Posted by MHK on June 06, 2001 at 15:45:46:
In Reply to: We all say some odd things at times... posted by Wayne on June 06, 2001 at 11:13:30:
Wayne,
I'll ignore Seahunt's attempts at recasting his position and respond to you..
Just as a remninder for those that weren't in attendance at the DIR seminar. The entire issue came about when Seahunt took issue with the fact that we recommend against steel tanks while using a wetsuit. In short, our thinking is that to the extent you loose your inflation source you may not be able to ascend and/or if you struggle while ascending you may have a C02 buildup ( long story short )..
Given that background Seahunt spent an inordinate amount of time at the demo attempting to cast aspersions on that philosophy and as such JJ and Carmichael attempted to both understand his way of diving and to perhaps explain further why it is a dangerous practice. Accordingly Seahunt offered up that he dives with 36 lbs of weight and a steel tank. A steel tank is 6 lbs negatively bouyant and as such equates to Seahunt diving with 42 pounds of weight. My guess he weighs about 250 lbs or so and as such with a wetsuit on should be wearing no more than 25 pounds on his belt plus the 6 lb tank...
His justification was that he crawls around the bottom of the ocean to hunt for bugs and does some helicopter gyro thing to roam the reef. In other words he can't stay off the bottom unless he keeps kicking.
We then, and repeatedly thereafter reminded him that the sole purpose of not diving overweighting is several fold:
1) If you need to ditch weight you need a balanced rig so as not to rocket to the surface;
2) By using added weight you'll need to completely inflate your BC to stay off the bottom and as such you'll increase the coefficent of drag and reduce available bottom time;
3) When we questioned why he doesn't simply use either less weight, distribute it better or use a AL tank, his response was that he needs the extra air available in a steel tank. We then pointed out that he is increasing his air consumption by increasing the coefficient of drag, by requiring a constant kick to stay off the bottom and by diving overweighted;
4) Furthermore, by loading all that added weight onto his weightbelt he is substantially ruining his trim;
5) By diving an unbalanced rig, if he ditches in an emergency he'll rocket to the surface;
6) We try to solve problems before they occur and by diving so overweighted he is not anticipating any problem and doesn't consider the fact that if a problem occurs at the beginning of the dive ( ie; when a diver is the heaviest) he is so overweighted that he'll embolize if he drops the weight...
Wayne, I've tried to keep it positive and constructive but I simply disagree with the concept of *negative bouyancy* and believe that it is ignoring a potentially life threatening problem if someone looses his inflation source...
Those oare the facts and any attempt to recast them in a different light is completely counterintuitive to what he was representing at the DIR demo and we have a roon full of witnesses that heard the entire conversation...
Later