swimming a stage
when Im swimming a stage,horizontal of course,the bottom hangs down too low to my liking.I use an aluminum 80 but the bottom doesnt float up at all.My lowerclip is wrapped around the handlestrap to take up all the slack,but I still have to hold the bottle up when Im close to the bottom.Anybody ever use a bungie to hold it in line with the body?Have done a few searches to no avail.Would prefer help from someone other than a cavern diver on this one.
Adding a hitch ring to the bottom corner of your backplate would help hold your stage in position . along with adding a bungie to hold the valve in tight against the body.
But I'm a cavern diver so this might not help.
Randy, I'm going to ask you a stupid question: does the AL80 have a boot on it? Some boots have a built-in weight.
I've never heard of an AL80 not floating bottom-up. I even use aluminum first stages, and they're still bottom-up.
Whoever said money can't buy love never bought a puppy.
yea Russell it does have a boot on it.No offense to the cavern divers out here Im just looking for experience.
Luxfer & Catalina tanks have slightly different buoyancy characteristics but I wouldn't think it enough to notice all that much.
FWIW, mine are Luxfers and they are all tail heavy (no boot) when filled to around 2800psi or greater. Less than that and the rear/bottom starts to float.
Last edited by Line Squirrel; 05-11-2008 at 09:21 AM.
It's bad luck to be superstitious.
Have you tried moving your waist D-ring further back? I find the position of the waist D-rings are a compromise between ease of clipping on and off and swimming position in the water.Originally Posted by stairman
Andy
Andy its as far back as it will go,and its also a luxfer bottle.
Take a look at the stamp on the crown, is it one of those "mid pressure" 80's? If it is it will be stamped on the tank 3300 rather than 3000.
I don't know anybody that likes those tanks as a stage or buddy bottle, they are a brick.
If this is the case, there is nothing you can do to improve your situation short of selling it and buy a regular 3000psi AL80.
Another question, is it one of those short/fat super 80's? I have no experiance swimming those around.
Last edited by Line Squirrel; 05-11-2008 at 09:34 AM.
It's bad luck to be superstitious.
No offence taken , I'm actually a wreck diver that dives with a stage often. That's where I got my stage experience. If you want to see rings attached like what I suggested ,Go look at Larry G's back plate
Mike it is a 3000 psi.Ill try it without the boot and have thought of Novadivers idea ofconnecting it to the backplate instead of the waist d-ring but thought it would be a pain to hook or unhook.We went over a few things about stages in fullcave class but I didnt think about this one.Since then most of my dives have been backgass only and am just now reliving this minor inconvinence.
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