Balanced Rig with a Single Tank?

[Randy43068]

Are you already comfortable unbuckling and ditching your rig?

I would not do it. I see no reason to ditch the rig as long as there is air in the bottles.

[Randy43068]

This assumes you have air but neither wing nor suit is working. Makes sense. Would you 'ride the bag' up? I would assume that the best course of action would be to run it up on a spool and wind yourself up the line rather than try to control the lift of the bag.

That could be my inexperience talking.

p.s. I mean wind the line up on a spool and hang onto the spool, of course. You need to be able to let go if something really bad happens, like the bag being snagged by a passing boat.

if in the odd case ( and I can't imagine how I'd get in this jam ) that I were out of air, no wing, no DS and no buddy and my only option was to dutch the gear and bob like a cork to the surface.. would I do it? Yes, rather than drowning. But, I cannot imagine ever being in that situation. I can imagine ripping a hole in the DS and wing on a wreck with lots of sharp metal. But my buddy will help me in that case.

[Reg Braithwaite]

This assumes you have air but neither wing nor suit is working. Makes sense. Would you 'ride the bag' up? I would assume that the best course of action would be to run it up on a spool and wind yourself up the line rather than try to control the lift of the bag.

That could be my inexperience talking.

p.s. I mean wind the line up on a spool and hang onto the spool, of course. You need to be able to let go if something really bad happens, like the bag being snagged by a passing boat.

if in the odd case ( and I can't imagine how I'd get in this jam ) that I were out of air, no wing, no DS and no buddy and my only option was to dutch the gear and bob like a cork to the surface.. would I do it? Yes, rather than drowning. But, I cannot imagine ever being in that situation. I can imagine ripping a hole in the DS and wing on a wreck with lots of sharp metal. But my buddy will help me in that case.

True, perhaps these are all extremely unlikely emergencies, more important for solo diving than team diving. But given gas without suit or wing, what is the best procedure for returning to the surface?

[TSandM]

Well, the one time I have been in that circumstance (in a class), I discovered I COULD swim nearly full double 85s to the surface. I hadn't investigated that before. If I can do it, being little and not very strong and with what my friend Mo2 calls "Barbie fins", I think most people could.

[dumpsterDiver]

Wearing all the lead on the BC/Backplate (16 lbs or so) and zero on a weightbelt is not something I would be comfortable doing. I have had too many instances were I needed to remove/replace the scuba unit underwater and I would not like to have a 16-24 lb negative rig and have my body over 20 lbs bouyant.


At least, when that happens with a wetsuit (at depth) the wetsuit is compressed and your body will not be too bouyant. With a dry suit, you will be bouyant at depth. I find wearing 10-12 lbs (or less) on a weight belt to be extremely comfortable and has some significant benefits. Call me old school..

[irishsquid]

This assumes you have air but neither wing nor suit is working. Makes sense. Would you 'ride the bag' up? I would assume that the best course of action would be to run it up on a spool and wind yourself up the line rather than try to control the lift of the bag.

That could be my inexperience talking.

p.s. I mean wind the line up on a spool and hang onto the spool, of course. You need to be able to let go if something really bad happens, like the bag being snagged by a passing boat.

This was my thought also.

I would not do it. I see no reason to ditch the rig as long as there is air in the bottles.

Definitely. Why get rid of what you need/want (air).

[Randy43068]

I figure I'd shoot the bag to the surface and use it to pull myself along as I swim up.

[elan]

I would, but very carefully. I sure that you know it, but I need to remind everyone to never forget that using any form of inflatable, "soft" buoyancy creates a positive feedback loop that can hurt and even kill you if it is not tightly controlled.

I'd be very interested in how others practice this and what sorts of exercises others use to teach it.

We were doing lifting stuff with the bag from 25' in my advanced class. While it's a bit tricky it can be accomplished. We were using open lift bags that had the dump line hanging close to the handle so you can create a negative feedback loop so if the bag speeds up it will cause the dump to be pooled and thus air to be purged.

[Randy43068]

We were doing lifting stuff with the bag from 25' in my advanced class. While it's a bit tricky it can be accomplished. We were using open lift bags that had the dump line hanging close to the handle so you can create a negative feedback loop so if the bag speeds up it will cause the dump to be pooled and thus air to be purged.

I'd be willing to play with that, too. If the chips are down and it's either drown or get bent.. well bent can usually be fixed. We're talking gravest extreme situations mind you.

Mostly I'd not worry about it because of the team diving concept we practice.