Deco/stage rigging question

[jjones9527]

In Tech 1 we were told we could have a small loop of bungee near the second stage. If our inner tube hose retainers broke, we could use a double ender to clip the reg off to the top bolt snap. If you're not breathing a stage/deco reg, it always gets stowed on the bottle. That forces you to do you gas switching drills everytime, regardless of whether its an airbreak or gas switch. Having a bunch of regs hanging over your right shoulder is like playing select a death.

 

[Jasonmh]

Thanks for all the replies folks, some good food for thought.

 

[RTodd]

As previously mentioned, it was to have an attachment point if the innertubes break. Now, most just use a loop of bungie and a double ender if needed. I still have quite a few stage regs where I never bothered to take the clip off since the innertube in Mexico breaks down so fast that it isn't uncommon to need to do this.

 

[AndrewJD]

I 'm not saying use the boltsnap to identify what you're breathing.

My thought was if you have a bolt snap and for an O2 break you're clipping your O2 reg to chest while on back gas and then when you go back you aren't following the proper procedure of checking MOD. So having the bolt snap for that purpose could lead to a dangerous and lazy habit.

J

Not (to me) a good reason. You should always know what you are switching to based on the MOD of the bottle.

ID'ing a bottle by boltsnap or not is a bad idea as you never know what kind of stage you are going to pick up or come across (for instance, I was in Seattle this weekend, and used borrowed tanks the whole time -- if I had gotten used to a boltsnap or other mechanism to ID a bottle, I would have been in pretty bad shape)

 

[limeyx]

I 'm not saying use the boltsnap to identify what you're breathing.

My thought was if you have a bolt snap and for an O2 break you're clipping your O2 reg to chest while on back gas and then when you go back you aren't following the proper procedure of checking MOD. So having the bolt snap for that purpose could lead to a dangerous and lazy habit.

J

yes it could! Always stow the reg back on the O2 bottle and turn off bottle when on O2 break.

Not just for "getting lazy" but if you have to hand-off or cut off the O2 bottle for some reason ...

 

[Jason B]

Not just for "getting lazy" but if you have to hand-off or cut off the O2 bottle for some reason ...

Or donate your long hose while on an air break or gas switch.

 

[limeyx]

Or donate your long hose while on an air break or gas switch.

quite.

 

[rjack321]

ID'ing a bottle by boltsnap or not is a bad idea as you never know what kind of stage you are going to pick up or come across (for instance, I was in Seattle this weekend, and used borrowed tanks the whole time -- if I had gotten used to a boltsnap or other mechanism to ID a bottle, I would have been in pretty bad shape)

Hey what was wrong with my deco and stage tanks??

Apart from some of the stage clips being a bit oversized and of course having my initials on all of them...

 

[amascuba]

This is what is on the GUE website:

http://www.gue.com/Training/ProceduralChanges/aug2005changes.pdf

Necessity of clip on stage and deco regs
It is not necessary to place a clip on the second stage of stage regulators. However, divers not using a clip on the second stage should place two retaining bands around the cylinder. In the event one band is broken the second stage and hose can be secured effectively.

 

[jjones9527]

I don't have a bungee loop on my stage regs, and use 2 retainer bands on my bottles, however I could see it being a little messy if one band broke. With the remaining band at the top towards the reg, the bottom of the hose would be loose and could flap in the breeze or get caught on something. With the retainer band in the center, the second stage wouldn't really be very secure, and could get caught in the stream and pulled free. I have never seen a retainer band break, but its something to think about.