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Hi Don, I'm not really sure I'm game to CC this to the list... ...what the hell I'd rather be made to look a fool than keep doing the wrong thing. At 07:45 6/01/2002 -0500, you wrote: >As long as I've got you talking about weights on tanks, I have a minor >dilemma. A portion of my diving is not technical by any stretch of the >imagination and involves quite a bit of time bobbing on the surface waiting >for something (another diver, a tool, a camera, whatever). With the wing, >there is a tendency to pitch forward. > >My old jacket BC is much better on the surface, but I'd rather not deal with >it underwater. Besides, it is getting old and I'd rather not replace it >when it dies. Before I bought my Halcyon Pioneer 27 a couple of years ago I experimented a little with surface flotation (using my old Scubapro stab jacket and a home made wing and harness). Not stringent or exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination but I haven't seen any work on this so I thought it was worth playing around a little myself. If there was little air in the tank (aluminium) then the jacket style BC would just as happily float me with my face in the water given half a chance. Despite appearances jacket style BC's are not life jackets and are not, IMHO, designed to keep an unconscious divers face out of the water. Air in a BC can stift to balance various competing forces (it's been a few years since I did my coxswains and had to learn about centre of buoyancy, centre of gravity, etc), life jackets usually have fixed foam flotation cells. FWIW, I feel the wings float you higher in the water even if they don't have that armchair feeling of a stab jacket. I used stab jackets for nearly ten years but wouldn't go back. >I've been thinking of using one of those exercise weights on the tank, but >would rather not introduce another entanglement point. I got the idea for a tank weight from the Halcyon web site (Halcyon make a couple of types of tank keel weight systems). I didn't want to spend a fortune getting a hunk of lead sent out from the US so I used a standard three pound weight threaded through the top tank strap (I found six pounds annoying but may be more effective as a keel weight, the Halcyon weight is six pounds). There is a picture on my web site (under "Putting it all together" "Weighting and thermal protection")... http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/staff/pages/shartley/projects/gear/ As far as being an entanglement risk possibly although it does fit snuggly to the tank and no problems to date. Also increases your vertical profile though (I have the old style wing too which requires a STA, making matters worse). I do feel this promotes a more stable face up position on the surface though. Cheers, Simon Simon L Hartley EnvSM Website Coordinator\First Year Course Coordinator Associate Lecturer School of Environmental 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/schools/esm/staff/pages/shartley/ http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/ -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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