Posted by Gerry Smith on September 26, 2000 at 12:17:02:
In Reply to: Re: DIR Question posted by Jason on September 25, 2000 at 19:50:01:
Thanks to you both for trying to enlighten a skeptic.
Jason, ESA from 150' is defiinitely NOT my primary scenario. What I said was "last ditch - other options didn't work" or words to that effect... However I got there, I'm down deep without gas to breathe and without a buddy or other secondary source. In this extreme case, am I really going to worry about ascending too fast? I don't think so. Yes I increase my chance of taking a bends hit, but I'll be going to the chamber rather than the morgue.
Mike, as for the "prevention of a rapid ascent" see the paragraph above. But I begin to see where we differ. I think that you are guarding against a failure of your BC where I am more worried about a failure of my breathing gas.
I can hit my trim perfectly, without the need for additional weight on my back. Whether or not that fact is related to my size I don't know. My weight system keeps the weight up under my elbows, and allows for the dropping of one or both 12.5 lb shot sacks. So, if the BC blew (an annoyance) I could inflate my drysuit, or my lift bag, or ditch half my weight, if the 1st stage failed (and all the other stuff in the disaster scenario above) I could ditch it all.
You mentioned that under certain circumstances you could wear an aluminum backplate. I thought SS was required. I remember the purple people pisser ranting that any variation made you non-DIR (as well as a few other adjectives). What do you wear on a short shallow dive, and how do you weight yourself, and is it DIR?
Thanks in advance,
GS