Aussie diving, 1st Feb to 15th Feb.....

[Sas]

Yea I have heard they are heavier. The shop I go to can do 300 bar fills easy, he just said it would take longer. Well, I am going to borrow different types, will see what is comfy before I buy the tanks! I have a 10 and a 12L tank at the moment so maybe I am half way there unless I go with 7s

Tonight we got out for a night dive. I left my silicone stuff (for the o-ring, I think that it is what it is called) at home so no camera for me, but Paul let me steal his camera for a few shots:

Cute seahorse

Cuttlefish

Also Paul got some pictures and a video of a Hutchin's boarfish, which are not very common at all

And also a puffer with a weird eye:

I see lots of one-eyed puffers around! One tonight kept running into things and would swim in circles but otherwise looked healthy...

 

[digital_steve]

another issue with the 300bar 7's is the weight of them. They are a very compact but heavy setup. I run my 300bar 7's and a mate has 232bar 7's. There is a noticable difference.

As for getting a 300bar fill. Well your lucky to get a LDS to give you a 300bar fill. Alot of LDS have their compressor banks set at 300bar cut off. So you get a warm 300bar fill. It takes me a couple of goes at getting close to 300bar.

Another issue is the wear and tear on HP seats on regs with running 300bar cylinders. I had to get special HP seats for my Zeagle regs as the standard seats didnt handle the higher pressure.

Regards Mark

Certainly a weight difference between twin 232 7's and 300 7's, but there's a shedload of difference between 232 12's and 300 7's. Even full, i don't find the 300 7's heavy at all, in fact the whole setup weighs about the same as my singles rig when you add on the weight i need for a singles dive.
The best thing i liked about 300bar 7's were they were so negative in the water. I dive dry all year around, so it enabled me to lose more weight off the belt.
I must be lucky to have my LDS then... if it was too much of a hassle, i wouldn't bother.

sas - give your height you said earlier, you'll be better off with 12's. From what i read (i haven't used 10's) people that use the smaller 10 twinset have problems kitting up as they're a shorter cylinder, so they don't sit on a bench well as you gear up and sit around. Might not be a problem if you just throw them on and jump in quick. Apparently they can be a bit more difficult to trim out as well.
Take this with a grain of salt, as i haven't used them.

Nice photos btw

 

[Sas]

Certainly a weight difference between twin 232 7's and 300 7's, but there's a shedload of difference between 232 12's and 300 7's. Even full, i don't find the 300 7's heavy at all, in fact the whole setup weighs about the same as my singles rig when you add on the weight i need for a singles dive.
The best thing i liked about 300bar 7's were they were so negative in the water. I dive dry all year around, so it enabled me to lose more weight off the belt.
I must be lucky to have my LDS then... if it was too much of a hassle, i wouldn't bother.

What BC do you use? BP/W with SS or Aluminium BP or some other type of BC? I wear 15lb with my wetsuit and about 24lb with drysuit with full thermals. Just wondering how much weight I would be able to drop with 300 7s. Hope you don't mind all the questions

sas - give your height you said earlier, you'll be better off with 12's. From what i read (i haven't used 10's) people that use the smaller 10 twinset have problems kitting up as they're a shorter cylinder, so they don't sit on a bench well as you gear up and sit around. Might not be a problem if you just throw them on and jump in quick. Apparently they can be a bit more difficult to trim out as well.
Take this with a grain of salt, as i haven't used them.

Nice photos btw

Well I have found with my BP/W it is harder to gear up with the 10L as I have to lean back in order to have the tank touch the bench/seat/whatever in order to get my harness off. It is a bit awkward Wasn't an issue in my old BC. I am going to adjust the wings though and lower it as I like to wear my tank as low as possible. But anyway, I find the 12L easy to get off and on in that regard. However, I trim out much better in a 10L than a 12L That could be because I dive with that the majority of times and only have recently gotten a 12L so not used to it. Still playing around with my set up now I have a BP/W.... might take a while before I get it right!

 

[digital_steve]

i use a stainless backplate with a halcyon evolve 30 wing for twin 7's.
I think (think!) an empty 12L faber is negative by 1.5lbs roughly, whereas twin 300 7's are about 4.5lbs negative empty roughly.
So i guess (guess!) you'll drop 6lbs+ depending on your setup.
Which BP/W are you using?
I faffed around for ages when i first got my backplate and wing (zeagle, good on ya chriso!) and adjusted it all the time. In the end i found that rigging it hogarthian/dir/gue (whatever) style and sticking with it was the best way.
BAUE How To Size a Backplate
I was surprised at how high up the waist band is with a 'properly' rigged plate... but now i wouldn't dive any other way.
Just set the tank as low as you can on the cambands (i.e. top camband at the neck curve) and see how ya go.
Have fun anyway, you seem to do way more diving than me so you won't have any problems getting things dialed in.

 

[Sas]

i use a stainless backplate with a halcyon evolve 30 wing for twin 7's.
I think (think!) an empty 12L faber is negative by 1.5lbs roughly, whereas twin 300 7's are about 4.5lbs negative empty roughly.
So i guess (guess!) you'll drop 6lbs+ depending on your setup.
Which BP/W are you using?
I faffed around for ages when i first got my backplate and wing (zeagle, good on ya chriso!) and adjusted it all the time. In the end i found that rigging it hogarthian/dir/gue (whatever) style and sticking with it was the best way.
BAUE How To Size a Backplate
I was surprised at how high up the waist band is with a 'properly' rigged plate... but now i wouldn't dive any other way.
Just set the tank as low as you can on the cambands (i.e. top camband at the neck curve) and see how ya go.
Have fun anyway, you seem to do way more diving than me so you won't have any problems getting things dialed in.

Another six pounds would be nice I dropped 9lb with the switch to the BP (my BC was very padded).

Thanks heaps of the link for fitting my BP/W I am using an OMS BP with a 32lb OMS wing, and it has two tank bands, not an STA. The harness was made for me in the store out of webbing and some d-rings - they fitted it pretty well considering what I have read on that link though they did say I might want to move the wing higher or lower on the plate and loosen the straps if it was too tight with my wetsuit. I took apart the harness to add some bike tubing on, it's really easy to modify myself! The crotch strap is a clip on one though so not like in that link (but they told me a threaded one is easy to do) and my waist buckle ends up in the middle when I put it on (but pretty high like in that pic!)

I will go through that site in more detail at home later to check the fit again. It takes me a few dives to sort out things!

Going to get a thigh pocket that sits on the harness to hold my spare mask and shears too.

I tried out a comfort harness too but really didn't like that as there's too much stuff on it. That is why I like having the really simple harness, there's nothing much on my chest and dangling off my shoulders, etc.

Do you have a protector padded type thing on the BP? I have seen a few people with those and was wondering if I should have one of them...

 

[almitywife]

ugghhhh

so we packed the car and headed off to shelley beach but it was really sloppy, choppy and icky (the surfers were very happy) so we waited for Dave Thomas to hand over my loved Sherwood regs for pre-invade the rock servicing then went to the opt for hubbys new glasses, bunnings, and then cleaned hubbys office

car still packed so i guessing we're going to try Bare Island tomorrow

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Well we got in an hour and 41 today. Thermo clines were amazing. 16 at 9 M and lower. At one point I settled with my feet down in the thermo cline at 16 and my knees up warm probably at 18!

Viz was pretty awful with 3 to 5 m at best. Lots of particuate.

I played around at the car rim playing peek with the local fish trying to get them "framed" in the openings.

 

[almitywife]

pfffftttt - who needs to dive

got to BI at 7am, got our prime parking spot and started putting our gear up... i should have figured out there was a problem when hubby got a bit quite. one of his cells on his unit packed it in so our dive was called :depressed:. always said we wouldnt be slap happy with the unit so wasnt going to do anything stupid

Petunia and Fishy offered to let me dive and then drive me home but i could tell hubby was a bit frustrated so we came home without getting wet - oh well, at least i dont have to wash my gear i guess

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Excellent to hear that I'm not the only Tasmanian returning to diving this week after a prolonged break! Just get back on that horse Steve and start flogging it! Good to hear the twin 7's are working out well.

I'm embrassed to admit how long it has been since my last dive. Lets just stay I stopped soon after my wife/dive buddy became preggers, and the bub is neary 3 months now...... However the next few months are crammed with diving so I thought it's time to get back in.

We went out to North Stradbroke and spent a few days diving with Manta Divers. Unfortunately the surfing gods were smiling: so we didn't get to do Manta Bommies - I'll have to save that for next time.

The currents were pumping and it was very much luck of the draw where we would end up each dive. I only took my camera out on the last dive - and spent most of it relearning how to get the strobe to behave the way I wanted it to. Hopefully by Fishrock I'll be back to taking decent shots.

No real keepers - but what the heck:

There were a number of eagle rays, leopard sharks and some huge wobbies - but only when I didn't have the camera with me.

Good to be back in the water: there were a few gear issues with the first 1-2 dives, but after that it all came back. I wouldn't say I was fully relaxed or comfortable till around the 4th dive.

Cheers & Beers,
Rohan.

 

[almitywife]

congrats Tassie.... looking forward to meeting the family in a few weeks time!

hubby and i dived Nth Straddie about 7yrs ago.. we went for mantas and didnt see one so i dont think they actually exist there but to tease the tourists

edit: oh a turtle..... i love turtles... ive seen hundreds and they still get me all :bounce2: