BC off and on underwater.

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Frosty

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hey folks the weather is utter rubbish here today no clear entry into the sea. so my buddy and I decided to head to a local fresh water lake and sharpen up our skills. Vis was all of about 8 feet so it was all communication stuff,nav and playing around with gear.
Anyhoo one skill we both did but figured there has to be a tidier way to do was taking a weight integrated bc off completely and putting it back on. The senario was that your bottle has come loose in its strap and needs refitting.
We did this at 30feet of a 40 foot deep spot
So in that senario with BC's like the aeries 200 what method would you use mid water to pull BC off and on.?
 
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To make the don/doff underwater easier, I would try attaching some of my ballast to myself in the form of a weight belt or weight harness. This may not be a big deal if you are wearing a thin exposure suit or none at all. However, with a thick exposure suit, it makes sense not to load 100% of your ballast into BCD weight-integrated pockets. If you need to separate yourself from your BCD, it will sink and you will float.

In the scenario you describe (loose tank camband), I would just let my buddy fix it for me.
A gear-centered approach would be to use a BCD with 2 tank cambands. I have yet to see a tank slip out of a 2 tank camband BC.
 
Right arm first through the strap and flip the BC onto your back to hold you down. Take your time and finish putting it on. Once it's on top, gravity helps you. Like Bubbletrouble said, keeping all your weight in your BC is not alway the best solution.
 
Went through this exercise for real a couple of weeks ago in Key Largo... Had to grab a couple extra lbs. from the boat crew after splashing into 3-4 foot seas (brand new 3mm wetsuit, and hadn't had a chance to dial in the weighting with rented AL tanks). My plan was to add the extra weights to the cam band pockets. If not for the seas, wouldn't have been too much of an issue.

Took off the BC, and handed it up to the crew, who loaded it and handed it back down. (I was buoyant enough with the wetsuit, booties, and fins to hang onto the tag line, in the meantime, without an issue). Got my right arm back in and waist strap buckled, had an issue with the second shoulder strap with all the surface bouncing, and got some assistance with that. Realized a couple things:

1- Descend a few feet into a calmer water column, to get everything squared away -- trying to don on the surface in choppy seas can be an exercise in futility. (If you have significant current, or you're on a negative entry drift, this entire scenario would obviously have to be modified).
2- Right shoulder on, then waist strap buckled gets everything stabilized, then you can take your time chicken-winging the second shoulder strap, sternum strap, and/or crotch strap (if you have them).

If you're already mid-water, as in your case, shouldn't be any issues. Same process to don (reversed to doff).
 
One of the big potential issues with a weight-integrated BC is precisely this (and Thalassamania has written reams about it). In warm water, with minimal weight, it's not a big issue -- you can take the BC off any way that works for you (and I really like pulling it over my head) and hang onto it. In cold water, with heavy weights, it becomes a BIG problem. Separating yourself from your ballast makes your life very difficult. You can still pull the BC over your head, but you really have to hang onto it. In that circumstance, I would desperately try to get my buddy to fix any problem (loose tank, entanglement) that would make me think about removing my BC. And knowing how difficult this is might make you think about putting some of your ballast on a belt or anything that remains attached to you, when the BC comes off.
 
To make the don/doff underwater easier, I would try attaching some of my ballast to myself in the form of a weight belt or weight harness.
We were working through possible senario's and how to deal with them. so the idea was to simulate a real world experience-or at least a potential real world experience.

Whats the opinion of the "arms crossed" method of entering a BC ?--Ie face the bc with arms crossed. so right arm is in the right strap and left is in the left then spin in easy
 
One of the big potential issues with a weight-integrated BC is precisely this (and Thalassamania has written reams about it). In warm water, with minimal weight, it's not a big issue -- you can take the BC off any way that works for you (and I really like pulling it over my head) and hang onto it. In cold water, with heavy weights, it becomes a BIG problem. Separating yourself from your ballast makes your life very difficult. You can still pull the BC over your head, but you really have to hang onto it. In that circumstance, I would desperately try to get my buddy to fix any problem (loose tank, entanglement) that would make me think about removing my BC. And knowing how difficult this is might make you think about putting some of your ballast on a belt or anything that remains attached to you, when the BC comes off.
Ya know I'm darned glad to read this because it was pretty hard yakka. We did work it out but the first attempt had us both looking like balloons on a string when it was our turn.
 
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If you're already mid-water, as in your case, shouldn't be any issues. Same process to don (reversed to doff).
I wish it was no issue mate -Its winter here so we are in 7mm suits with thermal vests hoods n gloves and even then the first step in the water makes ya ol fella shrivel.--What that means is we are pretty boyant. :)
 
Yep yep.
Move summa that weight onto your waist.
 
Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject:
Integrated weight systems are basically accidents waiting to happen. It's one thing to be in the tropics with a skinny suit and 8 lbs in your BC, it's another to have 20 in your BC and blunder into a gill net that requires removing your rig to get clear. I wear a weightbelt or a harness ... even in the tropics with eight lbs.
Given your listed criteria and the three possible choices, I'd get the Oceanic Excursion.

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It appears that you are planning on using a weight integrated BCD. I hope you will reconsider that approach. Integrated weight BCDs, when combined with a significantly buoyant exposure suit, place a diver in significant danger. If, for any reason you have to remove the rig, you will be positively buoyant and your gas supply will be negatively buoyant, A slip that results in a loss of grip will, at best, result in your being on the surface with your gas supply on the bottom; and at worst ... well, think about being tangled in a net, having to remove your rig to untangle yourself, losing your grip on your rig and making a buoyant ascent into the net which is billowing over you, you’re dead.

If you're thing weight integrated BCD because you’re having trouble keeping a weightbelt in place, try a rubber weightbelt with a wire buckle. Works like a champ and does not need to be tightened during the dive.

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Or try the SeaQuest style buckle, the motion that you use to release the buckle is to pull the belt away from your body, it's a brilliant design.

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Originally developed by a Graduate Student at Scripps, named Mark Olson, who was also a fine machinist and who went on to found Deep Sea Power and Light. This belt was first marketed by SeaQuest and is currently available from Trident Diving Supply. It is a positive closing, cam actuated buckle that can tightened easily and securely, yet can be only be released with a motion of pulling it away from your body. It’s really quite simple, inexpensive, and very ingenious. It’s a bit hard to explain, but well worth trying.

Might I share some ideas from the scientific diving community as regards weights and such.

The conventional “airplane” type weight belt buckle” (especially when made from plastic) is, IMHO, an accident waiting to happen. Failures of this type of buckle are frequent enough that I, and many other Diving Safety Officers, have prohibited the use of this style buckle on a weightbelt because it:

1) requires a tread-through to don which can be difficult, at best, with gloves.

c) requires a tread-through to ditch, has often been seen to result in the belt hung up on some piece of gear, rather than being cleanly ditched, esp. with gloves.

d) requires being placed into a highly insecure mode whilst being adjusted for wet suit compression.

e) is easy to confuse with a buckle on a tank strap (conventional backpack or BP/W) and can not be differentiated solely by feel. The diver must trust to position of the body or rigorous application of a left hand release for the tank strap, right hand release for the weight belt protocol.

One of the two weight belt and buckle designs mentioned above solves all those problems.
It's only a matter of time before Pete "Shenanigans" NetDoc arrives to tell you how wonderful weight integrated BCs are, just remember, look at how is is dressed in his avatar and how my team is in mine, we're wearing 7mm farmer johns, etc.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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