Quote:
| Originally Posted by Violent Ken Is it regarded as bad diving practice to use your BC/Wing to control buoyancy when diving with a drysuit, rather than the drysuit itself? |
In some circles yes, however I paid good money for a Buoyancy Control Device and I'm getting my money's worth out of it.
I set the auto dump to wide open, add gas to the suit when I feel it close up a bit and dive the wing. Once I hit the surface aprés dive I close the dump right up and put gas in the suit to make it comfortable or the waves massage the gas out again waiting for my turn for a pickup. It is argued that you only use three kilogrammes of gas on a dive with a 12/232 and you can manage that on the suit but why bother? The BCD will dump much faster if you want a sudden *down a bit* adjustment. Also don't be tempted to close the dump valve up a bit and ascend. You have just converted the system to run at a constant over-pressure and it will fight you all the way. Wide open and use the BCD and you discover why we call them auto-dumps. It just works.
If you ever have to CBL somebody the first thing to do is screw their valve wide open or you are on a hiding to nothing.