how to buy diving kit (not)

[MATTBIN]

A long story but if you're bored you can read it.
Well its like this
I took my boy to the Archery store in Aston Clinton and they had sale, so I managed to get him a new bow as he's outgrown the other one for £200 which was an absolute bargain, knocked down from £450. No really it was.

So flushed with success I then went to 'look' at a dry-suit, the shop in London Colney (Mike's) said they had one which might fit him. He is 6'-0'' and has size 11 feet, so i thought no chance. Anyway as 'luck' would have it the boots were perfect, the suit has new seals and been leak tested. Perfect at only £185. Next up, the old boy (thats me) has to have a dry suit as well, so I can understand if he has any problems what to do (obviously). So having been told they have some membranes for £300 I'm up for it, next thing I know is I'm bagging up a £450 Oceanic suit and 2 weezles,a snip at £125 each. Total bill £950 thanks to having my plastic I couldnt resist a bargain. OK maybe I could have done a lot of research etc, but #### I'm freelance so I cant travel all over England during the week for a 'bargain' and I like the guys at Mikes as well. Anyway thats his and my Christmas presents sorted (probably birthday and anniversay as well, I do hope 25 yrs is membrane). We thought we might go to Lanzarote for Xmas or buy new suits, so thats that sorted, no air traffic control problems for me this year, or lost baggage. All in all I think it was a good day out.

Thats the easy bit, now I need to learn how to use the #### things. Fortunately I blagged a session in the pool as part of the deal for both of us. I'm also hoping to go up to Stoney in a couple of weeks time with DiveFun and convince them of our need for some informal training. They are a good bunch so I dont think that will be too hard to negotiate, do I hear a couple of pints anyone. Well I will when the regs/bcd come back from their servicing, oh more money, I sense a pattern here.

Matt

[Dr Stevil]

Hope you're not going to combine scuba with archery! :arrow: did you see that story in the paper today about the koi carp in New Zealand? :bubble_fish:

Re the suits, well if I was nearby I'd offer to take you out to do some drysuit familiarisation. But in lieu of that, a couple of pointers (all IMOVHO): use the suit for buoyancy, not the stab; with the membrane you might want to use ankle weights in the beginning to avoid 'floaty feet' but with an eye to losing them later on in diving; make sure your undersuit doesn't block your dump valve (cuff or chest dump?); remember that in the short term the membrane is trickier  to get to grips with, but more comfortable in the long run and that it fills and dumps more slowly than a neoprene. Think that's about it for now, but if there's any tips hints etc just let me know
Cheers
Steve

PS all hail to "Flexor" the God of plastic: Diverswarehouse is visiting my old club this week and I'm going along CC in hand!! Gah! who wants to be "in the black" anyway, live now - pay later (if there is one!)




(Edited by Steve W at 2:06 pm on Nov. 5, 2002)

[MATTBIN]

Steve
thanks for the offer of training. I'm surprised you say use the suit for buoyancy control as I have read that the BCD should be used. The reasoning was that the suit should beinflated to stop any crush/squeeze and the jacket for normal control. Any excess would be dumped on ascent from the suit. Ankle weights, not sure I think my Avantis and my boys planks will prevent any floaty ness, although I could be wrong, it happens sometimes. See the link below, I would appreciate your comments, I assume you also posted something similar on the Bsac forum recently? Credit Card at a club meet - sounds too dangerous to me.

http://www.ukrecscuba.org.uk/ukdiver/buoyancy.html
Matt

(Edited by MATTBIN at 2:11 pm on Nov. 5, 2002)

[Dr Stevil]

Re Suit v BCD for buoyancy, yes, both schools of thought have their pros and cons, and the link shows some interesting factors,  its just that my personal experience has shown that folk who use both can suffer poorer buoyancy control, presumably because of task loading.

Also, air in the suit does three things: provides thermal protection, prevents squeeze and gives buoyancy, air in the stab/BCD only does the latter. Guess the best thing is to try both methods over a period of time and see what is best for you.

Re the leg irons, if you can manage with out them at the beginning of the learning curve, that would be ideal, but don't be ashamed to give them a shot if it becomes necessary.

These days I approach buoyancy more as an art form than a science, that is, I look at it as something that you can't practice enough, especially when you're not diving every weekend (my current situation).

For instance, earlier this year I was diving a lot more than present circumstances allow, and I could deploy a dSMB in midwater without losing/gaining more than 0.3 metres of depth, I think I'd be a bit rusty on that now. Then there's mask clearing on the move whilst maintaining your depth, or anything else to develop your abilities.  Anyway, as its now the "off-season" (ie training season) all these things are good practice for dives in quarries and muddy holes, 'cos there ain't gonna be owt to see! ;)
Cheers
Steve


(Edited by Steve W at 2:34 pm on Nov. 5, 2002)

[MATTBIN]

The viz was terrific at Stoney the other week AND the pike was really good on the 6m ledge. So get your kit on and head south to the warmer climes we have down here. Then you could do some training with me and Lou (who has also just bought a dry suit), now there's an offer. All four of us in the water hugging trees and not smashing up wrecks.
Matt

[Lou]

I'll second that!

Come on down...the waters lovely!

[Dr Stevil]

Hmmm...Stoney, I used to spend a lot of time travelling to and from Market Harborough, so Leicestershire has some deep seated connotations for me, am I ready to go back there yet? not sure...

[Driftwood]

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]Quote: from MATTBIN on 2:07 pm on Nov. 5, 2002
I'm surprised you say use the suit for buoyancy control as I have read that the BCD should be used. The reasoning was that the suit should beinflated to stop any crush/squeeze and the jacket for normal control

<span =''>Hey Mattster,

If you are properly weighted, once you have removed the suit squeeze with a few puffs you should be neutral and not have to use the bcd at all. If you have a cuff dump then (certainly for now) you would be far better off limiting your bouyancy control to one source. Once you are familiar with the suit you can use both if you want - but only would I recommend this if you &quot;did a Dommie&quot; and had an autodump cranked fully open.....

Take it easy until you get your weigh and bouyancy sorted with the suit - don't want to find out you've been having to write &quot;Help me!&quot; on the bottom of your fins.....

[John Gulliver]

Have to agree with Drifter, Matt. If you're diving with a single cylinder and pony, the amount of air required to stop your suit squeezing should make you neutrally buoyant, unless you're overweighted. Only if you're diving with heavy twins and stage bottles should you need to use your BC for buoyancy as well. The ankle wight issue has been a bone of contention on Divernet a couple of times. Personaly, i don't use them any more but I really can't see any serious objection to using them if you feel more comfortable with them and don't want to have too much lead on your belt. I certainly felt securer hanging more or less upside down looking into holes and crevices for &nbsp;lobsters when I wore ankle weights, but I suppose there aren't too many of those at Stoney ;-) The main arguments against ankle weights seem to be that they are unnecessary and that they entail a risk of entanglement. Regarding the first objection, I think it's up to everybody to decide for themselves whether they are necessary or not. I don't think the entanglement risk is particularly great. The piece of kit that's most likely to snag in a monofilament net or line is your pillar valve – mine did! But it's a bit difficult diving wihtout that. The techies always suggest heavy fins, e.g. Jetfin, instead of ankle weights, but I'm personally quite satisfied with my Cressi Frogs and see no reason to change to (very expensive) Jetfins. I'd rather go back to using my ankle weights if I felt my feet were floaty.

[Dominic]

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]If you are properly weighted, once you have removed the suit squeeze with a few puffs you should be neutral and not have to use the bcd at all. If you have a cuff dump then (certainly for now) you would be far better off limiting your bouyancy control to one source. Once you are familiar with the suit you can use both if you want - but only would I recommend this if you &quot;did a Dommie&quot; and had an autodump cranked fully open.....

<span =''>

I'd go along with that.. my bouyancy control went from laughable to spot-on overnight when I started using my cuff-dump drysuit for buoyancy instead of the BC.

I still prefer doing it on the wing with the dump wide open these days tho. Might have to close it a click or two now the water's getting cold tho...

P.S. John - you can get Jetfins for £25 if you know where to look, so don't be put off by the price ;)

(Edited by Dominic at 8:19 am on Nov. 6, 2002)