Northwest Dive Club

Im planning on doing a tech course in june and the instructor wants me to get some experience on a doubles set, so does anyone have a doubles w/ reg set and dub wing they don't use willing to let me use it for a bit or sell I can pay in payments. My max budget is about $800

Without any sort of training, cert, or even experience with them, I cant see any shop that would rent them to you.

I was going to work with my buddy who retired from teaching but was the one who taught the tech course.

Before anyone climbs up on that high horse about commitment and gear and tech diving is expensive etc...

A good handful of years ago I helped mentor a talented young man, he had the drive and passion for diving and wanted to get better at it and down the road become a tech diver. He was a student so didn't have funds to 'do it on his own'. So we let him use gear he needed which bought him time to save up and buy his own kit as funds allowed. And we dove a lot. The move to doubles wasn't immediate but it happened and he did just fine.

He's now one of our more accomplished local tech divers and is mentoring people and paying it forward, and I'm proud of the small part we had in that way back when.

This is what the diving community and dive family is all about. Working together, helping the next generation get started in right direction so they might become the leaders of the future.

Additionally, on a personal note, when I was getting re-started in my various diving endevours some incredibly generous folks loaned and/or sold me used gear at dirtbag diver rates and thanks in part to that I now have my current career in videography. (folks loaned scooters despite my lack of formal training, sold me used camera system at price I could afford, etc....). For that I am eternally grateful.

<steps off soap box>

Jeff Pack wrote:Without any sort of training, cert, or even experience with them, I cant see any shop that would rent them to you.

I owned my own doubles + doubles wing before I had any formal training on them.

There's a bit of a catch-22 here.

The reality is that people buy/borrow/rent doubles to dive them for awhile before they take tech training.

Thank you for the kind words. Both of you.

Yeah, im young and I make minimum wage while being a high school senior makes it hard I work a couple times a week.

just make certain to never, ever close your isolator (outside of training), and check 3 or 4 times that all 3 of your valves are open before you're actually diving. and turn your valves all the way open and don't do the quarter turn back thing.

you'll have 3 valves trying to kill you instead of 1 valve. the way they try to kill you is by being closed. make sure you're not descending on a dive with any of your valves closed.

Will do, and practice I will

$800 is a reasonable gear budget to get you started.

I have a friend who is selling 2 sets of Hog regs for around $250 - If your interested PM me and I'll connect you with him. I'm not a huge fan of Hog regs but have many friends that use them and it would be a really good starter set.

My suggestion would be to hook up with the GUE crowd for one of their weekday dives and tell them you'd like to try out a set of doubles. They are a really friendly group and and can provide guidance, lend you gear and get you pointed in the right direction. PM Koos here on the NWDC and he'll help you out.

If I still owned doubles gear, Josh, I'd happily loan it to you. I've dived with you and know you to be a conscientious young man who's pursuing a passion. Hopefully someone reading this has some extra gear sitting around they can help you out with.

I do have deco bottles and deco regs, so if you need those during your training, hit me up to borrow them ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

there are Many avenues to Tech diving and Doubles , you just need to find the right people and pursue the Goal, Many divers here on NWDC Have those Connections ... My 2 psi

I have a pair of 72's (as you know). If you hydro and vip the tanks I will throw you the doubles and a wing indefinitely for your training or just diving. As long as you have a backplate and doubles regs, and either a v-weight or weight belt you would be set?...just throwing it out there...

I have a spare backplate I can loan ya ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

The old steel 72s make a sweet set of doubles. They've become my favorite tanks for deeper dives and somewhat extended bottom time. They are also pretty manageable on a boat. I like to top them off between dives from one of my HP 120s.
My initial technical training with twin tanks was in Sidemount configuration, taken concurrently with Advanced Nitrox / Deco. The concept of S-drills and valve shutdown carries over pretty well from Sidemount to backmount. Having done a number of dives with the old Wednesday night crew at Cove 2, I easily made the transition from Sidemount to backmount doubles. Just spent a couple dives tweaking the trim with different V-weights.
Understanding how the valve shutdown procedure works is relatively straightforward, but very important to safely gain the benefit of having double tanks.

Gotta pop in here and say go ahead and borrow old steel 72's to get some experience in general with dubs, setup, hose routing, general 'feel' difference vs. singles, but unless you are ready to use a massive tail weight (or you are 6'4" and can compensate for them with some big long legs) more often than not they are somewhat painful to trim out (if that kind of thing matters to you) I'd generally recommend against buying them unless they are your only option. They are also a bit small for full on T1 type dives (I know people will argue this but whatever They are a fine 'starter' set, and pretty light weight compared to newer tanks.

When it comes to actually purchasing this stuff, going cheap on things like old steel 72's will get you started for sure, but unless you get just a hella screaming deal that you can then pay forward to another noob down the road, you may feel like you wasted the money the first time you try a nice set of newer steel dubs. (this is speaking from experience, as my dive buddies when I still dove dubs as opposed to CCR can attest to, I have all the crappiest to trim doubles on earth - Old steel 72's, Old narrow neck HP102's and old narrow neck HP80's that I promptly split up for singles - I made due with them but when it came time to take T1 with Richard Lundgren I borrowed a couple sets of 'good dubs' to stack deck in my favor.

^ can confirm. have borrowed laura's 72s before and i hate them...

Laura, didn't you take T1 in my horrid pink dub 80s? I seem to remember it being a story that make for a good drinking opportunity

Someone is lending me some a pair of dub LP85's, and another is lending possibly some regs for me and a wing. So hopefully I can get it set up within the next week.

So the main thing now I will need is a pair of doubles regs.

camerone wrote:Laura, didn't you take T1 in my horrid pink dub 80s? I seem to remember it being a story that make for a good drinking opportunity

That was Fundies! I don't _think_ I had them for T1, but anything is possible

Think that was fundies back in 2008 or 2009 and we were threatening to put Bob Sherwood in them since he loves double-Al80s so much (the only double tanks that I hate worse than double-72s for diving up here)

LP85s are good, I love my set, just a bit light though so you'll probably need a bigger v-weight for those than you'd use on 130s or 100s

Thank for those who are letting me use some of there gear.

Who would be able to work with me on diving doubles and getting use to them.

That should probably be your future tech instructor or the mentor you mentioned earlier