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> Ok Rich. Let's here how you balance a diving system that utilizes a drysuit.
I've never worn a drysuit, but if I did, I would probably find a way to
add the lead to my body. I would not put all of it on the weight belt,
becasue that messes up the balance, and in the event the weight belt needs
to be dumped (or is accidentally lost), the diver has a very serious
problem. I would probably get pockets installed in appropriate places
(too keep the center of buoyancy close to the center of my body) and stuff
soft weights in them.
How much weight do you need to offset a drysuit? Geroge says his rig is
about 20 lbs negative, which he says is just about right - in which case
I would probably put about 8-10 lbs on the waist belt, and stick 3 or 4
3-lb soft weights in pockets somewhere on my chest and thighs. Of course,
you also have the argon bottle to work with - don't some drysuit guys put
those in a pocket on the thigh?
Maybe other drysuits require something like 40 lbs of lead to make the
diver neutral - like for cold water diving. I can see where this might
present a more serious problem. That might require a more clever
solution, like sewn-in sheet lead or something.
Actually, it seems to me that making the diver neutral is the easy part.
The tricky part is making the rig statically neutral.
Most steel tanks are neutral or negative underwater, which means the
whole rig (with backplate, manifolds, regulators, etc.) is pretty
negative. You could play with PVC pipes, but I would prefer something
like syntactic foam. People are talking about putting wedge weights
between the cylinders, and noby is calling that convoluted. Why not make
syntactic foam wedges instead?
When I used to do OC trimix dives, my solution was to use aluminum 100cf
primary cylinders. My whole rig (with aluminum ponies and all regulators)
was about 2 lbs negative at the end of the dive, with BC deflated. It
was almost perfectly neutral with all cylinders empty.
Unfortunately, most people don't like to use aluminum primaries, because
the don't feel as comfortable about over-filling them as the do with
over-filling 104's.
Does this help answer your question?
Aloha,
Rich
Richard Pyle
Ichthyology, Bishop Museum deepreef@bi*.bi*.ha*.or*
1525 Bernice St. PH: (808) 848-4115
Honolulu, HI 96817-0916 FAX: (808) 841-8968
"The views are those of the sender and not of Bishop Museum"
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