Making the switch to twins....

[HelenM]

Some time ago I set up a thread asking for recommendations for a wing as I was looking to make the jump across to twin 12s. I mentioned in passing that I was arranging to spend a couple of days with Andy Hayhurst (of Dalesdivers) to get myself sorted. Well, I had those couple of days on Thursday and Friday last week, and thought I should give y’all a bit of an update on how I got on. I've put it in here rather than trip reports as it strikes me as more of a 'training' post. Hope no-one objects...

I’ve been ringing Andy with a lot of foolish (and a few not so foolish) questions about twins etc for some time, and a couple of weeks ago decided to bite the bullet and book a couple of days personal training with him, with the intent that day one would allow me to try lots of bits of kit in Capernwray and then decide which I wanted to buy, and day two would be me in the water with my shiny new bits and pieces, getting used to the new set-up and being taught how best to use it.

Day One

We met up at a very deserted Capernwray at about 10am. Andy showed me the various wings and harness options that he’d brought along for me to try, and recommended that I started off with the Dive Rite Classic wing and Transpac harness (which are what he uses when diving open circuit). The second dive of the day I could try either the same wing with a backplate or switch to another wing as well. First impression of the Transpac was that it was verrrry comfortable (which seemed important to me – perhaps I am just relatively less heavy duty than most divers). I was also going to try a couple of different regs – a Poseidon and an Apex.

Andy put all the kit together, helped me into it and we wandered down to the water – me with a fairly determined expression and quite prepared to trample directly over anyone who got in my way… I had momentum up, and really didn’t want to lose it…. The intention on the first dive was purely and simply for me to get used to the sensation of diving twins (never had before) and also see what I thought of the harness. A generally very pleasant experience. The harness was great, the wing very nice indeed, and OMG the relief as the water took the weight of the cylinders! All round, it felt very stable and natural underwater.

Dive two I decided to stick with the Dive Rite wing as I’d liked it so much, but changed the Transpac to a backplate and harness. It took me all of about two seconds to adopt a pained expression and say ‘Don’t like this as much’. I gave the nasty little thing the benefit of the doubt though and tried it in the water. No contest – still not as comfortable, and I found it much more constrictive, much harder to reach valves etc

I wandered out of the water after the second dive convinced that I wanted the Dive Rite wing, and the decision between the backplate and the Transpac was a bit of a no-brainer. My Mother always used to laugh and tell me as a child that I had to ‘suffer to be beautiful’. I thought that was a stupid idea then, and I still do now. I realise that backplates are considered beautiful in certain quarters, but to these good folk I say – as I always did to my Mother – “yah boo sucks, I don’t want to be beautiful then” (I am a dreadful trial to all my family ). The Transpac is just lovely, really comfortable, gave me a nice position in the water, was very easy to reach everything I needed and it didn’t provide integrated backache. Sounds like a winning combination to me…

After the second dive (and the obligatory Capernwray Mars Bar Crispy Cake) it was back to Sedburgh to watch Andy turning my single 12s into the much coveted manifolded twinset and let me decide which bits of kit I wanted to buy. I decided on a Poseidon Jetstream as my primary reg (Doing It Very Wrong), and Apex ATX50 as my backup (Doing It Right) so I reckon that on balance (including my new unbungeed wing) I am mostly Doing It Just About Average.*

Day Two

Having established – and purchased – all the kit which I wanted, the intention on the second day of personal training was to teach me to use it properly. We set up all the kit, donned it and headed down into the water. No-one likes to see their Dive Guru forget to do up their pee zip and jump backwards hollering now do they? And no reasonable student would laugh themselves sick at that happening…

Andy asked me to ensure that I could reach all the valves once underwater, as if not we’d head out and re-set it. As it happened, I could reach barely reach one and not t’other, so a quick hop out of the water to move everything up a notch and we were set to go. Once we descended this time, I found I could lay hands on both valves so we headed off for a bit of a swim around before starting drills. Once we were at one of the platforms (don’t ask me which one, I’m rubbish at stuff like that) we settled down to try my first shutdown drill. Andy demo’d it then got me to have a crack. It was a bit of a struggle the first time (and he had to stop me turning both valves off at the same time which would have been – how shall I put this? – foolish) but I got there in the end. I was feeling reasonably chuffed with this until he then asked me to do the isolator valve. This was a little more humbling, there was plenty of ungainly thrashing around and curses bellowed into my reg before I managed to turn it off. I got there in the end although I believe that the fish there learnt a touch more Anglo Saxon in the meantime. Just as I was breathing a sigh of relief, my oh so delightful instructor was signalling to me to watch what he was demoing next…. His mask came off, and then he proceeded to do another shutdown. Oh marvellous. I was rather hoping that he was just doing this to prove what was possible, but oh no, fate is just not that kind – so over to me, and again I managed it – actually a lot quicker this time than last time.

My confidence was starting to grow quite a bit from this, and it was quite entertaining when I put my mask back on and cleared it to see a couple of passing divers looking at me as though I was an absolute loon. I was just starting to feel ever so very slightly smug when Andy told me to stay put whilst he laid a line. “Oh that’s fine” I thought, “I know what this is - the no mask line swim – I had to do that on my Nitrox course with Dalesdivers when the water temp was only about 8degrees” so I was very confident in my ability to do it on Friday (when it was toasty at about 18). It really doesn’t take long to have your illusions shattered sometimes. Andy gestured me over and then removed his mask – as expected – started swimming along the line – so far so good – and then he started doing a shutdown drill at the same time. When he cleared his mask he just grinned at my polite signals of “you can go away you silly man as you are a trifle touched in the head” and asked me to go ahead. I’m still really really chuffed that I managed it, and found it relatively straightforward. If anyone had told me I’d be doing that before I headed up there I’d have told them that they were crackers; hopefully it’s not a skill that I’ll ever need, but it has done my confidence the power of good to know that I can do it if required. I was still buzzing hugely as we started swimming back, practising shutdowns on the go.

Once back topside it was time for a drink and chat. Andy mentioned in passing that on one of his courses he’ll swim up to a student with a slate saying ‘BANG’ and expect them to isolate pronto. I was contentedly tucking into a crispy cake (it’d be rude not to) and just nodded and went ‘oh nasty, don’t like doing that, it’s much easier going for the valves’. This conversation hadn’t really registered properly. Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid.

Back in the water and we were having a very nice little swim around, and arrived at the boat. The bottom of the boat is rather green and slimy, and Andy decided to write something on it. There I was looking curiously at what he was doing (penny still hasn’t dropped at this point – I repeat – stupid) B……..A………N………G. Damn. I did briefly contemplate writing ‘B*****D next to this, but decided that wasn’t entirely in the spirit of things. Cue more inelegant efforts to get to the isolator, but this time it was marginally quicker. Fortunately this had made the penny drop about the best body position for me to take when trying to isolate, so I dropped back slightly as we were swimming back and had a couple of quick test isolates just out of eyeshot. Once I was happy I’d got it cracked I tapped Andy on the shoulder and showed off my new trick. Mate, smug doesn’t even begin to cover it…. Out of the water I had a huge grin pasted across my face, the only downside was that my couple of days training were pretty much at an end.

I had a huge amount of fun and learnt loads - I can’t recommend this individual training programme highly enough, I got a HUGE amount out of it, most importantly I’m really happy with all my new set up and confident in my ability to use it – exactly the two things I was hoping to get out of my two days of personal coaching. I find myself quite unable to put my lovely new wing and harness away – they are currently hanging on a cupboard handle – because then I wouldn’t be able to see them. And everytime I walk past the darling little things I find myself muttering ‘lovely,shiny, new, niiiiice’ in a slightly Gollum-esque fashion. Can’t wait to get them wet again in Mull this weekend…

Cheers all
H

* Apologies to the DIR guys. Sometimes the most pathetic and obvious gags are also the most irresistible ones…..

[Simon Lamb]

hugely informative, thanks for sticking it up.

Its next on my shopping list, twins is, so I shall put all this in my ever empty memory..

Can someone tell me tho... with all the cuffufle of isolating in event of failure, why not indies? Am I being dense???

Si

[HelenM]

Originally Posted by SimonL

Can someone tell me tho... with all the cuffufle of isolating in event of failure, why not indies? Am I being dense???

My take on this question - your reg on the right post starts free flowing - you shut the valve and leave the isolator open - that way you still have access to both tanks of gas. With indies, you pretty much just be kissing your right cylinder goodbye. You'd only isolate when you couldn't suss which post had gone wrong (i.e. big bang behind your head) - that way you still reserve access to one tank.

HTH - let me know if it doesn't make sense.
H

[Simon Lamb]

Originally Posted by HelenM

My take on this question - your reg on the right post starts free flowing - you shut the valve and leave the isolator open - that way you still have access to both tanks of gas. With indies, you pretty much just be kissing your right cylinder goodbye. You'd only isolate when you couldn't suss which post had gone wrong (i.e. big bang behind your head) - that way you still reserve access to one tank.

HTH - let me know if it doesn't make sense.
H

I love having epiphanies me.

Cheers H

Si

[Crisspy Fiver]

Nice one Helen, I have a set of twins at home but wont be doing anything till next year probably. Its good to read the sort of things you did and your view of the instructor.

It seems more and more people are doing reports like this. We can all benifit from such reports and i for one hope that they continue.

Thanks

Jamie

[Padowan]

Great write up. This kind of orientation and training is really important, and it's nice to see people offering this type of tailored service. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun with all that lot....

Originally Posted by SimonL

Can someone tell me tho... with all the cuffufle of isolating in event of failure, why not indies? Am I being dense???

This is a controversial subject - but with a manifold you have more options. How you dive with a manifold is another debating point. Open, shut, cracked, all have advantages and disadvantages. I dive manifolded twins, and used to run the isolator cracked - I could reach this and shut it off in a couple of seconds. I have now started diving with the isolator shut, but instead of switching regs, I reach back and equalise the tanks at convenient times during the dive and continue to breathe off the same 2nd stage - this way I can have a primary DV on a long hose rigged DIR style, and the backup is round my neck - if you reg switch on indi's then you are often breathing a reg which is not so easily deployed for your buddy.

But however you run the manifold, you always have the option of breathing both tanks from either first stage. If you run indi's, a have a 1st stage failiure you lose access to half your gas, with a manifold, you can still breathe this gas through the other post.

[Juz]

Originally Posted by Padowan

I have now started diving with the isolator shut, but instead of switching regs, I reach back and equalise the tanks at convenient times during the dive and continue to breathe off the same 2nd stage - this way I can have a primary DV on a long hose rigged DIR style, and the backup is round my neck.

This is exactly how I dive too - I find it very comforting to know that even in the worst of worst cases, I still have 1/2 my gas, and in general, much more.

Also have the nicety to not have to reg switch.

I feel this is the best use of the kit as it seems to offer the advantages from both systems without the disadvantages.

Juz

[dave archer]

Excellent write up Helen, thanks for posting it.
I'm diving 12+pony at the moment, but if/when I feel the need to go to twins, I might well do the same
Dave.

[Padowan]

Originally Posted by Juz

I feel this is the best use of the kit as it seems to offer the advantages from both systems without the disadvantages.

It also allows you to make efficient use of the available pressure gradient if you are planning on doing any between-dive-decanting to top up cylinders, if you try and leave the water with one tank fuller and one emptier, you can decant more gas over...

[Helen F H]

Originally Posted by Padowan

Great write up. This kind of orientation and training is really important, and it's nice to see people offering this type of tailored service. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun with all that lot....



This is a controversial subject - but with a manifold you have more options. How you dive with a manifold is another debating point. Open, shut, cracked, all have advantages and disadvantages. I dive manifolded twins, and used to run the isolator cracked - I could reach this and shut it off in a couple of seconds. I have now started diving with the isolator shut, but instead of switching regs, I reach back and equalise the tanks at convenient times during the dive and continue to breathe off the same 2nd stage - this way I can have a primary DV on a long hose rigged DIR style, and the backup is round my neck - if you reg switch on indi's then you are often breathing a reg which is not so easily deployed for your buddy.

But however you run the manifold, you always have the option of breathing both tanks from either first stage. If you run indi's, a have a 1st stage failiure you lose access to half your gas, with a manifold, you can still breathe this gas through the other post.

If i bugger up one of my indies, im only going in one direction. Up.