Left handed?

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all this talk, but is there even commonly available BCD or wing with RH inflator?
 
all this talk, but is there even commonly available BCD or wing with RH inflator?

There are some with a "central" inflator position which I imagine can be rotated.

But seriously.. a person with less than 20 dives talking about changing the entire system to suit an imaginary problem that hasn't seemed to have affected millions of left handed divers before him.
 
I'm lefty. The school teachers & my dad forced me to write with my right hand. I was able to write with both hands until 3rd grade when my mom finally asked everyone to let me be.

I found no problem using the standard gear configuration. I'm glad that power inflator is on the left side. Initially I feel strange to reach my regulator with my right hand, but I got used to it. Like other said, as long as the tasks are not involving writing or throwing, I can do with both hands just fine.
 
But seriously.. a person with less than 20 dives talking about changing the entire system to suit an imaginary problem that hasn't seemed to have affected millions of left handed divers before him.

@Griffo, Yes I am relatively new to diving. Not new to live. My questions were related to left-handed divers.

If you are not left-handed, you will sadly not understand the problem left-handed people are facing. Simple things are 99.9 % of all scissors are made for right-handed people. Have you been to a fancy fish restaurant? The knives you got can only be used by your right hand. Power tools: chain saws. As a left-handed, it is not easy or tries to start a chain saw. The starter cord, buttons, turtles are all positioned for a right-handed. Your outboard engine? Same thing.

Diving is a technical sport some equipment you are using is not made for left-handed. The buddy system also expects that some equipment is position in fixed places.

As most in life, left-handed need to adapt and use the equipment made available. It might be a question of training if you are 100% lefthanded you will do things better, faster and safer if the equipment was adjusted. That applies to diving and anything else in life.
 
@Griffo, Yes I am relatively new to diving. Not new to live. My questions were related to left-handed divers.

If you are not left-handed, you will sadly not understand the problem left-handed people are facing. Simple things are 99.9 % of all scissors are made for right-handed people. Have you been to a fancy fish restaurant? The knives you got can only be used by your right hand. Power tools: chain saws. As a left-handed, it is not easy or tries to start a chain saw. The starter cord, buttons, turtles are all positioned for a right-handed. Your outboard engine? Same thing.

Diving is a technical sport some equipment you are using is not made for left-handed. The buddy system also expects that some equipment is position in fixed places.

As most in life, left-handed need to adapt and use the equipment made available. It might be a question of training if you are 100% lefthanded you will do things better, faster and safer if the equipment was adjusted. That applies to diving and anything else in life.

Except that unlike using chainsaws, and your other example, scuba diving is highly ambidextrous. As many people have stated, the left hand is actually used for more activities than the right. From using the inflator, SPG, light head when using a goodman handle, valve drills being ambi. You've got the inflator dump in your left, and the butt-dump for the right

In fact the only activity I can think of that isn't left or ambi is holding onto a scooter but that's years away.
You could make a 100% reversed scuba setup and (apart from re-learing muscle memory) a strong righty would have zero issues diving it.
 
@Griffo, Yes I am relatively new to diving. Not new to live. My questions were related to left-handed divers.

If you are not left-handed, you will sadly not understand the problem left-handed people are facing. Simple things are 99.9 % of all scissors are made for right-handed people. Have you been to a fancy fish restaurant? The knives you got can only be used by your right hand. Power tools: chain saws. As a left-handed, it is not easy or tries to start a chain saw. The starter cord, buttons, turtles are all positioned for a right-handed. Your outboard engine? Same thing.

Diving is a technical sport some equipment you are using is not made for left-handed. The buddy system also expects that some equipment is position in fixed places.

As most in life, left-handed need to adapt and use the equipment made available. It might be a question of training if you are 100% lefthanded you will do things better, faster and safer if the equipment was adjusted. That applies to diving and anything else in life.

Except you're not using a pair of scissors. You're pushing a button that responds identically to either hand. Or a stick. It doesn't care. Theres no benefit. It's your gear rig it so you operate it with your pinky toes and it doesn't matter. But justifying it with writing and scissors and other left handed hardships is silly.
 


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It’s true that a lot of scuba stuff is ambidextrous... except when it’s not, like reaching for a cutting implement. This might make you want a BC where you can move things around, like a backplate and wing with web belt harness that is completely customizable.

These kinds of little placement tweaks matter sometimes. And things domino. For example I would not be able to wear my hosed air integrated console on the right if I did not have an air2, because if I had an octo on the right that would be three hoses on the right. If I decided to have an octo on the right, say bungied under my neck, I would want to get a wrist mounted computer for my right hand that spoke to a transmitter for air integration, and that’s a lot more expensive than my current computer.

The original poster is smart to ask these questions now and think about the stuff before he buys things that he might not like because he is left-handed.
 
I am a southpaw. I follow all conventions of diving, even though they were written by the dark lords of right-handedness.

Most of the actions done underwater are of fairly low dexterity requirements. Sweeping to recover a lost reg is not a precise activity. The problem of your trying to create a left-handed rig is two fold. First, some has to been on certain orientation because that is the only way it is ever manufactured. All single hose regulators come over the right shoulder. Moving your LP inflator to the right side creates clutter. The available ports on your first stage were designed with a certain configuration in mind and trying to change that will probably do nothing to enhance your dive experience.

The second issue has to do with other divers. Another diver encountering you in the water may have trouble trying help you or be helped by you if your gear is the mirror opposite of every training task he has ever done.

As a lefty, I do change up somethings for myself. My compass goes on my right wrist. I wear my first choice cutting device on the right side of my BCD. Leg knife goes on the right calf inside (when I wear one). I wear my weight belt upside down (you pull from the right rather than the left. A lot of those choices are based on the ease of gearing up and how I use the tools. Unless you have some very legitimate physical handicap (like paralysis), I would use the standard rig configurations.

I do all my diving as a lefty and I have never once thought the traditional configuration was an impediment.
 
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All single hose regulators come over the right shoulder.
Not all. Apeks XTX 2nds can be reversed so the hose comes in from the left, so it's quite possible to have your reg hose coming over your left shoulder.

I wear my weight belt upside down (you pull from the right rather than the left.
That doesn't sound like a good idea if you end up in a situation where your buddy has to ditch your weights. In such a situation, reversing your belt may cause confusion, which really is something you - or at least I - don't want in a rescue scenario
 
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