Attaching Stage to D ring on Twinset

[Daniel Dilley]

Hi Everyone

Yesterday i was diving with a new buddy and i noticed that instead of attaching his deco tanks to the shoulder and hip d rings on his harness he attached the bottom carabiner on the rigging to a d ring that he put near the bottom of his twinset. I have seen this before and have thourght about trying it.

When i asked him his reasons he said because when the tank is full it sits better when it is clupped to his twin than to his harness which seemed to make sense to me.


Is there anything in any training angceny standards that says how deco tanks should be attached?

Could you see a reason for this to be a problem? Any body else doing this?



Thanks
Daniel Dilley

 

[RJP]

I don't see any upside to it. Not sure what he means by "sits better" clipped to tanks; if he's in proper trim, this will cause the deco tank to be angled and therefore less streamlined. Will also move it further out of the diver's own slipstream (unless he's wider than his tanks) reducing streamlining even more.

 

[ajduplessis]

To my knowledge the d-rings on the tanks are used as a "replacement" for a buttplate. Thus the stages/deco bottles are carried in a sidemount configuration.

 

[JohnnyC]

Clipping the bottom clip on stage bottles to either a buttplate or to a D-ring attached to the bottom of the tanks allows them to streamline. It is best used with some bungee through the backplate to pull them tight in to the body.

Here's a video detailing it. Works pretty well actually.

https://youtu.be/KJTWa2xHqJU

 

[kr2y5]

I've seen a serious DIR diver use a left tank D-ring for additional stages and claim it is very kosher.

 

[victorzamora]

Tank d rings aren't kosher in DIR ideology. I don't know how attaching stuff to one would be kosher.

---------- Post added May 20th, 2015 at 07:27 AM ----------

Also: aluminum tanks do better clipped to your waist. Clipping off light tanks behind you is a recipe for forcing them to float. I'd set up stages as the razor guys set up their mains.

 

[LiteHedded]

the move is to shorten up that bottom stage clip:


not to clip it to the tank

 

[kr2y5]

Tank d rings aren't kosher in DIR ideology. I don't know how attaching stuff to one would be kosher.

Sorry, I remembered incorrectly. The D-ring is on the right tank, not on the left one, and it is used instead of a butt D-ring to attach additional stages to haul them behind when there are many of them. Allegedly easier to access... maybe it's true? I guess whether it's easier depends on the person...

 

[victorzamora]

Sorry, I remembered incorrectly. The D-ring is on the right tank, not on the left one, and it is used instead of a butt D-ring to attach additional stages to haul them behind when there are many of them. Allegedly easier to access... maybe it's true? I guess whether it's easier depends on the person...

DIR gear configuration includes zero Tank D-rings, and only 5 on the harness. One on each shoulder, scooter, butt, and left hip. Anything else is superfluous (according to the DIR philosophy, at least when the book was written). I know GUE has stepped away from the term, but let's not pretend like they're different. GUE doesn't condone it, so (to me), it's not DIR. There might be guys doing it, and there might be kinda-DIR guys doing it, but they're certainly not accepted in DIR.

Either way, butt plates for alu stages/deco bottles don't make sense. "Typical" DIR stage rigging with a longer top leash (longer by a smidge) and a length of bungee looped through your backplate to tuck it up and in is all you'd need....plus folding the bottom over like LiteHedded showed. Stops working with multiple stages, but so does any perceived benefit of a buttplate. Attaching an Alu tank to your buttplate and maintaining tank alignment requires weights to be added to the tank. Fine with equal tanks on both sides, crappy when off balance. Considering the DIR process is to clip all stages to one side, maybe it's a bad idea. This is my opinion as a sidemount diver with no doubles experience.

 

[LiteHedded]

a lot of stages can be carried with the normal allotment of d rings before you need to start thinking about adding any to the tanks