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From: <kirvine@sa*.ne*>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 17:34:23 -0400
To: Randylabel@ao*.co*
CC: KevinWheeler@mi*.co*, cavers@ca*.co*, techdiver@aquanaut.com
Subject: Re: Diving Wet with Steel100's: A good idea?
Randy, again, adding v weights to aluminum tanks with a wetsuit is just
as dangerous as using steels to start with - you can't get rid of the
weight. The wetsuit compresses as you go down, and the bouyancy changes.
The idea is to use the belt ot offset the buoyancy swing of the tanks ,
maintaining a balanced rig within that swimg range for which no
convoluted solutions are then necessary. I realize this breaks the
hearts of the bondage crowd, but when you see somebody wearing bondage
wings or double wings, they either got screwed by some dive shop savant,
got hoodwinked by some half wit "instructor" or they themsleves are
mongoloid stupid.

Aluminum 80's are CONSIDERABLY lighter than 104's. Adding weight to
aluminum 80's for dryusuit diving DOES NOT make them as heavy as 104's.
The buoyancy EQUAVALENT	 is achieved by virtue of the fact that the
freaking tanks are much smaller. The idea of using them in that fashion
would be to have a lighter rig walking around on a boat - much safer,
much more practical. Big tanks imply bail out gas for traveling, as in a
cave.

I hate responding to aguments like this where the basics are so poorly
understood, but you claimed you got this slop off of the WKPP web site,
which is not true, and the fact is that the dangerous nonsense being
recommended sounds like IANTD 101. You are not picking up the logic of
what I am saying ,and that is extremely frustrating. The explanation for
that lies in the fact that what is beeing taught out there is so
extremely piss poor and is done my such retrograde morons that there is
little wonder that nobody has a freaking clue.

The only good benefit of that is the fact that we have nothing but wide
open cave to explore no matter where we go, thanks to the widespread
practice of clueless oblivion that prevails in diving.



Randylabel@ao*.co* wrote:
> 
> <<We ( WKPP) do NOT use integrated weight nor do we use steel backplates
> with almuminum when diving wet in the ocean. >>
> George,
>    Shur right about one thing,  Don't use steel tanks with a wet suit, I
> tried it and I'm way to heavy; the BC needed to be keeped full for good
> bouyancy.  I reread my post and it certainly didn't clearify what I meant.
> If it's warm enough, I go with a minimum amount of insulation: just a cheater
> vest and shorts, steel bakeplate and no weight belt (this might change to an
> aluminum backeplate and 4 lb a weight belt, I'll try it).  Hell, if it's
> colder than 70 degrees, I almost allways use a drysuit.
> 
>  <<If we are using a drysuit and aluminum, then the integrated v weight
and
> the steel plate can ofset the suit, but then the problem is that if you take
> the tanks off in the water to clip off to a tag line in rough weather, they
> are at risk of being lost. I would rather lose a weightbelt.>>
>    A set of aluminum tanks with a v-weight  and a steel backplate, will weigh
> almost as much as a set of steel 104's.  A boat that is rocking isn't easy to
> walk on without gear on.  I'm not shur there will be much of a difference
> between steel or aluminum tanks because you still need the weight to keep you
> down, and so you'll be carryng that weight.  Moving the weight from the back
> to the waist may help some.  Perhaps my solution ( for cold water and thick
> insulation ) is to use an aluminum backplate with a 6 lb belt, thus, the
> ditchable weight-belt.         see below
> 
> point in fact-
>    Yesterday, Sunday we dove the Mexecana.  Allmost 140 feet to the sand (
> no, I didn't touch the sand), 51 degree water.  I wore Polar Bear underwear,
> drysuit, steel 104's, steel 20 cf 100%, and a steel backplate.
>    At the end of the dive, I clip off the steel 20 cf 100 % bottle to a gear
> line @ 10 feet, and then,  I'm neutral with less than 1000 psi left and no
> air in the BC.
>    I could not have gotten much more air out of my drysuit.  Aluminum tanks
> just wouldn't weigh enough; Unless!  I added enough v-weigh to make them
> weigh as much as a set of steel 104's.
> 
> BTW  That Polar Bear Underwear is thick thinsulate, Real thick, and wwwaarrmm
> 
> 
>               sincerely,
>               Randy


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