Hello all,
I would like to ask for hint in troubleshooting my new diving setup. I experienced really bad dive, with lot of failures, which I am aware of, I share this because I want to improve, so please do not reprobate me.
I am average diver with OWD certification and about 75 dives in total, recreational free diver, at the moment I am in AOWD course. I used to dive with wetsuit in tropical see mostly, with 3mm short or body wet suit, ursuit 16l wing, 12l air bottle, with very good buoyancy control, no troubles at all, fairly good SAC, and I was enjoying diving almost all the time with empty BCD, using only my lung capacity to slightly change depth. So far so good. Now I want to adapt to local conditions, which means low visibility, cold water, mostly flooded mines - simply dark and cold water. This requires change in my equipment, so I have now 2x10l 235bar twin independent setup (steel bottles with frame weighting in 20kg empty, rather heavy), ATX100 and DS4 1.stages with DIR long hose setup, Anhinga wing 21l, Mares Isodry drysuit neoprene, not using real undersuit, but only cotton trousers and shirt. Before going outdoor to real dive, I checked the configuration and weighting in pool (7m), and found this: my instructor told me to start with 12kg additional weight put in side pockets, I hit the bottom like a rock, removing some weight, tried again.. and I ended with 0kg, still feeling a little bit overweighted, but ok, I was able to keep the level, and fair trim like that. It is needed to confess that I was not feeling completely fine with the setup, it is huge difference against my previous experiences with wetsuit and singletank, when I was able to quickly compensate just with my lungs, now this way is limited, and I really need to operate BCD often to be neutral. Well, I though I am more or less prepared to try outdoor.
With the new setup we went to have sharp dive in mine, visibility was around 4-5m at most, 14°C water temperature, almost no chance for visual reference to anything due to bad visibility, aiming to dive to max. 17m practicing navigation to swim around the mine, instructor and two buddy teams. I got additional 4kg of weight from my instructor, put in side pocket. From initial descent everything was "not right", I descent faster then I liked to, and had to play around with BCD to level in neutral, but still I had troubles to keep steady and hover nicely, orienting only with depth gauge of computer, with no visible reference to wall, bottom, etc. To worsen the situation, I hit the leading line which I was not aware of, as I couldn't see it below me, tried to untangle from it and somehow it slips my both fins off, making swimming almost impossible. I was able to catch them, descent to the bottom at about 7m, and negative buoyant I tried to get them back on, which I managed with huge effort only, fighting with drysuit and low visibility. Then ascent and I removed 4kg of weight, descent again and continued with dive, which I was able for about 5min, then I had again troubles to keep the level, and moreover I experienced cramps in my calves, possibly the result of pushing hard to get fins on previously. This I have signaled to the other divers and end the dive.
There was a lot of factors involved, new setup, bad visibility, low temperature, trouble with fins, etc., I failed as a buddy having a lot of problems with myself, my buddy has also troubles (another interesting and potentially dangerous point - inflator hose was disconnected during the dive, luckily there was enough lift to ascend - I have checked for correct function within pre-dive buddy check, but forgot to check if inflator is secured to fitting, now I will never forget to check it as well), buddy team failed completely - so nothing I can be proud of, and generally we were close to really dangerous situation, I felt really bad about the dive - it was my worst experience ever. I also found that this is up to myself, our instructor with us basically didn't know what happened, and I definitely don't want to put myself or my buddy in danger - so I found that I am definitely not prepared to dive on with this setup in those conditions, I go back to train in safe pool conditions, building my buoyancy control and confidence.
Still I have a couple of questions:
1] Is it possible that my twin bottles are simply to heavy to my body weight ? I weight in about 70kg, have 0% body fat, twins have about 25kg filled. Always my instructors try to attach some additional weight to me, but I really feel overweight even with no lead at all. I just thought my chances are to either increase my lift with additional underlayer in drysuit, or to change for lighter twin cylinders. I hope you understand my point - all I want is to achieve good buoyancy with minimal BCD inflating and deflating, which I believe can be done only when my weight and lift are closely equal (of course I am aware of lift change during dive) ?
2] Position of twins on the back. I encountered slight shifting of backplate and thus cylinders during the dive, especially when turning, or rolling. I adjusted and shortened shoulder straps and also strap between the legs, but still have a feeling that rig not 100% in place. Is there anything I could do about it ?
3] Fins. I have seeman natures wing type fins, they are like "split" in the middle of fin blade, with rubber straps. It is possibly due to my overweight, but I felt like I miss the power from kicking, and also when turning I felt like fins are too soft not giving me proper resistance against the water. Maybe I should switch to proper DIR fins with solid blade and spring fitting ?
Ok, that's it, I would be grateful for helping me, I believe I can overcome the troubles I'm having right now and can hopefully dive with twins and drysuit safely and nicely one day... Thank you for answers, and sorry for my possibly stupid questions.
I would like to ask for hint in troubleshooting my new diving setup. I experienced really bad dive, with lot of failures, which I am aware of, I share this because I want to improve, so please do not reprobate me.
I am average diver with OWD certification and about 75 dives in total, recreational free diver, at the moment I am in AOWD course. I used to dive with wetsuit in tropical see mostly, with 3mm short or body wet suit, ursuit 16l wing, 12l air bottle, with very good buoyancy control, no troubles at all, fairly good SAC, and I was enjoying diving almost all the time with empty BCD, using only my lung capacity to slightly change depth. So far so good. Now I want to adapt to local conditions, which means low visibility, cold water, mostly flooded mines - simply dark and cold water. This requires change in my equipment, so I have now 2x10l 235bar twin independent setup (steel bottles with frame weighting in 20kg empty, rather heavy), ATX100 and DS4 1.stages with DIR long hose setup, Anhinga wing 21l, Mares Isodry drysuit neoprene, not using real undersuit, but only cotton trousers and shirt. Before going outdoor to real dive, I checked the configuration and weighting in pool (7m), and found this: my instructor told me to start with 12kg additional weight put in side pockets, I hit the bottom like a rock, removing some weight, tried again.. and I ended with 0kg, still feeling a little bit overweighted, but ok, I was able to keep the level, and fair trim like that. It is needed to confess that I was not feeling completely fine with the setup, it is huge difference against my previous experiences with wetsuit and singletank, when I was able to quickly compensate just with my lungs, now this way is limited, and I really need to operate BCD often to be neutral. Well, I though I am more or less prepared to try outdoor.
With the new setup we went to have sharp dive in mine, visibility was around 4-5m at most, 14°C water temperature, almost no chance for visual reference to anything due to bad visibility, aiming to dive to max. 17m practicing navigation to swim around the mine, instructor and two buddy teams. I got additional 4kg of weight from my instructor, put in side pocket. From initial descent everything was "not right", I descent faster then I liked to, and had to play around with BCD to level in neutral, but still I had troubles to keep steady and hover nicely, orienting only with depth gauge of computer, with no visible reference to wall, bottom, etc. To worsen the situation, I hit the leading line which I was not aware of, as I couldn't see it below me, tried to untangle from it and somehow it slips my both fins off, making swimming almost impossible. I was able to catch them, descent to the bottom at about 7m, and negative buoyant I tried to get them back on, which I managed with huge effort only, fighting with drysuit and low visibility. Then ascent and I removed 4kg of weight, descent again and continued with dive, which I was able for about 5min, then I had again troubles to keep the level, and moreover I experienced cramps in my calves, possibly the result of pushing hard to get fins on previously. This I have signaled to the other divers and end the dive.
There was a lot of factors involved, new setup, bad visibility, low temperature, trouble with fins, etc., I failed as a buddy having a lot of problems with myself, my buddy has also troubles (another interesting and potentially dangerous point - inflator hose was disconnected during the dive, luckily there was enough lift to ascend - I have checked for correct function within pre-dive buddy check, but forgot to check if inflator is secured to fitting, now I will never forget to check it as well), buddy team failed completely - so nothing I can be proud of, and generally we were close to really dangerous situation, I felt really bad about the dive - it was my worst experience ever. I also found that this is up to myself, our instructor with us basically didn't know what happened, and I definitely don't want to put myself or my buddy in danger - so I found that I am definitely not prepared to dive on with this setup in those conditions, I go back to train in safe pool conditions, building my buoyancy control and confidence.
Still I have a couple of questions:
1] Is it possible that my twin bottles are simply to heavy to my body weight ? I weight in about 70kg, have 0% body fat, twins have about 25kg filled. Always my instructors try to attach some additional weight to me, but I really feel overweight even with no lead at all. I just thought my chances are to either increase my lift with additional underlayer in drysuit, or to change for lighter twin cylinders. I hope you understand my point - all I want is to achieve good buoyancy with minimal BCD inflating and deflating, which I believe can be done only when my weight and lift are closely equal (of course I am aware of lift change during dive) ?
2] Position of twins on the back. I encountered slight shifting of backplate and thus cylinders during the dive, especially when turning, or rolling. I adjusted and shortened shoulder straps and also strap between the legs, but still have a feeling that rig not 100% in place. Is there anything I could do about it ?
3] Fins. I have seeman natures wing type fins, they are like "split" in the middle of fin blade, with rubber straps. It is possibly due to my overweight, but I felt like I miss the power from kicking, and also when turning I felt like fins are too soft not giving me proper resistance against the water. Maybe I should switch to proper DIR fins with solid blade and spring fitting ?
Ok, that's it, I would be grateful for helping me, I believe I can overcome the troubles I'm having right now and can hopefully dive with twins and drysuit safely and nicely one day... Thank you for answers, and sorry for my possibly stupid questions.