Shallow diving without a BCD?

[northcave]

I have been diving for some time and hold my Padi Rescue Diver qualification. I scrub the hull of my boat with with full diving gear normally but its a faff as I get my BCD wet with salt water and I then have to do a full rinse job afterwards.

I recently bought a tank harness / frame with shoulder straps. Never used one. I assume that you rig it as normal and use just enough weight to be neutrally buoyant on the surface?

Does anyone have any advice for using it this situation to scrub my boat bottom? Max depth would be 2m. Reason for doing this is to simply have to rinse my bottle and regs afterwards and make the job much more simple.

 

[NorCalDM]

Weighting is the key if you get that right you don’t “need” the BC. Practice some place shallow with a hard bottom until you get it dialed in and take a buddy just in case he needs to pry you off the bottom. I would start light and add until you are neutral.

 

[kablooey]

Diving at such a shallow depth and maintaining bouncy control is going to be a challenge with a backpack.

I've made over a hundred dives with a backpack, but most have been at the 20 to 60 foot depth.
I have my weighting dialed in so I'm slightly positive at the surface, but then I become slightly negatively buoyant on the decent because the pressure squeezes my wetsuit. As the dive progresses my cylinder becomes more buoyant as the gas is depleted, and I pass through states of neutral buoyancy and slightly positively buoyant at the end of the dive. All states in controllable range through breath control.

That's probably not going to work well for you because your shallow target depth is so close to the surface.
The margin between positive and negative is probably going to be greater than the range of your desired working depth as you move from the waterline to the keel.

I assume that with the BCD you enter with slightly negative weighting, then inject or release small amounts of air to maintain your various working depths.
You just can't do that with a backpack, but you can with your breathing.
I'm just not sure it's going to be effective, or safe.

I think you should still give it a try.

K

 

[DanSinks]

You might want to try scrubbing the boat bottom with no weight, if you are have a plus buoyancy it will help you press up against the bottom and scrub.

 

[DanSinks]

I have cleaned barnacles off the bottom of my boat a couple times, but I just snorkeled(fins, mask, snorkel, snow scraper from my car) which meant that I was constantly coming up for air. But the time you loose coming up for air is offset by the time you don't need for dealing with scuba gear.

was under the boat anchored in a protected sandy beach/bay area with 2 or 3' of water under the boat(my wife likes to step off/on the boat in shallow water), sometimes the boat would drift into shallower water and when another boat went by there were times I needed to be aware of a hazard, it couldv'e been I was almost close to getting crushed as the waves caused my boat to bob up and down, but you are planning to be a little deeper which is a good idea. (The boat was moved a little deeper after the hazard was apparent.)

 

[boat sju]

I dive shallow in lakes here without a bc and just my 30 cft pony on a plastic backpack. Anyway, I found that I like having a snorkel because I may be a pound or two heavy for comfort on the surface. Also, we have to have a dive flag with us in Michigan lakes. I use an innertube for the flag. It's a nice buoyancy backup if you have issues. You may not need either one since you're next to your boat - but I suggest having something you can grab onto until you get everything dialed in.

 

[gypsyjim]

It is certainly possible to dive without a bcd. Period.
That is what diving was once like, before bubble bladders came along.
I know fellows into Vintage gear diving who still enjoy being able to dive without a bladder.
Balancing Thermal protection, if required, and weight, also if any required, is the key.

 

[NAM001]

no wet suit no need for a bcd in this example.

 

[happy-diver]

 

[CT-Rich]

I have not scrubbed a Hull in quite a few years. Everything you knock off the hull will immediately swim over and get in your hair/beard. Nothing like getting out of the water and feeling your beard writhing.

But, I digress. Unless it was a pretty big boat, you can probably use a snorkel. A pony and harness would also work. I used to wear a glove to grip the keel while I worked, the industrial suction cup would serve the same purpose. If you decide to use weights, make them ditchable and you won’t need the BCD.

When I would scrub my dads boat, I did it just with a mask and snorkel and fins. It was a 28’ sloop with a 4’ draft. I would use a tank occasionally, but it was seldom worth the trouble.