Posted by Eins on August 01, 2001 at 11:56:32:
My ingoing statement is that it is easier and safer to only use the drysuit for buouancy during a dive.
OK, I followed most of the thread and heard as well as understood the rationale of the other side. Quite contrary to MHK's wrong assumption, I have tried it, using the BC for buoyancy, and quite frankly, it does not work well for me. I believe that you who follow that procedure can handle it, but it is not for me and here is why:
First of all, I'm weighted so that when I eliminate the squeeze at any depth, I'm also more or less buoyant. For minor adjustments that I can't cover with my lung's volume, I add or bleed off small amounts of air from the drysuit. My suit fits snugly, I wear rock boots and don't need ankle weights, I can handle the specific "behavior" of a drysuit in any position.
When I did try the BC as a parallel device, I often found myself in a situation (always after ascending some) when I had to bleed off some air to remain neutral that there was no more air in the BC to bleed off but I was still too buoyant. Of course, that was because the air in the drysuit had also expanded now, an effect which is very counterproductive in a double-bubble situation. So now I have to try and stop my ascent while I let go of the BC deflator and go for the drysuit, bleeding off air from it. How is that simple, easy and safe? Please explain that to me.
Maybe I'm missing something or maybe I did something wrong. At this point, just believe me when I'm saying that I am intelligent enough to visualize your description of a better procedure. I don't have to take a class from some Walker to understand. I'm very comfortable in the water and don't have problems trying out new things. I just want to hear how this problem, as I described above, can be eliminated or better handled. That is all.
I'm not saying that any of you guys who use their BC parallel to the drysuit don't know how to control buoyancy with a drysuit alone. It just has not worked for me yet.
Thanks for sharing your insights,
Arno
PS: I dived the Yukon on Monday. All went extremely well and I'm working on a dive report.