No air cell

[crogue]

Hi - Several years ago I got interested in trying to dive without putting any air in my air cell. While diving in Placencia in May my dive buddy and I decided to completely remove our air cells from our Dive Rite BCs. Have been diving without the air cell eversince. Have made about 80 dives in the Carribbean since then. I love it! Has anyone else tried this?

 

[cool_hardware52]

Hi - Several years ago I got interested in trying to dive without putting any air in my air cell. While diving in Placencia in May my dive buddy and I decided to completely remove our air cells from our Dive Rite BCs. Have been diving without the air cell eversince. Have made about 80 dives in the Carribbean since then. I love it! Has anyone else tried this?

In warm water (thin or no exposure suit) with modest sized single tanks it's pretty easy to dive without a BC.

Careful weighting is the key. That's the way I learned in 1970.

When carrying a lot of gas, and or using buoyant exposure suits BC's become increasingly useful.

Tobin

 

[DevonDiver]

When diving in a 3mm suit, I don't really need to put air in my BCD. It makes my depth control through breathing to be very effective. I still keep an air cell on the BP&W though... for emergencies and for the surface.

 

[herman]

Hi - Several years ago I got interested in trying to dive without putting any air in my air cell. While diving in Placencia in May my dive buddy and I decided to completely remove our air cells from our Dive Rite BCs. Have been diving without the air cell eversince. Have made about 80 dives in the Carribbean since then. I love it! Has anyone else tried this?[/QUOTE]



Sorry but I just had to laugh. You have just discovered vintage diving or the way diving was done before all the fancy gadgets were invented. There are a lot of us diving that way whenever we can.

Welcome to the board.

Bonaire June 2010

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Yes, it used to be the norm and there was far greater emphasis on proper weighting and technique in OW classes.

I agree with a t-shirt, dive skin, 3mm shorty oe even a 3mm one piece wet suit, diving sans BC is very easy to do with out sacrificing reasonable buoyancy control as the change from suit compression is miminal to non existent. The major issue is the swing weight of the gas and with an AL 80 or steel 72, you are only realistically looking at having to accommodate a 4 pound swing and that can be done with lung volume.

 

[Garrobo]

For the last year or so I'v been diving with a horsecollar with no air in it instead of a BC where they will let me. When using a BC the only time I put any air in it is to stay off of the bottom and sometimes when entering a wreck so as to be more buoyant around sharp metal.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

When I first started diving, we used the horse collars also and avoided putting air in.

It worked to a degree even with 7mm, but we also tended to scrap the bottom at times. Worse, we ascended faster than we probably should have. Lastly, our wetsuits were a stiffer material that seems to crush less with depth, which gave us a fighting chance.