will understand that reference)

I'm a large woman diver (you can see my photo on my profile if you wish).

And, my experience has been a bit different than yours.

I too am only (currently) interested in warm water diving -- maybe when I win the lottery I'll buy a custom dry suit, but in the meantime, I'll keep leading those trips to Hawaii to get my warm water time in.

I have tried integrated weights, and for me, a weight belt is a better answer. A weight belt allows me to keep the weight exactly where I want it -- now that may be because I have these neat weight rests called hips. But, in my experience, integrated weights , FOR ME, cause the bc to slip and slide around. So, just because a person is large, doesn't necessarily mean they want integrated weights.

Regarding air consumption, when I first started diving, I was a regular hoover, but with some time and experience (and I really haven't had all that much of either) my air consumption dropped considerably. There are many situations now when I am helping an instructor ( I am a dive master candidate) and she and I will both use 63's and put 80's on the students. -- We;ve never ended the dive because I was low on air.

Also, I have tested out 63's, 80's, 95's, and a 100. For me, I found that once I got over the 80, the extra volume was cancelled out by the extra drag. I realize that YMMV, but in my experience, it doesn't pay to take a bigger tank. I have had several occassions on commercial charters when I had to return to the boat because the time allocated for the dive was up, even though I still had plenty of air -- I was the first one off the boat and the last one back on.

My point is, that yes, there are issues that a large person may have that might or might not be a bit different from smaller people -- but just like with everything else, the answer has to be personalized -- it's not 'one size fits all' even when the size is XL.


Also, just for the record -- my experience is pretty modest coompared to some of the folks here -- I've been certified for 2 1/2 years and have logged 215 dives. Next week I plan to finish my Dive Master certification (weather permitting). I live in Northern California, and only dive in warm water.

And, I LOVE talking to people of all sizes about diving.

Welcome aboard!


Liz

I think it's ok for a person who needs more air to carry more air as long as the tank chosen meets the other important requirements like balance, trim and managability on the surface. If the tank doesn't meet these other requirements, as ladycute1 points out, your air consumption will go up negating the advantage of having more air.

If I were to ever be forced to go back to using a bc I might consider a weight integrated one. OTOH, here too the most important thing is balance and trim. If a significant amount of weight is required wether because of body size/type or the amount of exposure protection most diver will find that they are better off with the weight someplace other than their waist. then their is the fact that these cheap velcro pouches fall out when overfull or when the velcro gets dirty or worn out. I have fetched many weight pouvhes for divers who were stuck on the surface after a rapid unplanned ascent. I have also cought divers with one hand while catching their weight pouch with the other and I have salvaged many weight pouches from the bottom of quarries. Sorry, lots of weight pouch stories.

Nothing wrong with orally inflating the bc if you really want to but if it makes a meaningfull difference in your dive time you have other issues.

Tank yoke o-rings can be a real pain on rental tanks. The biggest reason they don't last other than continuous use is divers tighten the yoke too much. I hate yokes anyway. All my tanks and regs are din except one that I haven't switched yet.

2750 psi in an AL 80 is fine for me on a recreational dive. Overfilling al tanks isn't good especially when the tank is filled several times a day. In order to have the tank at 3000 psi cool (in the water) you will need to overfill it. If it's 2500 or 2600 there is a problem but 2750 or 2800 that's not so bad.

lanshark, I admire your desire to teach and help people but IMO you need to get in some diving other than in the tropics. Many maybe even most of the problems I see divers having are because the techniques they were tought are geared for the tropics. You can get away with things in warm water wearing only a skin that you just can't in cooler water (which BTW is most of the globe). Puttind all your weight on your waist is a good example.