Doubles diving with 2 wings

[Davidstealey3]

i dont do any cave or wreck penetration, but do have a dual bladder wing from zeagle.

yes it can be a pain sometimes with the extra hose, but you learn to deal with it.

i do have plans to do some wreck penatration and thought it would be more cost effective to get a dual bladder now and save on the expense later.

i also dive my setup wet and that was another factor in my decison.

true, the points made above are very good. i think it comes down more to a personal preference in the long run.

as for the lift bag or smb, has anyone ever thought about being blown off a wreck, and needing to use the bag for an up line? will the line on the reel be strong enough to hold your weight and still mark your position on the surface?

i do know people that dive a single bladder in some of the situations, but they use the drysuit as the back up inflation source.

 

[Cave Diver]

as for the lift bag or smb, has anyone ever thought about being blown off a wreck, and needing to use the bag for an up line? will the line on the reel be strong enough to hold your weight and still mark your position on the surface?

Unless you have a wing failure, you're not going to be "hanging" on the line. Just keep enough tension on it to keep the bag erect on the surface. If you have a wing failure and need a bag for buoyancy dont shoot it, just hang on to it so that you can vent the bag as you ascend.

If you need a bag for buoyancy and to mark your position, I would have your buddy shoot the marker and you hang on to the other one.

If you don't have a buddy either, then it's just not your day!

Another alternative is to loop your line through the lift bag, so that you hold on to the loose end as well as the reel side, doubling the strength of your line. There are some obvious downsides to that as well. Make sure you have sufficient line to shoot from depth so that the scope doesn't drag you up if there is a surface current, cross current or heavy wind.

BTW, when open ocean diving, esp at non rec depths, I almost always carry 2-3 lift bags. One is bungied along the bottom of my plate and the other two get tucked along either side. I also have a spool or reel with 1.5 times the line of my intended max depth.

 

[walke121]

The only thing is in MD with out a drysuit you will freeze with doubles most of the year.

 

[paddler3d]

Thanks for all the feed back.

In the end, I'm going to simply double up my HP100's, which are Faber. I didn't realize how nearly neutral they where when empty. If I'm looking up the right stats, the are -.59lbs when empty. When it is all said and done, I'll be surprising close to neutral. So no 2x the wing. I guess it was more or less my paranoia. Which is good because it tends to keep me alive.

I dive with an SMB and reel any way.

I never mentioned it, but the reason I'd like to 2x up is for redundancy and to ditch my pony.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Davidstealey3]

Unless you have a wing failure, you're not going to be "hanging" on the line. Just keep enough tension on it to keep the bag erect on the surface. If you have a wing failure and need a bag for buoyancy dont shoot it, just hang on to it so that you can vent the bag as you ascend.

If you need a bag for buoyancy and to mark your position, I would have your buddy shoot the marker and you hang on to the other one.

If you don't have a buddy either, then it's just not your day!

Another alternative is to loop your line through the lift bag, so that you hold on to the loose end as well as the reel side, doubling the strength of your line. There are some obvious downsides to that as well. Make sure you have sufficient line to shoot from depth so that the scope doesn't drag you up if there is a surface current, cross current or heavy wind.

BTW, when open ocean diving, esp at non rec depths, I almost always carry 2-3 lift bags. One is bungied along the bottom of my plate and the other two get tucked along either side. I also have a spool or reel with 1.5 times the line of my intended max depth.

your right if all that did happen it was not my day.
i was just curious. i dont know how strong that lins is, and would not want to find out that way.

any way i was allways taught to have a backup for the backup. that is way i have my dual bladder.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

Much of the "don't dive steel with wetsuits" information came out of South Florida in the mid 1990s when DIR / GUE / WKPP programs were being created. Much of this had to do with diving PST 104s with 3MM wet suits .... that in and of itself is a big ole problem larger than we have room to argue over. Since they were not going to change steel tanks aluminum was the logical choice.

JDS

Yep... I was there, diving in South Florida when the changes hit over one or two months in the Summer. One day it was okay to dive my 104s with my wetsuit, then suddenly I needed a dry suit. So I bought a one and continued on. Then, it was changed again to no steel tanks in the ocean, period. We were supposed to dive with AL tanks and a stage.

Sounds good, but humping two deco bottles and a stage kinda sucks some of the fun out of it. (I suppose the total weight on land is about the same, but stages have a lot more drag in the water.) It's especially fun if you have a lot of swimming on a large wreck and don't believe in setting deco bottles down in case you can make it back to the drop point for any number of reasons like current, etc. On a big wreck, you may land on one end and by the time you get to the other the dive is over. If you drop your deco bottles, you may only get to see half the wreck, maybe less. So, unlike cave diving, your carrying all that the entire dive.

On the plus side, having done some ocean dives with 104s and a wetsuit, I know it can be done safely and don't take issue with those that continue to do it.

------------

I'll just throw in... if you put two wings on a "Hog Rig" you won't be able to call it that anymore, because it will no longer be one...

 

[Gilldiver]

Ya, back around 89-95 or so I would dive my double steel Hp 100's off of NC with only a 3mm top and a pair of painters pants. I used a plastic USD backpack and had a wreck bag of tools. We did our dives on air then and stage bottles were not know of yet, we had pony bottles also of air. I was a bit heavy but even with a BC that was leaking some (it had been pin hold sometime in the week, but I didn't nitice it for a few dives) there was never a problem keep my depth controled, even when I had a big honking sealed lead-acid battery pack for video lights straped to the doubles also.

At the time, the Sherwood genisis 100's was one of the very few choices in tanks there were. The other comon choices were 72's, al 80's, the 104, and some aluminum 100's. That's it.

 

[Colliam7]

Diving with 2 wings isn't uncommon, although its not real common either. You're a bit less streamlined with that configuration, but it works. I've done it many times and know several others that have. As soon as I could though, I got a dual bladder DR Classic wing.

Well said. It is a bit of a chore to get them between the plate and tanks, but doable. Have done it for practice - two DR Rec Wings - as much as anything, just to make sure I could do it.

consider bringing an smb instead of getting another wing.

Very good suggestion. Much easier, still effective. SMB / lift bag - relatively inexpensive and quite functional.

 

[Splitlip]

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