BP&W puzzle

Hallo, friends!

Recently I switched from a jacket BCD to a BP&W. In the zeal of a new convert I wanted to buy the best of the best - of course! I kept reading extensively for some six months here in Scuba Board and other sources. After the final bout between Halcyon and DSS I ended up with a rig from Deep Sea Supply. Around the same time I also switched to dry suit. During my DS course I discovered that the BCD is ment only for floating on the surface.:blinking:

It is not a very serious question, but I'm puzzled about the scope and heat of the discussions about different forms and types of the wings and different brands of the plates - if it is basically a floating device on the surface? Alright, Halcyon requires a STA, DSS does not and the tank is closer to the diver, etc., but nevertheless - such a mighty debate indicates something significantly important. What is it? Do you know?


Thanks!
J.

Johanan:

During my DS course I discovered that the BCD is ment only for floating on the surface.:blinking:

It is not a very serious question, but I'm puzzled about the scope and heat of the discussions about different forms and types of the wings and different brands of the plates - if it is basically a floating device on the surface? Alright, Halcyon requires a STA, DSS does not and the tank is closer to the diver, etc., but nevertheless - such a mighty debate indicates something significantly important. What is it? Do you know?


Thanks!
J.

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Many people use mainly their bcd or wing instead of their drysuit for buoyancy control.

Ditto to what Lemna said. I don't dive dry yet, but I know from years of reading about it that there are two different schools of though. When I get a dry suit (possibly very soon) I won't be using my suit as the primary control.

Your drysuit instructor went by the book on that. It is not reality. You put enough air in the suit to offset squeeze so you don't end up with welts. You use the BC for buoyancy. That includes underwater. Now over time as you get your weighting nailed down and start diving a balanced rig you may find that there are times when the air you add to offset squeeze is enough to be neutral. But at no time should you avoid using the wing to get neutral underwater if you need to. The drysuit is a huge air bag. Dive overweighted and have to put too much air in and you may not be able to vent fast enough to prevent a runaway ascent. That's why you use a combination of the wing/BC and the suit. My belief is that some agencies falsely believe that managing two sources of buoyancy control is too much for a new diver or new drysuit user. So they think that by telling you to only use one that it will be easier. They assume you can't walk and chew gum at the same time essentially. It's bull crap. Managing two sources of buoyancy control is not any harder if the time is taken to explain it and adequate practice time put in. Divers are not stupid. They should not be treated like they are.

Like Jim said, if you take the time to weigh yourself properly, chances are what's in your drysuit to keep you warm is also enough to establish neutral buoyancy.

Also, if you're an experienced diver, manipulating both the BC and the drysuit at the same time is no big deal. If you're not then you get task loaded and confused at the most inopportuned time. I had 200-dives under my belt with my own gears before I decided to do some drysuit diving (tough to do ice diving in a wetsuit unless you're an Eastern European badass). When it was time to try out the drysuit, it was no big deal. Learned how to don it properly, squeeze the air out, weigh myself, hook up the inflator hose and went to town.

Johanan:

Recently I switched from a jacket BCD to a BP&W. In After the final bout between Halcyon and DSS I ended up with a rig from Deep Sea Supply.

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Good for you. Good gear, good company, lots of pre-sale and after-sale support.

Johanan:

Around the same time I also switched to dry suit. During my DS course I discovered that the BCD is ment only for floating on the surface.

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Although that is the way it is sometimes presented, it that simply not the case in reality, as several posters have indicated. You want enough air to prevent squeeze (and to provide a bit of a thermal barrier between the suit and your undergarments).

Johanan:

. . . but I'm puzzled about the scope and heat of the discussions about different forms and types of the wings and different brands of the plates - if it is basically a floating device on the surface?

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It isn't.

Johanan:

. . . such a mighty debate indicates something significantly important.

Click to expand...

No, it doesn't. 'It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'

Thanks for your replies! I already noticed during my inquiry that some dry divers here use the wing for buoyancy control and the gas in the suit only for warmth and to eliminate the squeeze - just like you describe. My instructor (a retired Soviet military colonel with some 5000 dives) says that for him to use the wing under water is an "added hemorrhage". He also wears his weight belt over the crotch strap. A veritable East-European badass!

I have made only some 10 dry dives yet, and for me to manage the suit and the wing simultaneously is still a higher pilotage. However, I have already performed a runaway ascent because I couldn't vent quickly enough, as Jim described. Thus your comments make a point, even though with more experience the risk of uncontrolled ascents will deminish. I still have to balance my rig and find the ideal weight.

Yeah, I also know some guys who do ice diving in wetsuits. Yet, after only 10 dives in a dry suit I can't think of returning back to the wetsuit, especially in our rather cold waters. Perhaps in tropics, but it is so much nicer to sit in the Zodiac dry among blue-lipped, shivering wet divers.

Thanks again!

Regards

J.

I think you need a different instructor. Sometimes "old school" just means "old thinking".

A dry suit is a horrible buoyancy device, just look at it. It is exposure protection and a secondary source of buoyancy in a catastrophic wing failure. Wing for trim, suit for warmth.