Salt water warm water wing lift?

[Charred]

There are some great older threads in the BCD forums about wing size by Tobin formally of DSS.

Surface issues aside, the wing is there to compensate for things that change in buoyancy (I hope you see what I did there...) during a dive. Thus your wing has to deal with wetsuit compression and the change in tank buoyancy. You ultimately need very little when wearing 3mm suits and AL80 tanks will go positive as they empty. Hence many people use 17-18 lbs wings. I think these threads make great reading (and some are very entertaining...).

If you ever dive with no wetsuit the above becomes crystal clear because you will need a small puff of air at the beginning of the dive to compensate for the 6 lbs of air in the tank.

I personally dive an 18 on a steel backplate with AL80s and a 3 mm (which half the time I don't wear). My wife has a 23 since she is often in a 5 mm.

 

[lexvil]

I like to travel as light as possible, I have dedicated cold as well as warm water gear, once diving with the 18 it is all I would consider for the warm gear.

 

[GF99/99]

I dont post on here to often but figured I would on this one as massive over sized wings is one of my pet peeves and I just cant understand why in the recreational diving world (Tech diving is completely different and that is a separate topic) everyone feels they need so much lift. I often notice this among new divers that get poor instruction and they just tend to load them selves up with weight so they sink like a rock and to compensate they dive around with a massive balloon on there back.

Like others have said 18# is MORE than plenty.

Think about it with a single alli tank and wetsuit chances are you need to add weight to sink so why would you ever need more buoyancy when you are already struggling to sink, if you need something bigger than an 18# wing its a really good indicator you are way over weighted and you need to drop alot of lead off the weight belt.

Just to give you some reference when I dive doubles I only use a 45# wing and have more than enough lift even with 3-4 AL80's stages (thats 5-6 tanks total) so a 30# wing for single tank is way over kill. Also for another comparison my JJ only has a 50# wing; the unit plus 3L tanks and full scrubber come in around 75lbs plus add 3-4 AL80 bail out's, thats a lot of negative buoyancy and a 50# wing is plenty. Goes to show you that really an 18# wing might even be over kill for saltwater single tank diving if your weighted correctly.

 

[James79]

Agree with @Fastmarc , Optimal Buoyancy Computer
Is the way to go if you have a little time to play with it. There is a ridiculous amount of good information produced by that spreadsheet. Including lift requirements based on planned conditions and ways to check how that changes if you shif weight from the rig to a separate weight belt.
Respectfully
James

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

Yep. When I went tech I grabbed a #45 for doubles and an #18 with STA for warm saltwater. Stainless steel backplate.

Works like a dream with an AL80, gets a little too negative for my tastes with a steel tank and no neoprene. Came to conclusion that if i'm diving with steel in saltwater, I need to either be in my 5mil or be diving dry. For 85 degree water tshirt/trunk diving.... stick with the AL80.

 

[lostsheep]

I'd like to put my $.02 in here.

I'm all about as little of everything as possible, wing, weight, etc.

That being said, I recently got a strong current and swell beat down while diving my 18lb wing in warm water.

I'm accustomed to cold water and I dive a long hose sans snorkel when on SCUBA. I've been freediving for years and can deal with some pretty rough conditions. My 18# wing sans snorkel really caught me off guard. It wasn't an emergency, but I wasn't happy. I was really wishing for more lift or my snorkel during said beat down.

I am now going to err on the side of extra lift.

YMMV.