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Kevin,
In a message dated 98-03-20 13:39:00 EST, you write:
>>
Chuck,
The one thing I would think about in the Dual Bladder vs. Dry Suit debate
is the following:
Do you, as a matter of habit, check the integrity of your backup bladder
(By the way, I use a TransPac with SuperWings, so I'm not an anti-dual
bladder person). With a dry suit, you KNOW that the air bladder's
integrity is still secure in the event of a problem. Should it not be
secure, that feeling of dampness would signal you to end the dive. Now
consider that the backup bladder is breached. When do you find out? When
you need it because your main bladder is breached?
Obviously, the way to avoid this problem is to check the secondary bladder
on a regular basis during the dive. However, this does add additional
tasks to the dive...
Just something to think about.
-- Kevin, proud owner of a dry suit AND SuperWings... sort of
suspenders and belt... ::grin:: --
>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin,
A good point! I am a stickler for keeping close track of your status
also, but, like everything else, it can be carried to the point of
debilitating paranoia and diminishing returns.
Since you can feel a dry suit leak and you can detect a wings failure, if
you are using the wings as primary buoyancy control you will stay in touch
with the status of both primary and back up without having to stop and check
anything.
Any time you use a wing bladder for backup (dual or single) you can not
know it's going to work for sure when you need it even if you check it
periodically. But we are in the same situation with lights, regulators . . .
.. so we invest time and energy on the surface, when we can afford it, in
insuring that it is safe "not to check" these things. If you are so unsure
of them that you feel the need to check them periodically then the problem
probably rests in the preparation phases or equipment selection/confidence.
Now, if you are using a DS for primary buoyancy control AND warmth and
there is a failure bad enough to effect it's ability to provide buoyancy then
you are faced with at least two problems at once for a single failure - cold &
loss of buoyancy control. How big a deal this is and how probable it is
depends on a number of factors, of course, but this is the kind of thing you
usually want to avoid in configuring your rig.
My feeling is that a wing bladder is at least as reliable as a dry suit
and that confidence should not be a problem given good knowledgeable
maintenance. A dry suit is just another bladder with at least 5 holes in it
that you are plugging with body parts and a wing bladder is just a dry suit
with nobody in it and no holes.
The problem with dual bladders arises from the clutter that the second hose
presents, additional failure points in your gas supply if you use an LP hose
on the backup (which you should not), and the fact that "IF" you are
proficient at using the DS for buoyancy in emergency situations then you don't
need the second bladder. If you are not yet this proficient then you may
want to use a backup bladder (dual wings) till you are and stay within
whatever limitations this configuration imposes while you practice with DS
control.
Note that I am not addressing OMS wings specifically here. They present a
couple of extra problems of their own that I just don't have the time and
energy to debate right now.
Chuck Boone
--
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