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looking to trade a set of faber 95's for either 8" tanks in 108+ or x7-120 comparable size
The 95's are just a touch too short for me in sidemount when I use my thicker thermal and even with the straps at the bottom of the tank I'm still very feet heavy.
Tanks are in Bham, AL but I can meet anywhere in cave country and maybe in TN/ N AL/GA depending on if I'm diving any of the cold water caves up that way.
How would you like a nice set of PST 104's? I'm 40 miles away from you. They are heavy enough to keep the feet down,
or weight down a picnic table in a hurricane, or keep your car from floating off in a flood. I'll pm my cell and work numbers.
Hunter I wish you would have mentioned it this weekend. I would have let you try my LP 112s.
Edit: never mind. I missed the LP 95 part. I'm looking for either HP 95s or LP 85s sorry
You'll be looking for a long time - ain't no such animal.Quote:
Originally Posted by graepaep
Seems you're right. I guess I was looking at the specs for the HP 100 and thinking it was a HP 95. Thanks for catching that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Slüdge
Are you using any trim weights on your harness?Quote:
Originally Posted by BoneDoc
Nope, and I would prefer to keep it that way. I would much rather carry more gas than extra lead :DQuote:
Originally Posted by OFG-1
Longer cylinders will only make you more foot heavy. Faber 95s are not the contributing problem. What fins are you using?
He had the bands all the way to the bottom of the 95s, and couldn't get the tanks up any higher. I am pretty sure he was diving an Hollis SMS100. You might be right though. If there is any part of the tanks sticking down below the bands, it will add weight behind him.Quote:
Originally Posted by RN
There's no shame in trim weights :)Quote:
Originally Posted by BoneDoc
Tanks too short can very well cause a problem regardless of fins.
Fins can make a big difference. If I use Jet fins, I am very tail heavy. OMS Slipstrams are much lighter, as are Mares.Quote:
Originally Posted by graepaep
I agree that fins can make a difference but I have been in the water with tanks that were too short (not enough weight high enough) with or without fins.Quote:
Originally Posted by FW
edit: sorry to get this thread off track
Hunter is shorter than me and with the bands at the bottom of the 95s I'm sure his valves are in his pits. Moving the cylinders up any more would push the valves in front of his shoulders and throw off his trim.
I'm most likely going to wear thicker thermals on the bottom half and trade my jet fins for dive rites. Still interested in trading my 95's for either 7.25" 120's or 8" tanks 108+.
The issue arises from the fact that I normally wear just one layer of underarmor under my dry suit without any "real" thermal protection for water >65 deg. so it had very little buoyancy added. When diving <50 deg. or <65 deg for more than 30 minutes I put on my 4th element arctic top for added thermal protection. Looks like I'll need to buy a set of 4th element bottoms just to balance it out.
Just changing the jets will make a huge difference.
Trim weights seem quite a bit cheaper than a new set of 4th Element gear. Why the aversion to putting any kind of trim weights on?
Trim weights are OK, if you are under weight, and need weights anyway. If you have heavy tanks, and don't need any more weight, then all trim weights do is cause you to add more air in your BCD. They don't solve near the problems that they cause.Quote:
Originally Posted by rotor60driver
i don't know about dive rite fins, or mares, but when I switched from scubapro jets to oms slipstream, my feet came up. The OMS are so much lighter they really make a difference.
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OMS Slipstreams are light fins. Dive Rite and Mares are even lighter. The issue with those is many people have a hard time getting used to the extra couple of inches in length.
I can see that. they seem skinnier too, but that may be the longer length. The OMS are also, I think, stiffer. Certainly stiffer than jets. I noticed right off the extra omph needed to kick, but also the extra glide distance. didn't take but a dive or too before I forgot the stiffness. Now I only notice after doing some open water dives in atomic splits, or my smaller sized jetfins.
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I have never tried the Dive Rites, but the OMS are more like Jet fins, as far as feel and power are concerned, than the Mares..
I really really really tried to leave this thread alone but I just can't stand it any longer. Yes fins, shoulder weights, & cylinders can make a difference on trim. I also agree that sometimes a person just has the wrong combination of gear. The central issue that I have seen over the years is the SM system in itself. Far too many systems have the wing high on the back, with a lot of air on the upper body of the diver, with very little or no ability to adjust the system down on their torso. IMO a SM system needs the ability to adjust the BC to match a divers weight distribution and buoyancy in the water.
For me, I am very negative in the water and have very thick and long legs compared to my upper body. My BC rides 2 inches below my shoulder blade bone on my back. Dr. X (my better half) is more positively buoyant and about even on lower and upper body. With her added buoyancy she needs some counter weights to keep her down with depleted cylinders, so we add them to her rig. Since we do not want to change weight for different cylinders we have balanced the weight with the wing. This has resulted in the weights being put on the top of her shoulders and the wing being even with the top of her shoulder blade bone.
Both of us can switch between LP 45's, 85's, 95's, 108's, & AL 40's, 66's, 77's, or 80's without changing our gear configuration. There is a big gap with weight requirements with all of those cylinders which we handle with cylinder weights. The point is that our rigs balance us and the cylinders are balanced for their buoyancy.
One thing that I see with a lot of SM divers is their cylinders crammed up under their arms. It reduces their ability to reach and creates a wider profile. I have made SM rigs for people of vastly different body sizes and buoyancy characteristics with each and every one being different. I am building one now for someone that is 6'5" with a rather heavy frame, same materials but it will all be placed to fit his dimensions.
My point is to adjust your gear to balance your body type. You may find that your body type does not fit your gear so build something that does. The basic BP & wing continuous webbing allows just about anyone to adjust it to fit their body and trim out in the water. SM is something that requires gear to be adjusted even better than BM so moving the pieces to fit is just as important. I remember putting holes in the first production BM doubles wing I bought to get it adjusted with the plate and bands on the doubles, now they come with at least three grommets.
To the OP,
Change your fins if you want. I dive SP's dry, wet, and snorkeling. I do change to free diving fins when free diving because they work better, but the don't do anything for my trim. ;)