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>Dave - > >What do you use for buoyancy control when your drysuit springs a >significant leak? First, the only failure of a drysuit that will cause an immediate and catastrophic loss of all ability to hold air is a zipper failure. In 25+ years of using drysuits I've not seen a total zipper separation so I'm not convinced that it's a failure mode that I am worried about. After all, the zippers are the -same- ones that are used by NASA in space suits, so they work! I guess the question should be put to NASA: What do -they- plan on doing with a zipper failure in sace? ;-) I've never seen a drysuit flood to the point where it cannot be used for some bouyancy control. And, please remember, I use a Viking suit for the exact reason that it -does not- change bouyancy with depth, thus I can weight myself essentially neutral on the surface and any added air is merely for warmth. I make up this air in the usual way by inflation, but I'm not overweighted, and in fact can swim to the surface with a completely flooded suit in all of my gear (and have gone to the quarry and proven it by having a buddy unzip my suit for trials). Remember that a flooded drysuit has additional -mass- but that water in water is by definition weightless and as long as you can move the mass of water you can swim (but climbing the ladder is a different story). But this is -worse case-stuff, merely for interest. A torn wrist seal or ripped leg or arm will not affect the ability to use the suit for bouyancy. I am running maybe 2-3 liters of freerunning air in the suit and even if I cut it off at the knees, I'd be able to capure a bubble of air in the shoulders adequate to maintain neutral bouyancy. Thus I am not worried about it. Now, for -last-ditch- stuff. You can always drop weight. For me that means ditching my hammer and crowbar first and then maybe lead in a dire emergency. Lastly, there is always that handy 50 pound liftbag attached to my reel for setting up off-anchor deco. Either grip it and go (not best) or simply set up an upline on the bag and climb the line. Since we are talking -maybe- 6-8 (so maybe 10-15) pounds negative even under a zipper failure state, this is easy. Post deco cut the bag free, drop weights and swim the bat to the boat. Remember, in many thousands of witnessed drysuit dives I have never seen anything this catastrophic occur. But I have given it enough thought that I'm not going to be coming up with a plan on the spot if needed. I've practiced the emergency techniques in protected water and am comfortable with them. Bottom line, I personally do not use a BC at all, unless diving -very- heavy bottle rigs in which case I use a Dive Right wing on my backplate to carry the bottles to neutral. In this case, of course, there is a BC too. Best, Dave Sutton -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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