Posted by kelphead on April 20, 2001 at 19:24:13:
In Reply to: Re: Wet Suit diving with a Steel Tank posted by Bill Johnson on April 20, 2001 at 14:58:32:
"...diving deep in California in a wetsuit is just plain dumb."
well, i'm thankful that someone has finally addressed
the issue that my pea-sized brain has decided was
the crux of this entire debate: depth!!
of course, when someone is talking about diving
to such depths deeper than 100ft, then i can very
well understand that using a compressible material
at that depth can be more of a hazard if used
in conjunction w/steel tanks. that, to me anyway,
is a no-brainer.
but why hasn't anyone discussed that when diving
to shallow depths (ie, 50ft, 60ft, even 30ft
when beach diving) that the compression of the
wetsuit at such shallower depths is really not much
at all or is downright insignificant and,
hence, using a single steel tank under
such circumstances would be just fine from
a safety standpoint.
i don't know, maybe i'm waaaaaay off base here,
but in my view, it really seems like the issue
is the compressibility of the material (neoprene)
and the next logical q to discuss would be when/under
what circumstances does neoprene compress and
by how much.
...it just seems like generalizations are being
drawn and applied ad nauseum when there is really
more to the picture than some are willing to
address thoroughly (in other words, way too much
rhetoric here).
as for me, the reason i went w/a steel tank was
b/c of the size of the damned thing: the al80
was just too long for me and a little too wieldy.
i switched to an hp80 b/c i could handle the size
better, not for any other reason. ((some say
i could've gone w/an lp72 instead of hp, which
is fine, but it's still steel...))
so, yeah, i dove w/a TWO PIECE wetsuit and a
single steel tank b/c that made me comfortable.
but keep in mind, i rarely if ever hit 100ft,
so i haven't done and won't do "deep dives" (which
i'm presuming is deeper than 100ft).
since there are many divers on this bbs w/varying
degrees of experience, i think it would be best
not to apply the experiences of a few to the entire
community. some people dive a certain way for
certain reasons and i think it's important to
keep that perspective instead of getting everyone
to comply to the same dive profile that perhaps
a good number of divers here don't do.
thanx!! for bringing up (at least what i thought is)
the correct context for this discussion.
kelphead.