Ok, I took the plunge Saturday! (I'm sure you've read that already but, here's the good stuff.
I went to my brother-in-laws house and met my great dive buddy Frankc420 (on SB) there at the pool. He geared up before I did and headed off into the pool. I was taking my time as I wanted to make sure that I was setting everything up on th BP/W properly. (Mind you, if we were doing a shore dive or something deeper than 8', we would've done out buddy check. I'll get in trouble for this, at least I should.) I finally finished attaching everything and made sure (so I thought) that my air was on. Just to test the buoyancy of the BP/W, I added some air to the wing and gently put the rig into the water. It floated! That's a good sign. So I went back over to my chair and finished putting my boots on to get into the water. Frank came back up and had me hand him his core warmer. (That should've been a sign.) I got in and "splashed" down, not before been a wuss and not wanting to, to get "used" to the water.
Frank helped me (TSandM, see? I ask for help.
) put my BP/W on since it was the first time in the water with it. After donning the BP/W, I slowly started moving toward the deep end. I was a little hesitant as it would be my first time under water with it. Of course, I had the wing full of air and with the reg in my mouth, I fell into the deep end. I wasn't to sure what was going to happen but, I figured I'd be alright. There I was, floating there at the surface. I held up my inflator valve and released the air inside. I started on my way down, uh oh, I think it was to fast. So there I am, face to face with the drain. I add a little bit of air then I feel myself slowly starting to rise. Ok, so I think that's not to bad. I only move up a little then I add a little more. Well, that little more was a little to much. (I didn't replace my inflator hose with the smaller one that was provided, so the hose was bent all around.) I then shot up to the surface. Uh oh, that stunk. I finally am able deflate my wing again and I start to descend. I stop about have way, 4 feet or so, and hover there. not to bad. Feels goods. I remember what ClayJar told me. Something like arch your back and bring your legs up. So I try, to do this and I seem to trim out more. Talking about excited! Then, I guess I breath wrong or something and I go down crashing into the bottom of the pool yet again.
While I'm at the bottom of the pool, I lay there on my belly and assume the position. I try to breath in a little and hold my breath for a few seconds to see if I'd float up. No go. So with a shot of air from the inflator, I start heading up. Again, I start gongto fast but, I'm able to stop it and floated in about 4 feet of water. I think I got it! Not, I start rising to the surface again.
About this time I am really starting to get chilly. I think Frank's computer said it was 69/70. I head up to the shallow end and gear down and put my 3mm shortie on. Two for the price of one. I was cold, so getting the 3mm on would do some good, plus I wanted to see what would happen with an exposure suit on.
I gear up and start to make my way to the deep end. I added air to the wing and leisurely laid into the deep end, floating at the top. I felt myself a little "higher" in the water. I was thinking, great, I'll need to add weight but, before I knew it, I deflated the wing and slowly started down toward the bottom. This time I didn't crash into the bottom. The BP/W felt good and I felt like I was getting used to it. About 5 minutes in of trying to trim out, I again felt my left side feeling heavy. I was sorta "leaning" to that left side. Quite strange.
After that, Frank and I played around and swam around and around to try to waste air. Frank was blowing air rings from the bottom and making a bass drum sound. It sounded like someone pulled up with some big bombing speakers. I tried to suck my tank air down to 500psi but, the wife was ready to go and we had a dinner date at 6, it was almost 4.
So Frank and I called the dives (can I add that to my log book?
) and got out.
Over all I'm quite impressed with the BP/W. I know it will fit better and in return will respond better to everything I do. One thing I'd really like to do it see if I'm actually trimmed out. I did feel some what feet heavy. When I stopped fining and moving, my legs seemed to move down. Although, I coudn't really tell if my legs were up toward my butt/tank. I just need to help frank get his camera and housing.
I tried pulling them on and also arching my back. It felt like I could hoover there but, I couldn't really tell if I was trimmed or not.
I hope I didn't bore you all with this. Maybe I shouldn't have went into to much detail, not that it was a lot.
Thanks,
Michael