Mailing List Archive

Mailing List: techdiver

Message Display

  I have just dived with an old-type rebreather. Handily, it is a sort that I
can wear together with a diver's lifejacket. Else, what happens when a diver
with an old-type rebreather runs out of oxygen, and his set (e.g. UBA, Mark IV
Amphibian, SCBA, CDBA) covers all his chest so he can't wear a lifejacket with
it? Even with the bag full, he is only neutrally buoyant. With the bag empty,
he sinks like a stone and must drop his expensive weights. If he is a naval
diver, OK, everybody's taxes go up a bit to pay for all these lost diver's
weights. But a civilian diver may be reluctant to write off all that expensive
lead. Please please PLEASE where can I get a diver's <BALLAST BAG> that I can
wear instead of a weight belt, and on site fill it for free with sand or
stones that I can jettison without finance-induced reluctance?!? This would
also benefit countless ordinary air scuba divers that get fed up of carting
hundredweights of lead across country, and back up steep slopes from the water
when tired from diving, and the lead is another valuable possession to attract
thieves. If I had a dollar for every ballast stone that has been taken back
home in divers' stab-pockets after diving ...
  Another aside re rebreather diving: that rebreather has a fullface mask, and
that lifejacket has a big pocket that handily takes an ordinary mask and
snorkel for coming back to shore on after the dive!
  To avoid stern-heaviess caused by the bouyant bag at the front. I wore 23lb
lead on a belt, and 6lb (a pair of lead-shot anklets) inside my wetsuit chest.
  That dive was in an old sand-pit, and although in northern England, the
water was 24degC at the surface from sun, like the Red Sea, and I could have
dived suitless!! But it was down to 11degC below. Near the surface I had to
push my hood back off my head to cool down! The weather is like a steam-oven.
--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]