Posted by Bill Johnson on August 01, 2001 at 17:27:05:
In Reply to: Buoyancy control in drysuit diving posted by Eins on August 01, 2001 at 11:56:32:
Arno,
The reason you had problems, using both the BC and drysuit concurrently for buoyancy control, is obvious to me.
You said, "I'm weighted so that when I eliminate the squeeze at any depth, I'm also more or less buoyant." Here you define the problem yourself - to eliminate squeze, you are adding so much gas that you are always positively buoyant. The solution is to NOT completely eliminate squeze.
Then you said, "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." Again, this is because you already had too much gas in your drysuit before you started using the BC.
These two above statements lead me to believe that during the time you tried using the BC, you had way too much gas in your drysuit. Try only adding just enough gas to the suit to eliminate pain. Avoid adding enough gas to completely eliminate squeze. A few quick squirts per atmosphere should do it (obviously more in the deeper atmospheres). I use so little gas in my suit that when I take off my suit, I sometimes have squeze marks on my skin.
The trade off is worth the slight discomfort of some squeze. The result is very precise buoyancy control and proper attitude in the water.
Suit inflation requires VERY LITTLE GAS. I was surprised to read MHK's statement that he only gets three or four dives out of his 6cf inflation cylinder; I'll bet he gets more than 4 dives out of 6 cf depending on the type of dives he is doing. Try using the BC again with even less gas in the suit.
I am not questioning your intelligence and visualization abilty, but you can't learn to dive on the internet. There is no replacement for "some Walker" watching, critiquing and assisting you with proper corrections in the water. If after trying my suggestions, you still don't get it, you will have to decide how much it is worth to you to get it and see if "some Walker" is willing to help you with getting it.
Good Luck,
Bill