So I made a Toddy Style instructional video for liveaboards...

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Critiques& suggestions:
  • The beginning of the video feels like in-your-face marketing of those transmitters.
  • The pauses audio is a bit abrupt, maybe mute the recorded audio and use music, or narrate over the video.
  • Agreed with the stowing hoses suggestions.
  • Have you considered also clipping the camera equipment, before entering the water? It seems like you're at risk of dropping it, if you happened to need both hands for some reason or got disoriented.
  • Is there an advantage to clipping the regulator before the tank? Intuitively, it seems like clipping the tank first, then routing the regulator would produce more consistent results.
  • A narrower focus and defining your audience might help instruct better. For example, you would have been better off addressing only one topic: (1) liveaboard sidemount etiquette (2) boat dive with a camera-rig (3) donning sidemount system on a boat (4) your specific equipment setup. To understand what's going on in this video, you'd have to know a decent amount about sidemount already.
Positives:
  • I always appreciate more people showing how side mount works.
  • Video quality is fairly good & easy to follow.
  • Don't get discouraged if feedback initially is a little rough, we all start somewhere, and this seems like a decent start. Go watch the early uploads of most popular channels, they all start similarly. (Many YouTube channels delete their early uploads, hah)
Thanks for sharing, and I look forward to seeing more from you.

Thanks for feedback, really. Please dismiss the marketing, I made this unsolicited as a proof of concept of how a training video for specific market (open water solo photogs) may look like for a friend of mine who happens to dive for over 25 years, is a certified instructor for Toddy and happens to own a safari boat serving 40 divers in Red Sea.

The video is not supposed to be narrated as it is supposed to be multilingual and needs to be stopped at critical points for observation. Toddy is not the easiest system around.

Stowing hoses = Toddy by the book.

Clipping the DSLR size camera equipment at Zodiak entry is another element to get tangled into in case of troubles. It seems like a good idea but on a zodiak with more people the equipment may get handed to you just before the water entry and there are also other things to check so finding a D-ring and clipping might be unnecessary a distraction. Plus another cable for the diver or others to get tangled in. The rig is secured through wrist based loop. You need to protect this $10k+ equipment and controlling it with the hand erected seemed to me like the best option.

Clipping the (right - working - cylinder) regulator before the tank. The other choice is to have regulator hanging down and finding the way for it between the cylinder and your body after you clip the cylinder. I've tried both and it seems to me clipping it first is better option.

Yes, the video is a shortcut for somebody already thinking going a different path so some level of mental participation is required. Otherwise it would have to be several times longer and wouldn't get to the point - which is using the SM on a safari boat with photo equipment and zodiak entry.

Thanks for c&c, I really appreciate this.
 
@roman50

What made you take up SM?

Documenting cichlids life in lake Malawi and realising at 40m depth that I am all alone, the hoses or primary stage could fail and I am all alone and the the nearest hyperbaric chamber is half continent away. If I get a heart attack or stroke so be it and I am done in any case. Anything else I can manage IF I have air.
 
Documenting cichlids life in lake Malawi and realising at 40m depth that I am all alone, the hoses or primary stage could fail and I am all alone and the the nearest hyperbaric chamber is half continent away. If I get a heart attack or stroke so be it and I am done in any case. Anything else I can manage IF I have air.

Why SM and not backmount doubles? Or a big single tank and a 40cft pony?
 
Why did it set you off? You asked not to be too hard on you since you are new to diving and new to sidemount diving, and specifically asked for comments about this system. Based off of over 10 years of sidemount experience, I gave you my comments. Those 10 years are primarily in caves, but include RHIB's where I make one of two exceptions to my "no sidemount on boats" rule *the other exception is when using a boat to get to a cave*.
Caves are the main domain of sidemount divers everywhere in the world, it is where the configuration was created for and is still where it is best implemented. The configuration is ever-evolving amongst open minded divers and instructors as we are continually seeking better solutions.

As we explored transmitters again when Shearwater came out with their solution we started with redundant analog SPG's until we realized that it did not make sense. The added failure points did not make sense. If the transmitter fails, the dive is over and you either have enough gas to get home, or you don't. The short hoses left around the same time because again, the added failure points brought no benefit if you handled the bottles properly and configured your regulators properly. In this case, you are actually exposing the transmitters to more risk of damage because instead of being tucked underneath the first stage within the recess of the crown, it is now sitting proud against the side of the tank and since everything on a rhib is constantly bouncing around, it could very easily get crushed.

The attachment method of your right bottle in particular creates more risk to you as a diver by doing a back roll entry with a loose tank. You don't have enough hands to safely hold the bottle, the camera rig, and your mask. If you had them attached at the d-rings, you can safely roll back in without the hassle of looping a bungee over. You are increasing the work required and the risk of losing a bottle by fully detaching it just to deploy the regulator. Alternatively, the second stage would be clipped off before you roll and all you would have to do when you got horizontal is snap the bungee over the valve. Again, this comes from not only a decade of my experience, but that combined with many others over the years of getting off of a rhib in sidemount.

This video is a clip from Steve Martins courses and includes getting into the water from a RHIB. Note that everything is secure prior to entry.
and from Michur which is not from a RHIB but from similar conditions and very detailed similar to your video. This is close to how I do it.

You are headed down a very exciting path and your passion is a good thing, but you need to keep an open mind, particularly from those that have been at it for a very long time with a tremendous amount of experience. I have more days spent underwater than you have total dives and I am still one of the younger divers and instructors in my circle. It is important to see what everyone else is doing and really understand why you are doing everything that you do.

I would quote Morpheus: 'there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path'.

My path is simply different then yours and for some reason you can't see it. Diving 20 years in caves is fine but it does nothing for you if one day you surface on a safari boat under different circumstances.

You are probably used to controlled environment. You dive in controlled group. You control your life support equipment from the beginning through the end. etc etc. It doesn't work this way on a leisure safari boat. There you rely on people you never met to fill up your cylinders. So you need to check what you have before the dive. Then your equipment may get carried for you to the zodiac/dinghy. In some cases you may wear it just before the dive if there is a rough passage with quieter end.

So you need to check your life support again before your descent. I don't know about your transmitters but in case of Ratio there is startup procedure when if you interrupt it like by closing the valve and releasing the pressure you need to pair your transmitters again. etc etc. I hope that you can see where I am heading by now. At the end of the day you can't rely on wireless connections just yet as there are number of other actors in play. That's why dismissing SPGs set me off.

And for rigid connection of anything to your primary stage - have you seen ever - I bet you did - how other people handle cylinders to be stowed on a dinghy? Piling them on top of each other? And you want to tell me that rigid connection of fairly big transmitter is safer than elastic hose? I hope not.

As for fully kitted zodiac entry - you just can't have two cylinders hooked on D-rings at the top and have a 10 minutes bumpy ride to a dive site and carry your equipment. You just can't. You could but then your attachment to these would be so loose that it would make no difference or be worse than what I've shown in video.

The videos you posted I know and I've studied them before and after initial Toddy dives. That was when I tried to modify Toddy and incorporate neck hooks and rigid belt hooks - only to realise it was a fag and how happy I was to get back to real Toddy. So again - a difference between (thinking) I know the path and I walk the path.

Don't take this critic from a newbie diver in a wrong way. You just walk a different path. But if you want to show me how to walk my path differently then show it to me, not talk it to me. The vids you referred have one major flaw on my path - they don't show a safari boat environment with a negative zodiak entry with full DSLR sized equipment. In both vids the divers have plenty of things to do with just themselves. But I am not diving for diving. I am diving to do other things under water. Like taking pictures and videos. So once you have that example of a side mount photographer on a safari leisure boat in your hands I will be thrilled to watch it. And don't be afraid to learn something new. Every one of us does it all the time. Even the guy I made video for, the certified Toddy instructor. But he trained in caves. So a different path.
 
Give it up, tbone, Marie. He has already thought it all through, and is happy. Everybody else's path is different, so there is nothing to learn.
Not to mention he does not want to read, only to watch. "But if you want to show me how to walk my path differently then show it to me, not talk it to me."
 
Give it up, tbone, Marie. He has already thought it all through, and is happy. Everybody else's path is different, so there is nothing to learn.
Not to mention he does not want to read, only to watch. "But if you want to show me how to walk my path differently then show it to me, not talk it to me."

I was simply wondering as to the thinking behind SM. That’s all. I do what works for me, as you guys well know. Not going to bother with his video, though.
 
@roman50 I am certainly well versed in that type of diving though admittedly not in the ratio transmitters. That startup procedure is another reason to avoid them for me. The Shearwaters are one-way communication and start broadcasting immediately after being pressurized so it's about 30 seconds longer to check both tanks with a Perdix as it is with SPG's. Not an issue.

if we are ever in the same neck of the woods at the same time I would be more than happy to walk that walk with you.

I recommend you contact Steve Davis from Speaking Sidemount. He has all of the experience you seek.
 
It’s gotta be a translation issue but what is a safari boat?

Are you suggesting that being on a live aboard is somehow more remote and less supported than other areas?
 
Why SM and not backmount doubles? Or a big single tank and a 40cft pony?

Down in Malawi I am limited to 12l cylinders and I can’t have them assembled to double. I was thinking of making a bracket have 2 identical cylinders on the back with independent valves and regulators, pretty much like Toddy on the back. But when discovering TS SM I appreciated the simplicity of it and ability to be handed cylinders to water and completing assembly in the water. And egressing in similar manner The logistics on the lake are very much different than on a live aboard Safari boat with many people. And because I liked the system and it’s trim I was trying to make it work on a safari boat even though having a double there would not be an issue. But logistics of it are not ideal for that use case so that’s why I made a video and looking for input on that scenario.
 
@roman50 I am certainly well versed in that type of diving though admittedly not in the ratio transmitters. That startup procedure is another reason to avoid them for me. The Shearwaters are one-way communication and start broadcasting immediately after being pressurized so it's about 30 seconds longer to check both tanks with a Perdix as it is with SPG's. Not an issue.

Thanks for heads up on Perdix. I have read the manual now. While Ratio AI (in Perdix language) has more advanced features and integration (dedicated SM mode, total GTR based on both SM cylinders, possibility to use more than two cylinders and different mixes) the communication setup of Perdix AI seems foolproof for use on Safari boats where other people may have access to your equipment.

I like hard coded serial route of Perdix better than flexible pairing of Ratio. I have seen several people, myself included, to get into water only to realize the communication has been broken because a fill-up crew ‘helped’ - hooked up your air after fill-up and checked quickly by opening valve, closing it and purging the regulator. Thus resetting the transmitter…

There was one more thing in the manual though… ‘use first stage regulator with at least 2 HP ports so a backup SPG can be installed’ :). Sorry I couldn’t resist :) Cheers.
 

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