Short Version:
Should I add a couple of fixed D-rings to my Apeks WSX-45 waist belt to clip my steels to? Or should I really clip the steels to the Drop D-rings that came from the factory installed on the waist belt? It seems like this is probably a minor thing and I could go either way - whichever I feel like. But, there seems to be so many nuances and tiny details to SM that I figured I would ask in case there is something non-obvious about that that would make one or the other more preferable.
Very Long Version:
I finally got in the pool today to try my Apeks WSX-45 redundant bladder sidemount rig. It was my first time ever in sidemount. I read Rob Neto's book twice, did a bunch of reading on the Internet, and watched my share of videos first.
I guess all the research stood me in good stead. I spent about 2 or 3 hours setting up and customizing the WSX harness at home before I went to the pool. I set it up with loop bungees. I anchored the bungees with tri-slides on the spine strap instead of using the holes in the upper spine plate. I used 5/16 bungee cord instead of the thick bungee cord that it came with.
I set up my tanks with cam bands and 4" bolt snaps on, basically, zero-length leashes. I positioned the cam bands by setting a tank on a low table and then standing next to it, squatting a little to position the valves up into my arm pits and then positioning the cam bands to line up with the harness waist belt. The tanks are old, skinny-neck 3500 psi HP100s. I had a Genesis manifold with the angled-up valves on them, so I just removed the isolator and installed plugs.
My regs are Dive Rite XTs (so, swivel turrets) and I set them up with each one having an AI transmitter to my Perdix AI and no SPGs. 7' hose on right side and 40" hose + wing inflator on left side. AI transmitters angled down/back (i.e. towards bottom of cylinder) and slightly up, into my armpits. 2nd stages with Omni-like swivels between reg and hose. The 40" hose was way too long. I'm going to try a 34" hose there next time. No inflator hose for the redundant bladder's power inflator.
Getting in the water with no one to hand tanks down to me and getting them clipped on was challenging. Especially since I forgot to clip the wing bungee together around my stomach at first and was in and attached my tanks with the wing totally butterflied out behind me before I realized. I only had use of the deep end (12') of the pool, so it was not easy like it would have been if I were standing in the shallow end.
But, after about 5 minutes of getting situated and getting the wing bungeed around me, I felt pretty comfortable. Oh, except for the stupid sliding D-rings that came on the Apeks waist belt. Anything other than calm swimming in horizontal trim and those steel tanks would just slide right down and around to the front of my belly. Fortunately, they were not hard to slide back up into place with the tanks still clipped to them.
An OW instructor friend was also in the pool practicing his own SM skills with his wife. They've both been diving SM for a while. He was totally flat in the water and his AL80s were completely parallel to his body and right up against his sides. I asked him to have a look at me while we were in the water and so he watched me swim around for a bit. He said I looked flat and my tanks were right where they should be. They felt like they were not at my 9:00 and 3:00 on my body. They felt like they were a little low, like maybe 9:30 and 2:30. But, I could feel each tank against the side of my chest, up into my armpit, but not touching my armpit, towards the front of my chest, and then I could feel the tanks against me all the way down to where the bottom of the tank felt like it was in the same position against my thigh - on the side, a little towards the front.
If I looked down at my chest while swimming with hands together out in front of me, I could not see any part of the tank/valve/reg setup. But, I could easily grab a tank and pull it down and forward to see the whole valve/reg assembly.
I was wearing a 3/2 wetsuit with no weights. If I got really still, I would go a little head up. The wing is attached to the top mounting hold on the upper spine plate. For next time, I plan to move it down to the lower hole (so, about 1" lower, I think) to see how that does.
Oh, and I did do two "skill drills". One was to dump all the air from my wing, whereupon I landed on the bottom (starting from less than 1 foot above it). I then used oral inflation to get neutral with the redundant bladder. I swam around like that for a bit and then dumped the air from the redundant bladder and went back to using the power inflator on the primary bladder. The other was to unclip a tank as I was hovering and swing it around to point out in front of me. With just one tank like that I could stay in trim without too much sculling and pretty easily swim in trim. When I tried the same thing with both tanks swung out in front of me, all I could do was nosedive into the bottom.
After we got out of the pool, we went back to the shop and I talked to the instructor there that is going to officially teach me SM. I told him the sliding D-rings kept sliding down (duh). He said that I should clip steel tanks to the Drop D-rings that came installed on the waist belt, instead of the sliding D-rings. I thought the sliding D-rings would be better because the Drop D-rings would have the butt pouch clipped to it (in the future) plus possibly reels or other things. So, the less "stuff" I clipped to those Drop D-rings, the better.
I was planning to just add a fixed D-ring on each side for future clipping of my steel tanks. I figured I would leave the sliding D-ring on there, since I have them, and use them in the future if/when I ever dive SM with AL80s.
So, the question is: Should I do what I was thinking and just add a couple of fixed D-rings to clip my steels to? Or should I really clip the steels to the Drop D-rings? It seems like this is probably a minor thing and I could go either way - whichever I feel like. But, there seems to be so many nuances and tiny details to SM that I figured I would ask in case there is something non-obvious about that that would make one or the other more preferable.
Should I add a couple of fixed D-rings to my Apeks WSX-45 waist belt to clip my steels to? Or should I really clip the steels to the Drop D-rings that came from the factory installed on the waist belt? It seems like this is probably a minor thing and I could go either way - whichever I feel like. But, there seems to be so many nuances and tiny details to SM that I figured I would ask in case there is something non-obvious about that that would make one or the other more preferable.
Very Long Version:
I finally got in the pool today to try my Apeks WSX-45 redundant bladder sidemount rig. It was my first time ever in sidemount. I read Rob Neto's book twice, did a bunch of reading on the Internet, and watched my share of videos first.
I guess all the research stood me in good stead. I spent about 2 or 3 hours setting up and customizing the WSX harness at home before I went to the pool. I set it up with loop bungees. I anchored the bungees with tri-slides on the spine strap instead of using the holes in the upper spine plate. I used 5/16 bungee cord instead of the thick bungee cord that it came with.
I set up my tanks with cam bands and 4" bolt snaps on, basically, zero-length leashes. I positioned the cam bands by setting a tank on a low table and then standing next to it, squatting a little to position the valves up into my arm pits and then positioning the cam bands to line up with the harness waist belt. The tanks are old, skinny-neck 3500 psi HP100s. I had a Genesis manifold with the angled-up valves on them, so I just removed the isolator and installed plugs.
My regs are Dive Rite XTs (so, swivel turrets) and I set them up with each one having an AI transmitter to my Perdix AI and no SPGs. 7' hose on right side and 40" hose + wing inflator on left side. AI transmitters angled down/back (i.e. towards bottom of cylinder) and slightly up, into my armpits. 2nd stages with Omni-like swivels between reg and hose. The 40" hose was way too long. I'm going to try a 34" hose there next time. No inflator hose for the redundant bladder's power inflator.
Getting in the water with no one to hand tanks down to me and getting them clipped on was challenging. Especially since I forgot to clip the wing bungee together around my stomach at first and was in and attached my tanks with the wing totally butterflied out behind me before I realized. I only had use of the deep end (12') of the pool, so it was not easy like it would have been if I were standing in the shallow end.
But, after about 5 minutes of getting situated and getting the wing bungeed around me, I felt pretty comfortable. Oh, except for the stupid sliding D-rings that came on the Apeks waist belt. Anything other than calm swimming in horizontal trim and those steel tanks would just slide right down and around to the front of my belly. Fortunately, they were not hard to slide back up into place with the tanks still clipped to them.
An OW instructor friend was also in the pool practicing his own SM skills with his wife. They've both been diving SM for a while. He was totally flat in the water and his AL80s were completely parallel to his body and right up against his sides. I asked him to have a look at me while we were in the water and so he watched me swim around for a bit. He said I looked flat and my tanks were right where they should be. They felt like they were not at my 9:00 and 3:00 on my body. They felt like they were a little low, like maybe 9:30 and 2:30. But, I could feel each tank against the side of my chest, up into my armpit, but not touching my armpit, towards the front of my chest, and then I could feel the tanks against me all the way down to where the bottom of the tank felt like it was in the same position against my thigh - on the side, a little towards the front.
If I looked down at my chest while swimming with hands together out in front of me, I could not see any part of the tank/valve/reg setup. But, I could easily grab a tank and pull it down and forward to see the whole valve/reg assembly.
I was wearing a 3/2 wetsuit with no weights. If I got really still, I would go a little head up. The wing is attached to the top mounting hold on the upper spine plate. For next time, I plan to move it down to the lower hole (so, about 1" lower, I think) to see how that does.
Oh, and I did do two "skill drills". One was to dump all the air from my wing, whereupon I landed on the bottom (starting from less than 1 foot above it). I then used oral inflation to get neutral with the redundant bladder. I swam around like that for a bit and then dumped the air from the redundant bladder and went back to using the power inflator on the primary bladder. The other was to unclip a tank as I was hovering and swing it around to point out in front of me. With just one tank like that I could stay in trim without too much sculling and pretty easily swim in trim. When I tried the same thing with both tanks swung out in front of me, all I could do was nosedive into the bottom.
After we got out of the pool, we went back to the shop and I talked to the instructor there that is going to officially teach me SM. I told him the sliding D-rings kept sliding down (duh). He said that I should clip steel tanks to the Drop D-rings that came installed on the waist belt, instead of the sliding D-rings. I thought the sliding D-rings would be better because the Drop D-rings would have the butt pouch clipped to it (in the future) plus possibly reels or other things. So, the less "stuff" I clipped to those Drop D-rings, the better.
I was planning to just add a fixed D-ring on each side for future clipping of my steel tanks. I figured I would leave the sliding D-ring on there, since I have them, and use them in the future if/when I ever dive SM with AL80s.
So, the question is: Should I do what I was thinking and just add a couple of fixed D-rings to clip my steels to? Or should I really clip the steels to the Drop D-rings? It seems like this is probably a minor thing and I could go either way - whichever I feel like. But, there seems to be so many nuances and tiny details to SM that I figured I would ask in case there is something non-obvious about that that would make one or the other more preferable.
