Poll: Suit Or Wing/BCD For Buoyancy?

[miniman]

Following on from the recent post, just wondering who uses what for Buoyancy.

[O2 Steve]

LOL beat me to it!

When in a drysuit I use the suit for bouyancy during the dive, wing at the surface or when in a semi/wetsuit

[nottrikk]

Having just learned how to do it, I have found that I find it easier to use the BCD to control my bouyancy, see my reply on the other thread.

[coldhands]

I've voted suit but actually I do a bit of both. If I put too much air in my suit it blows out the neck and soaks me so I do cheat a bit and put some in my BCD. Judging by others' votes, I will be doing it more often now!

[Zok]

Suit, it keeps me nice and warm.

[rainbowannie]

I have a neoprene drysuit, which to me feels just like diving in my 7mm semi apart from staying dry. (not all big and baggy) I expected to be taught to use just the suit for buoyancy but my instructor said that he expected me to be one of those people who would get on better using the bcd. Certainly while we were doing the inflate/ deflate exercises I kept putting more and more air in each time until I was almost be choked by the pressure on the neck seal. Even accepting that at that point I was slightly overweighted I still didn't notice any lift.
Only time and more dives in it will tell if I change my mind...

...and as a girlie - I'm allowed!!

[miniman]

coldhands Wrote:I've voted suit but actually I do a bit of both. If I put too much air in my suit it blows out the neck and soaks me so I do cheat a bit and put some in my BCD. Judging by others' votes, I will be doing it more often now!

I only use the suit to take the squeeze off. Maybe I should have made it Wing/Bcd + Suit or suit only

[A55]

What a bizare question, BC not ment for boyancy control when using a dry suit. I'm shocked that anyone would admit to using 2 forms of boyancy control at the same time, a recipy for an uncontroled accent if ever there was one. Since you gotta put air into your drysuit to stop squeeze its more than common sense to only use your suit for boyancy control! I was always taught that when diving in a dry suit, your BC is only ment for emergencys and surface swims. I quite understand the rational behind it. If your not neutraly boyant in your rig then your weights are wrong. If your not wearing any weight then your wearing too much gear.

[Ian]

Not enough options.

I basically use the suit for bouyancy because I find it is more comfortable and my auto dump minimises the manual intervention required during multilevel dives with gradual ascents.

I do generally put a bit of air in my BCD towards the end of the initial descent however. This prevents me from needing an uncomfortably large volume of air in my suit, and gives me a small pocket of air I can dump quickly when I am in any orientation. It's the first to get dumped as I ascend and/or use up my air thus becoming lighter.

Ian

[Ian]

A55 Wrote:What a bizare question, BC not ment for boyancy control when using a dry suit.

There are many, many people I know who would argue the complete opposite. i.e. that A DRYSUIT is never meant for bouyancy control, and with a BC the clue is in the name. If you are carrying multiple full cylinders to substantial depth you will need far more bouyancy compensation than a suit alone can ever deliver, and will have to use your BC.

A55 Wrote:I was always taught that when diving in a dry suit, your BC is only ment for emergencys and surface swims. I quite understand the rational behind it.

I know PADI always teach that. BSAC teach that you should use one or the other to avoid problems with multiple sources of bouyancy. Those are the only agencies I have trained with so I can't comment on the others.

A55 Wrote:If your not neutraly boyant in your rig then your weights are wrong.

I'm definitely going to disagree with that. I checked my weights about 10 dives back at 5m with empty cylinders, and empty suit and an empty BCD under the supervision of an extremely experienced instructor who helped me to tune my weights so I was neutral.

However, at the start of a dive I'm carrying at least 3kg more air, and at depth my neo suit compresses substantially, meaning I would expect to need 3+kg boyuancy. That's 3 litres of air sloshing around in a drysuit - that sound clever to you?

Those diving smaller cylinders, singles, membrane suits, those shorter than me (I'm 6'4") etc may find they can be comfortably neutral with no air in their BC, but for me it doesn't work like that.

Having bothered to respond I wonder if I'm wasting my breath. The clue may be in the name, are you just baiting by any chance?