Back Roll off a boat... Will I die?

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I was taught to hard clip top and cam band, and to leave the top boltsnaps in place during the dive, pulling the bungees on while in the water. I dive steel tanks and don't find the small length of cord tied to the bolt snap or the snap itself occupies much real estate on the top harness d rings.
 
Why unclip and switch to a bungee? What am I missing here?

The main things that spring to mind for me are that the steel tanks remaining clipped will add tension to the chest d rings which could make them more difficult to use, especially as bungee is pulling the cylinders back. And secondly, the clips being left on will prevent the bungee from pulling the cylinders fully into their best position.

The clipping to chest is only need for supporting cylinder weight out of the water, in water it's not exactly difficult to unclip a couple of double enders and reclip then at the end of the dive. This keeps everything as optimal as possible.

But that's the beauty of SM, it's actually acceptable and encouraged for divers to use their heads and decide for themselves their own preferred configuration, not just blindly follow a "standard" one.
 
That path leads to anarchy and death.But that's the beauty of SM, it's actually acceptable and encouraged for divers to use their heads and decide for themselves their own preferred configuration, not just blindly follow a "standard" one.

That way leads to anarchy and death, I tell you. Isn't DIR at all.
 
All kidding aside, I remember the early days of SB when any alteration of gear or deviation from a perceived norm was anathema. It wasn't a matter of DIR or not, it was a matter of altering "life support". Side mount made creating/altering your own gear cool. My first sidemount rig was a highly modified Express Tech. When Scott Zeagle saw it, he commented that this was not his product. Kind of funny in a way. Sidemount may never be more than a niche within the niche of diving, but it has opened our collective eyes that joe diver can be just as careful and inventive, maybe even more so, than any manufacturer.
 
The main things that spring to mind for me are that the steel tanks remaining clipped will add tension to the chest d rings which could make them more difficult to use, especially as bungee is pulling the cylinders back. And secondly, the clips being left on will prevent the bungee from pulling the cylinders fully into their best position.

The clipping to chest is only need for supporting cylinder weight out of the water, in water it's not exactly difficult to unclip a couple of double enders and reclip then at the end of the dive. This keeps everything as optimal as possible.

But that's the beauty of SM, it's actually acceptable and encouraged for divers to use their heads and decide for themselves their own preferred configuration, not just blindly follow a "standard" one.

So the bungee will also give you a range of motion that would be useful if you need to look at the first stage to see a button gauge but what else is the range of motion good for? Why not clip the tank to the back of the harness instead? Maybe run a line from the D ring in the top of a bell harness under your arm to a D ring on the front of the harness positioned half way up your chest?
 

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What is happening to the top of the tanks that are only held in place by bungees when you do a giant stride entry?

I've done giant strides with steel 100's and AL 80's and had no issues with either. I've also geared up in the water, but without gloves on (and it's pretty much impossible for me to gear up for SM with gloves on) in the cold water my hands get cold and stiffen up really fast, which makes the whole process harder. On boats where it is possible to clip my tanks on before entering the water I prefer that method.
 
I've seen them with students but I've never used one. I'm not a fan for a few reasons. Once energized, it's hard to attach tanks. At least it was hard for one of my students to do that. Also, now you have failure points that are out of sight and the tanks stop being naturally redundant. It's not only a solution for a problem that doesn't exist, it overly complicates the simplicity of side mount. It's not dangerous. It seems to work for those who like it. I'm just not one of them.

Has anyone used one of these type of manifolds?

Z-Distribution
 
Why not clip the tank to the back of the harness instead? Maybe run a line from the D ring in the top of a bell harness under your arm to a D ring on the front of the harness positioned half way up your chest?

Again, it's only my opinion,but the purpose of the bungee is that it pulls the cylinders up behind your arm pit to aid streamlining during the dive, whilst maintaining the flexibility through it's stretchy properties to be pulled forward with ease to aid any checks or valve manipulation. Returning to the streamlined position when released again.

Conversely a hard fixed Only cylinder, can only be set correctly for either of those positions, not both. It's either streamlined behind the arm pit but unable to be brought fully forward for valve manipulations etc, or its fixed to be forward and therefore not streamlined during the dive.
 
I don't know what's going on, but I use nomad ring bungees. Works great fr boat diving. Clip in your tanks and they automagically move into position once underwater. On the way out of the water up the boat ladder the weight transfers from the bungees to the metal clips. No messing around with bungees underwater.

Its td go some downsides but for ow recreational diving it's great.
 

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