In Reply to: If she's got enough air in her suit to pop her fins off ... posted by Chuck Tribolet on February 13, 2006 at 20:54:06:

Totally agree, Chuck. Amount of gas in suit should be just enough to allow easy swimming at depth and, if necessary, a little loft for warmth. Using the drysuit as the primary buoyancy source is a really bad idea. That's what the BC is for. I can't believe DUI told people to do that in their dry suit manuel. What looney nonsense. Their reasoning was operating two devices-suit and BC-simultaneously was too complicated. Too complicated??? As in walking and chewing gum? What are they doing selling drysuits to people who presumptively can't manage that?

Marta, if you're using your drysuit for buoyancy at depth-wasn't clear from your post-stop it. If you use the BC at depth and still have enough gas in your suit to pop your fins off you're using too much lead. Use only enough gas in the suit so you can move easily and don't get cold when you're swimming. The valve should be open at depth. The BC is used to offset changes in buoyancy due to consumption. When you ascend you can partially close the valve and allow the suit to loft up, dumping gas in the BC to stay neutral. That helps you stay warm during your stops when movement is less. By lofting up from depth you also won't have to warm up the gas twice.

Try that before screwing around with your fin straps.

• Re: Re: If she's got enough air in her suit to pop her fins off ... msblucow 18:06:58 02/14/06 (0)
• Re: Re: If she's got enough air in her suit to pop her fins off ... Chuck Tribolet 17:33:25 02/14/06 (0)