Ring Bungee System

[Supertylie]

Hi All,

Just beginning my trek into sidemount diving and have just finished building out my rig. I start with my instructor next week, but in the meantime have been testing all my basic equipment in my pool in the meantime with a Nomad LTZ, atomic regs, and two faber LP-50s with stage bottle rigging.

Im curious in regards to the ring bungee system and neck chokers: Is it common practice with the ring bungee system to have the 1st stages facing outwards, then routing your hoses on the inward sides of the tank in order to protect the hosing, etc(facing in towards you)?

I am familiar with 1st stages facing inwards(with a standard bungee system) but this creates a problem with the ring bungee system(from my testing and stage rigging). Facing the 1st stages inward towards your body, the neck chokers place the bolt snap at the neck of the valve, which gets in the way of the 1st stage if you place your bolt snap on the same side as your 1st stage. Do you loosen the choker to accommodate the 1st stage and the bolt snap accordingly? In the Dive Rite youtube videos it appears to show the sidemount rigging with the 1st stages outward, but I am curious to see if there is a solution I am missing to have them routed with the stages facing in.

Thanks for any input on this. The obvious solution is to route the 1st stage outwards but this appears to create a slight hazard and more opportunity materials to catch. Thanks for any help, thoughts, opinions!

 

[tbone1004]

first stages outwards, doesn't really work with them pointed inwards, but you typically don't point them in, they are either straight ish down, and usually angled slightly outward due to bungee tension, or they are straight up and with the bungee on angled slightly inward. Unfortunately no easy way to do the latter with ring bungees and chokers. I use a modified system with first stages up where the tanks clip into the ring but the bungee snaps over the valve knob which is nice for cold water diving to still have the ring, but it's not using chokers.

 

[tursiops]

first stages outwards, doesn't really work with them pointed inwards, but you typically don't point them in, they are either straight ish down, and usually angled slightly outward due to bungee tension, or they are straight up and with the bungee on angled slightly inward. Unfortunately no easy way to do the latter with ring bungees and chokers. I use a modified system with first stages up where the tanks clip into the ring but the bungee snaps over the valve knob which is nice for cold water diving to still have the ring, but it's not using chokers.

You've described this in several threads, but I'm not sure I've understood it completely. Do you have pictures?

 

[Omisson]

Of course different first stages having different routing and ports- some swivel.... So other first stages may provide different ways to configure around the attachment points...

 

[diverlee]

I use just a bungie old school side mount. My first stages are on the inside.


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[tbone1004]

tursiops, think Razor rigging, but instead of having a neck leash, use standard stage rigging and clip to the ring. I forgot to get pictures of it last time in cave country and my bottles are down there. I'll try to rig a stage bottle up to show you this week if I remember.

 

[tursiops]

tursiops, think Razor rigging, but instead of having a neck leash, use standard stage rigging and clip to the ring. I forgot to get pictures of it last time in cave country and my bottles are down there. I'll try to rig a stage bottle up to show you this week if I remember.

So the ring bungees are standard, you clip to the ring with the top stage clip (that's your walk-around/security clip?), and pull both (?) bungees over the tank valve? Seems like the bungees are kind of far back....

 

[tbone1004]

I just pull one bungee over. The stock ring bungees are looped together around the ring which I don't like, so mine go through the ring just like they would with a quick link. It does pull the tank necks up pretty high, but I like that. I have a really big chest so if I just use the one bolt snap and quick link the tanks hang too low since my shoulder straps are quite a ways away, so the ring itself actually sits just under my arm pit when I have the rig on, about the same position as the Razor since it doesn't use a chest strap

 

[Supertylie]

Thanks all for the tips on implementing. I am going to give some of these suggestions a try later this week and see what works best. Cheers

 

[Supertylie]

I can say I have now dove my sidemount rig(Dive Rite LTZ) roughly 7 or 8 times now in the past few weeks and personally prefer the ring bungee system over regular bungee.

Walking onto the sand from the water as well as unclipping the tanks at the back of a boat to hand off to the Captain/DM was very easy and fluid. Even with 5mm gloves, it was still possible(I wouldn't exactly call it "easy" clipping with thick gloves though) to clip and unclip the ring bungees from the bolt snaps without problems. Also, the ability of swinging tanks the in front of your body in order to squeeze thru tight spaces while wreck diving was actually a lot of fun with how easy it became. It almost creates a kind of swivel for your tanks.

Thanks for everyones thoughts and help. Excited to continue diving more Sidemount as I progress, the benefits have really been showing the past few dives!