Use the wings for buoyancy and the suit for warmth.  Most instructors teach
that the drysuit is used for inflation.  The reason they teach this is
because you have to have air/argon in the suit to keep warm.  They also know
that they are teaching to the lowest common denominator strokes that can't
handle two things at once under water like dumping the air from the wings
and drysuit simultaneously. Therefore, in order to solve the warmth problem,
they use a workaround in order to prevent a rapid ascent situation when the
student loses control.  This is how I was taught, but very quickly learned
what a bunch of crap it was and to use the BC for inflation (before I got
smart and got wings).

The other main reason is drag.  By inflating the wings, they rise up and out
of the way and stay in the water slipstream as you swim along, minimizing
drag.  If you use the suit for inflation you lose this advantage and
increase your drag.

Bottom line - you want enough air in the suit to keep you warm and prevent a
drag and then use the wings for your buoyancy control.

Kurt

-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Phelps [mailto:tphelps@ph*.co*]
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 10:05 AM
To: Peter Fjelsten; Jim Cobb
Cc: techdiver@aquanaut.com
Subject: RE: How to shoot a lift bag / trim problem


I'd really appreciate some feedback here, because I get conflicting opinions
both here and amongst the divers with whom I hang out.  Some say to use the
drysuit for buoyancy, leaving the BC deflated, except on the surface, while
others are saying nearly the opposite.  I've done two drysuit dives, having
done all of my other dives in Hawaii.  I'm back home in California, and my
drysuit is on order.  Can anyone give me some guidance?

Ted

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Fjelsten [mailto:fjelsten@ma*.do*.dk*]
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 3:54 AM
To: Jim Cobb
Cc: techdiver@aquanaut.com
Subject: Re: How to shoot a lift bag / trim problem

Den 14-03-00 11:45 -0500 skrev Jim Cobb (At 14-03-00 11:45 -0500 Jim Cobb
wrote)...
>Sounds to me that you have too much air in your drysuit. You need to keep
as
>little air in your DS as possible and use your wings to control your
>buoyancy. Then you are "hanging" from your doubles and and your rig won't
>slip.

I continually read this on TD.

OK you warm water people - when you dive really cold water you wear more
undergarments than in 20 C water. Therefore the suit holds more gas than in
warm water. Also, you want to keep a fair amount of gas in the suit to stay
warm. Therefore "as little as possible" to prevent squeeze definitely is
less
than to keep warm.

Please keep this in mind.

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