Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
Hi all, This is an interesting thread for me at the moment as I'm in the process of setting up a DIR rig. In an earlier post I mentioned I had put together a home made wings/harness to see how everything fitted together before spending the big bucks ordering things in from overseas, etc (about all I've done by way of introducing myself I know but a number of regular posters know me from other lists). I'm not a techie, I dive wet with a single tank (either aluminum or steel). I've always liked a simple uncluttered setup without a lot of crap hanging all over the place. The desire to reduce drag and simplify my setup further (and elements of the system I had employed earlier) got me interested in DIR. At 07:21 28/04/1999 -0400, Art Greenberg <artg@ec*.ne*> wrote: >The idea is that you must be able to swim your rig up if you have a BC >failure. With a single you'll probably still need some weight to get >neutral near the surface with an empty cylinder. Make this ditchable >weight, like on a weight belt, and you're set. If the amount of ditchable >weight ends up being less than 5-6 pounds, you could gain another 6 or so >pounds of ditchable weight by switching to an aluminum backplate. I had mistakenly got the impression (probably because most things I've read about DIR are orientated toward drysuit and cave diving) that using a harness and wings you ditched the weight belt completely in favour of concentrating the weight in the backplate (and perhaps tank). This had concerned me because of the lack of ditchable weight (unless you added some sort of fancy weight integration system to your harness, which seemed to me to make the whole setup more convoluted). Wearing 6 pounds on a weight belt seems a better option. However how does this work with the harness and crotch strap. Presumably gearing up in the water (as I usually do) you'd need to add the weight belt last (bit of a hastle if your in a hurry and need to get it passed down from a boat (I'm a DM and have to often gear up quick)). Ditching and donning the harness and wings underwater could also be a bit trickier (rethreading the crotch strap under the weight belt). How about the issue of which way the buckles release (typically right hand release for a weight belt, left for BC). If the buckles release the same way (right hand release also for the DIR harness) then there is the posibility of confusion (even though the buckles should be in different places). I realise this may have been covered before on the list or elsewhere (and that I can try some of this out myself, thought there are always things that don't occur to you until someone mentions them and it clicks), any resources I could look up? Does anyone have opinions (what am I saying this is the techdiver list) about the benefit of retaining weight in the tank for establishing a stable face up position on the surface (for an unconcious diver)? Something which seems to be stressed on the Halcyon web site. I reasoned that a small steel single (leaving 6 pounds on the belt) would be less complicated than a weight added to the back of an aluminium tank. Cheers, Simon Simon L Hartley RSM Unit Web Administrator\First Year Course Coordinator Associate Lecturer School of Resource Science and Management Southern Cross University P.O. Box 157 Lismore NSW, Australia 2480 Ph: (02) 66203251 or (61 66) 203 251 Fax:(02) 66212669 E-mail: shartley@sc*.ed*.au* http://www.scu.edu.au/staff_pages/shartley/index.html -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe 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]