Thoughts on Standing and Climbing up with heavy steel doubles for small, old, weak divers only

[Gareth J]

232s?

It's funny. IME, twin 10s are about as common as hens' teeth around here. It's either small, cute twinsets like D6, D7 or D8.5, or it's "tech" twinsets, typically D12s. Or larger.

10's are really common in the UK.
The choice is twin 7's (not that common), twin 10's, very common, and twin 12's.
We do get them both as 232 bar and 300 bar.

I don't really like 300 bar cylinders, they seldom get filled to 300 bar, and you have that extra weight to carry, even if they are only full to 232 bar.

7's are nice. Especially for 'shallower diving' but you still get your redundancy. Better than a 12 and pony, not much in it by way of weight, but better balanced.

 

[Storker]

Around here, almost all twinsets are D7x300, D8.5x232 or D12x232. With an occasional D6x300 thrown in, and then a few other types. The former two are basically used as a huge single, many of them not even with an isolation manifold.

 

[_Ralph]

I do similar when on low benches and heavy 130’s...

I put a foot under the bench (if possible), lean forward and push off with my hands.

Helps keep the balance as the weight shifts forward.

Stages, I’ll have them on a leash off the hip as I get to the swim grid and hop in. Move bottles around just before we head to depth after bubble checks.

_R

I am sure this will not apply to everyone. If you are big, strong, or young enough not to have this problem, good for you. Just remember, you may not always be or you my want to dive with larger, heavier tanks.

There was in fact, a lengthy thread about people not being able to handle their doubles. You know what I am talking about. This is a skills solution to a gear problem.

In summary, If you are a smaller or older person or both like me, you may have experienced some difficulty standing up from a seated position particularly from a low bench seat. However, I have also seen this issue with young strong divers with a single tank. For me, this is something that is always in the back of my mind when I dive doubles.

Previously, I would flex my legs and lean forward. This can be somewhat difficult for me particularly, if the bench is average or below average height.

I accidentally came across a technique, which some may already be practicing. But, since I had not heard of it before, I thought I would pass it on. I think most people would not want to admit that this is an issue.

What I found out Is that I could make to transition to a stronger leg lift position, by pressing down on the bench with both palms just before standing. This in essence temporarily distributes the weight of the doubles between your arms and your legs until, your legs can completely take over. This make it much easier as a 100 pound + set of doubles may now seem only require your legs to initially lift half of that. A 100 pounds + is still a 100 pounds +, but it is how you lift it. Of course, if you have super spindly arms, and cannot support as much weight, this may not be as effective for you. This is not quite the same as a kinetic lift, which many should be familiar with, because you are not already in motion.

I also tried getting out of the water in a similar fashion. In this case, you generate downward pressure with both arms instead of just using your arms for balancing just before you step up to the next rung. It doesn’t work quite as well because the ladder railing is usually vertical and you can’t get as much leverage.

This has now made standing and climbing up easy for me, where as before it was a bit concerning.