Recreational divers, post your rig here, let's share good and bad ideas

[LI-er]

Pot, meet kettle

I provide links, explanations, and examples to support my statements.

In return I get insults and my posts are quoted and intentionally changed to make it appear I said something different.

That pretty much covers it. .

 

[lostsheep]

I provide links, explanations, and examples to prove my opponents viewpoints.

That pretty much covers it. .

FIFY

 

[Soloist]

No one demonstrated anything. Except for me, I provided several links and examples of single words abbreviated in all caps to support my usage of DECO.

Others provided insults and changed my posts when requoting me.

That's all I see.

Disappointing. The jackals appear to be particularly aggressive, agitated and humorless on what started out as an interesting thread.

 

[SelfDiver]

Disappointing. The jackals appear to be particularly aggressive, agitated and humorless on what started out as an interesting thread.

This thread has everything.
Grammar, insults, gear, insults, "stony", insults, trolling, insults, tourniquet...and a few insults.

 

[lexvil]

I think I’m going to go pee in my drysuit.

 

[stiebs]

I provide links, explanations, and examples to support my statements.

In return I get insults and my posts are quoted and intentionally changed to make it appear I said something different.

That pretty much covers it. .

I started out reading this thread, and didn't feel like I could add anything of value. Much has already been said. It became very apparent very quickly that many, many people have been offering suggestions on your equipment configurations. You've defended your choices ad infinitum, which I (to a certain extent) respect even though contemporary and collective wisdom says otherwise.

But then we come to this "DECO" thing. In this case you are plain, simply and irrefutably wrong. As has been stated, "deco" is an abbreviation, not an acronym. In the English language, abbreviations are not capitalised, but acronyms are.

You have posted a picture of a dive computer abbreviating "decompression" to "DECO". It is in all caps because everything on that computer is in all caps. I actually challenge you to find a computer or watch where they use lower case letters. Almost all watches will have buttons labelled "STOP", "START", "RESET", "MODE". Not "stop", "start". "reset", "mode".

For Oceanic, using "DECO" instead of "deco" was a design and legibility decision, not an English language decision.

Your defence of your objective error in language, and your total lack of humility when proven wrong has lost you all creditibility in my mind (and no doubt many others) on not only this, but until you can prove otherwise, every other opinion you might voice.

I will point out issue that I have with your defence of your equipment. Your stance on your equipment is a paradox. You carry all of this stuff just in case you need it. Two cutting devices, reels, spools, PLB. This is all "just in case" something goes wrong, but likely you will never need it. But then you have an equipment set up which creates a whole heap of potential "this could go wrong" situations.

In all your years of experience, you have never (or hardly ever, I assume) used your PLB.
In all your years of experience, you have never (or hardly ever, I assume) had an issue with your equipment setup.

One day you might need to use your PLB.
One day you might have an issue with your equipment.

If your equipment has been fine for all these years, why carry a PLB?

If I came across someone with your equipment or with your attitude on a boat, not only would I refuse to be buddied with you, I would sit on the other side of the boat, and make sure I'm nowhere near you in the water.

Good luck to you, may you find the humility to admit that there are facts that stand up to your opinions, and opinions that you would do well to heed and take on board.

 

[Soloist]

It took some stones for the OP to post all those pictures with detailed descriptions of his gear knowing it was somewhat eccentric, atypical and/or outside of the SB norm (whatever that is). In return WHAT I HAVE SEEN is the OP criticized, attacked, belittled and personally insulted. WHAT I HAVE NOT SEEN are people willing to post pics of their gear for ALL to see. There has only been a few (@Scuba Lawyer @Tassie_Rohan @MaxBottomtime @Blackcrusader @Nemrod and myself) willing to confront the harpoons from the SB shooting gallery laser focused on any possible chink in the armor. (apologies if I left anyone out)

 

[Seepferdchencam]

Well if that's your definition thats fine. When I did my BSAC courses in the 80's we did deco on 21%.
There was no nitrox, dive computers were rare to see so we did dive planning with tables and a watch. There was no SPG we had the J valve. We put extra tanks around wrecks or on the anchor line from the boat.

I'm nitrox certified and have planned deco dives on nitrox. Does a staged deco stop make me a technical diver? Well not to me. Called sports diving when I did my deco certs. Deco training is normal for some agencies. like BSAC and CMAS. It is not for PADI and some other agencies that focius on NDL dives.

There's a few definitions of technical diving in play here. The one I prefer has nothing to do with your gear, and everything to do with the overhead. A deco obligation is an overhead.

 

[johndiver999]

I'd like to elaborate on this suggestion, my earlier reply wasn't much more than an acknowledgement and when members take their valuable time to make suggestions, it's only fair that I tell them why I either think it's a good idea and I'll try it or conversely why it won't work for me and I prefer my current set up.

The twinset won't work for me because most of my diving is overseas on dive charters and I'm obviously not going to drag them on an airplane, and they're not typically available on dive charter boats. Also - and this includes sidemounted cylinders, I'll never use that much gas, the 19cf or certainly the 30 cf bottle provides more than enough for my needs, given that as a recreational diver I don't ever incur more than maybe a 5 minute DECO obligation at most.

People are worried about semantics, when this gentleman is indicating that he saves 500 psi in a 19 cuft pony in order to safely ascend from (say 100 ft) AND perform a 5 minute decompression stop, presumably with about 3 cu-ft.

If people want to perform decompression dives with inadequate (or zero) redundancy, I really don't have a problem with that - I have friends who do that almost every week when I am driving the boat for them. They know the risks and sometimes they get a little bent now and then, even though they may clear the computer. I'm not saying this sort of thing is wise, but everyone has their own risk tolerance.

However, to argue that a safe ascent can be made on 3 cuft and a 5 minute stop are possible with those kinds of reserves is "hard to swallow" - particularly from a tourist, recreational diver who needs to carry extra gas just to complete a typical rec dive.

The OP says he shoots video, perhaps when he is diving this weekend he can shoot a selfie which documents the validity of his plan and practices. It should be trivial to just show the ascent on the pony and the starting and final pressure. Honestly, I would prefer he start with 1500 and show us what is left - it will probably be a lot safer than doing his "normal" ascent.

 

[Nemrod]

It took some stones for the OP to post all those pictures with detailed descriptions of his gear knowing it was somewhat eccentric, atypical or outside of the SB norm (whatever that is). In return WHAT I HAVE SEEN is the OP criticized, attacked, belittled and personally insulted. WHAT I HAVE NOT SEEN are people willing to post pics of their gear for ALL to see. There has only been a few (@Scuba Lawyer @Tassie_Rohan @MaxBottomtime @Blackcrusader @Nemrod and myself) willing to confront the harpoons from the SB shooting gallery laser focused on any possible chink in the armor. (apologies if I left anyone out)

I have gotten many good ideas I have incorporated from scubaboard. Regarding the OP rig, well, on second thought, following advice from my mom, if there is nothing good to say, best then to say nothing .