Posted by seahunt on July 22, 2001 at 14:16:27:
In Reply to: Re: Don't make me come over there... posted by Max Bottomtime on July 22, 2001 at 11:33:31:
UGGGG!!!
I'm gonna hate myself for this.
Contrary to popular belief, I actually understand DIR pretty good and do understand their position on this, regardless if I agree or not.
Their case is about whether you have a catastrophic failure of your BC at depth (however often that happens).
Now what they say is that steel would be OK if you have a secondary floatation device like a drysuit or lift bag. Also, the rational of why it's OK in fresh water (say a cave) is that you could always crawl out. Now technically, this case could apply to the Yukon as well, beause there are so many bouy lines you could pull your way up. Whatever.
Contrary to this, some people have pointed out that the metal backplate weighs enough that the bouyancy of a diver with BC/wetsuit/steel tank would be fairly equivelant to a diver with bakplate/wetsuit/AL tank.
In reference to my very short discussion with JJ at the demo, he, like MHK, said absolutely no steel tanks with a wetsuit. (I wonder if that is waived if you have a lift bag). Interestingly enough, John Walker does not say that. He says (or has said) it is an issue of bouyany and if you are bouyant enough to get to the surface reasonably without a BC, then a steel tank with a wetsuit would be reasonable. I think that pretty much covers Chris.
I figured I should mention this before you get jumped, though I see I'm to late for one ...
Enjoy your diving, seahunt