What A Day

[Mrs H]

This morning we set off at 9.30 for a day of emergency first response. Lots of hard work but great fun. At one point I had tears streaming down my face with laughter. Then it was home for 45 mins to get our kit and into the pool for rescue diver practice. Several attempts to drown each other later we were sat in the bar with the second exam of the day .

I am totally worn out but very happy and have learnt alot today. Happy days

[Darryl]

Sounds like fun B) keep enjoying it :)

[Andy Hipkiss]

Well today's events proved to give a little extra impetuous to our course. Some poor soul had to be air lifted out of Stoney following an over-inflated dry suit leading to a feet first, uncontrolled assent to the surface. (edit) Thankfully he was "ok" enough to reasonably vocally express his pain ... in a sadistic way I guess, at least if they are making a noise they are alive.

The scenarios were erm a "laugh" ... we couldn't find the missing submerged diver on the 1st scenario ... ooops ... poor bloke got bored after 30 mins of us poncing about. Viz where he was was about 15-30cm though and that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it (blush)

[Andy Hipkiss]

Just out of interest ... how many of you UK divers are diving twin sets? Must admit 2x10 or 12 litres looks damn cool but the expense required to do so is rather frightening ... that and my back still aches 4 days after finishing our rescue diver cert! :( :( ouch! , the thought of carrying even more weight is kind of off putting!

However our AI was kind enough to volunteer that if I wanted he would dive with me (I've got to get my DM within the next 25 months for personal reasons, ok , our son will be 8 in 25 months time and PADI require a PADI pro or parent to supervise, I want to be both the parent and a PADI pro to best support our son in his dreams to be a diver). Now whether he was being a) nice or b ) stupid, I have no idea but it meant a lot. Maybe the biggest thing that I've learnt from my RD cert is that I have a tremendous amount to learn to be a decent (cooler water) diver :(

Why oh why isn't "cold" water diving as easy as 25+C diving ... blur! Bit of a shock to the system going from no lead in warm water to half a tanker load (or so it felt). Trim … pah … I wish I had even semi-decent trim in a dry suit :( (sorry I'm from the school that says if I'm not horizontal I'm doing it wrong). DIR .. ROFL ... me , I'm DIW (W=wrong)

As a bit of an aside ... with steel tanks (sorry, cylinders ;) ) in warm water I carry no dumpable weight ... I dunno if this is such a good thing .. any of you pros wanna give your thoughts please? Although I'm not sure what I can do about it apart from dive with ally tanks to at least add 4 pounds to my weight belt.

TIA

[spottydog]

I have just spent my first weekend diving twin independent 7's in the Farne Islands.

Diving with these compared to a single 12l I found I have to take about 3kg off my weight belt (my other half previously dived with a single 15l and found he had to add a couple of kg).

Our reasons for going for twins were redundancy. We now have 2 tanks each with a regulator and bouyancy feed (one tank on the BC the other the dry suit). We decided not to go manifolded as with smaller tanks there was a risk that if anything happened both tanks would be empty before we could shut off so this way even if one tank fails we will always have at least 50 bar to get us to the surface which is fine since we stick to non-decompression diving.

I actually found the twins easier to dive with that the single as they are closer into my body and they are definitely a lot easier to get on a boat with as they don't feel like they are pulling you backwards as much as a single.

The downsides of twins are the extra filling and servicing costs but I think they are a minor point given the piece on mind they give me.

HTH

[ahoy]

I use twin 12s if gong off a boat or a 12 and a pony if doing a shore dive (although there's an interesting plan afoot to do a drift down the Menai Straits with the twins and end up in Canaerfon for a curry and a few jars). Pros of twins as I see it are:
1) Better balance
2) Redundancy - like spottydog, I use independent twins, one linked to the wing and the other to the drysuit.
3) Less weight required, although my 12s displace a signifcant proportion of their weight.

Cons:
1) Expense - I paid £300 for L&R configuired twin 12s, Nitrox ready with a set of buddy twinning bands. Also need two sets of regs (I am now an ebay addict)
2) If using independents, you have to keep changing mouthpeices to maintain balance, or you'll end up with one empty and one full cylinder.
3) Need to think about the lift capcity of your BC etc.. if your twins are 'heavy'.

I don't consider myself a pro, but a few times when i've dived in warm water, the guides have insisted I carry just enough wait to make neutral at the surface, so that I have to exhale to descend. I don't understand this obsession as an empty cylinder is lighter than a full one, so you will become postive and unable to control the final few metres of ascent. I always ensure i'm a couple of kg negative at the start if a warm water dive... When i'm neutral as a result of using my BC, if the situation arises that I need to dump weght, I can.

S.