Posted by tecdiver on September 06, 2002 at 22:47:54:
In Reply to: Re: Wet Steel issue response to Chuck posted by Kendall Raine on September 06, 2002 at 21:37:43:
I agree, the drysuit is a better trade off. Now I can apply another set of what if's to this method.
So now I can assume that if I plan to do a dive below 30msw in a wetsuit, I must not be so weighted or at least be able to ditch weight, so I could swim up under my own propulsion. Otherwise use a drysuit or not do the dive. Now I know in my wetsuit it is hard for me to swim up with more than 16# on. This just about mandates that I wear my drysuit most of the time. If you do dive the steel backplate with a single tank plate the combined weight is approx 8 lbs. My steel 125 is -9.5 full and -1 empty, I had another -5 for other equipment. I am approx 23# neg at begin of dive. I usually add ditchable weight to make up for the loss of air. I have never worried about that extra 7# at the begin of dive that I cant ditch. The same as I do not worry about redundancy failing. If I have to worry about things like this on top of everything else I probably would rather not dive. You no there comes a point where you can take something so far that it actually obscures the real point. Chris has the right Idea, I admit his application leaves some question. I think most of us no how to add and subtract.