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> As far as cave-diving kit goes... NOTE: I AM NOT A CAVER, AND I >KNOW NOTHING ABOUT CAVING,... but today, I saw something interesting: >It is a small, back-mounted BC, maybe 6 to 10 litres (say max 20lbs) >lift. When I asked the guy in the shop he said it was intended for cave >diving, with side-mounted tanks...(keep your flames doused, please). > I've been thinking more and more about doing a caving course, >even if only for the skills involved, so I just wondered how a BC like >this strikes people with caving experience. 20 lbs is not enough buoyancy for anything but single-tank recreational diving in warm shallow water. In my personal opinion, it is marginal for that. Looking at a recent OMS flyer, their 125 cu.ft. tank, when full, is 9.5 lbs negative. Two of them, with manifold, are going to be easily over 20 lbs negative. Even dual Al 80s, full, with manifold, are going to be most of that 20 lbs negative. At depth, with the wetsuit compressed, you are going to be in a world of hurt with only 20 lbs of buoyancy. When I first did my Basic course, our instructor insisted we use BCs with a minimum of 55 lbs lift. Part of the rationale was that we were all diving doubles, to allow us lots of bottom time (he believed that bottom time was good for students, and more was better); part of it was that he trained us to inflate the BC FULL at the surface, and didn't want us having ANY tendency to sink by surprise. Descent was supposed to be something carefully decided.
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