new doubles.

[gcg]

im a dm who's cavern cert. im taking my intro to cave soon so i thought i'd play in the pool with the doubles. attached my transpak and hopped in. learned why not to dive doubles with the transpak. the things just shifted back and forth. and the weight of these things deer lord i was in a two piece 5mm and i still sunk like a bag of lead, and thats with NO backplate. so i've decided tomorow im buying an aluminum backplate. some of my cave diving buddies say that'll take care of the shifting and help distribute some of the weight a little more. also i have a question when i attempted to make myself verticle in water the setup wanted to quickly shift so that i was oriented on my back? on a side note im not a large person, 5'8" 145lbs does this have anything to do with it? on a side not im excited about one third of these things beeing 1hr of bottom time at 75 feet.
thanks for your input/advice.

 

[Mark Vlahos]

im a dm who's cavern cert. im taking my intro to cave soon so i thought i'd play in the pool with the doubles. attached my transpak and hopped in. learned why not to dive doubles with the transpak. the things just shifted back and forth. and the weight of these things deer lord i was in a two piece 5mm and i still sunk like a bag of lead, and thats with NO backplate. so i've decided tomorow im buying an aluminum backplate. some of my cave diving buddies say that'll take care of the shifting and help distribute some of the weight a little more. also i have a question when i attempted to make myself verticle in water the setup wanted to quickly shift so that i was oriented on my back? on a side note im not a large person, 5'8" 145lbs does this have anything to do with it? on a side not im excited about one third of these things beeing 1hr of bottom time at 75 feet.
thanks for your input/advice.

In fresh water you will find that you will probably be happier with an aluminum or other neutral back plate. You will also probably find the one piece "Hogarthian" harness to be optimal once you transition to Apprentice and Full Cave. The plate does go a long way to making doubles more stable.

As far as when you wanted to go vertical and ending up on your back, that is called turning turtle, and doubles will do that to you if you are not careful. Putting on a back plate and snug harness will keep the tanks on you better and you will be better able to predict the tipping point of the tanks, when they are loose the tanks can start to dive you, instead of the other way around.

I have double 130's and some friends of mine tried them on out of the water last weekend, they were both surprised at how stable they were. True they are really quite heavy but one of my friends even stepped up onto a planter and back down.

Good luck,

Mark Vlahos

 

[gcg]

got my backplate and webbing now im setting it up cant decide how high up to place the d rings.. im super stoked to try these out again with the plate.

 

[tedwhiteva]

got my backplate and webbing now im setting it up cant decide how high up to place the d rings.. im super stoked to try these out again with the plate.

Try here
http://www.diveriteexpress.com/library/harnesswebbing.shtml

 

[Under Michael]

got my backplate and webbing now im setting it up cant decide how high up to place the d rings.. im super stoked to try these out again with the plate.

This provides a bit more detailed instructions. http://www.5thd-x.com/xducation/backplate.html

Also suggest reading Dan Mackay's book, Dress for Success available at http://www.northerntechdiver.com/ or https://secure.gue.com/catalog/order/books.shtml

You'll appreciate your gear much more if it's setup properly. Good luck and safe dives,
Michael

 

[Quarrior]

Glad you got a regular plate, just curious though, you didn't mention what you are using for a wing? Hope you're using a doubles wing.

I had trouble with my doubles shifting around too when I first started. Thing I finally learned was that I needed to have the wing properly inflated, which in-turn stabelized the situation.

Good luck.

 

[gcg]

im using two safety sausages hooked together with some pvc pipe i got from lowes....j/k i sat down and figured the lift i would need and then added dome more incase i find myself one day stage diving. i ended up purchasing a rec wing. has the lift i need now plus room to grow. actually alot of room to grow with 51lbs of lift.

 

[Peter McGuinness]

im using two safety sausages hooked together with some pvc pipe i got from lowes....

Interesting, that sounds like it would work well for the linked doubles I am planning - can you post a pic?

Peter

 

[paulithepin]

You won't regret getting a backplate, best setup, fully adjustable, and very stable.
PC

 

[gcg]

ok so when diving a single tank i felt like the setup wa constantly trying to ride up and the crotch strap kinda sucks guys. at least in climbing we split the difrence. are no one elses jewels getting slightly discomforted?