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Re: When wreck diving, is a single bladder BC sufficient
The answer is, it depends...
If everything goes right, then of course it's sufficient.
If everything goes wrong, then even dual bladders with a dry suit may not
be sufficient.
The question really comes down to, "what is an acceptable level of risk".
Assessing that risk is a fairly involved, and personal, process.
Obviously, with two bladders and a dry suit, you can lose 2 buoyancy
systems and still have control over your buoyancy. Countering that is
that the more pieces of equipment you have, the more chance that
something WILL go wrong. The more controls you have to manipulate, the
more chance that you will manipulate the wrong control.
I have done a lot of east-coast wreck diving using a wet suit and a
single bladder Zeagle BC. I suppose, since I always had my upline reel
with a 100# lift bag stowd in my rig, that you could say I had another
buoyancy source, but I never really thought of it that way.
Multiple bladders have another disadvantage in that they have FAR more
drag than single bladders (I have both my single bladder Zeagle and a
dual-bladder TransPac (Superwings)). I glide and swim FAR better on my
single bladder Zeagle. Unfortunately, for some training I wish to get,
the instructor does not consider the single baldder an acceptable level
of risk, so I had to get a dual bladder BC (or stack another bladder on
my Zeagle - which is getting old).
There are times that too many options, under an impaired mental capacity,
can cause you to have to think too long to choose between your options.
A simple set of options that cover the majority of possibilies AND that
you can execute flawlessly and without thinking is better than a wide
range of alternative solutions that you have to think about and that you
can execute "OK".
Essentially, consider the entire system - of which you are part of the
system. Take into account not just the equipment but also what YOU are
capable of.
-- Kevin --
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