Double tanks.

[MBH]

Michael, I wouldn't EVEN worry about doubles yet.

Here's why; I was also dreaming of doubles before I ever finished building my single tank rig. Last week, I finally nailed my bouyancy weighting. Now I'm having one devil of a time getting my trim right. I'll get so close to being spot on, then make one tiny adjustment and everything goes to hell. Yesterday I un-intentionally "perfected" the art of hovering upside down after making an "adjustment".

I guess what I'm trying to say is- focus on your singles rig for now. After you've had to move your weights and adjust your tank height 3258 times...if you are like me, you will be in no hurry to build a doubles rig!

 

[JimC]

But then I'd have to get rid of my BP/W right? I'm NOT going to do that...

I'll look into the side mount setup and see what's involved. I think I'd look funny in OW with side mounts on at 130'. Wreck penetration!

Michael

I do it all the time. But then, I make no qualms that I have mostly abandoned DIR to dive my local caves (which require sidemount) nor do I particularly care if I look like a dork (note the helmet in my avatar). It might be difficult to clip on the left tank. If you can manage that, the actually diving in sidemount can be preformed one handed quite easily. At least if you stay away from places that require gear removal.

However, I hate to say this, but I suspect the official DIR answer should you peruse GUE training beyond recreational level is going to be negative. There are some GUE skills that just require two hands. That, however, just means a paradigm shift - but that should be in different forum to answer, including this sidemount heresy and slobwinder talk. Best of luck, whatever you decide.

 

[Archangel]

http://www.omsdive.com/valve-access.html

They are not highly thought of.................

Thanks snakeman!

Mike, oh no, no no!
You will get your hand slapped by the DIR dragon for showing up in one of these

Morning my courageous doubles diving brother.

I was training in the pool with my doubles (I AM a master pool diver) and for giggles did a valve drill with just my right hand. . .I was thinking of you. I did reach all of my valves and smiled. . . thanks for starting this thread!

I have been reminded by my mentors that I SHOULD be able to turn of ALL of my valves with either hand. . . . stuck in a restriction with only one hand available.

So definitely learnable/doable, and make the standardized gear adhere to you, not vice versa.

 

[frankc420]

Sling an 80, forget the doubles.

Although, if you just WANT to spend the $$ and time figuring out a way to make it easy to turn on/off your valve, I'll help you, just don't see the need when you can sling an 80.

Hell, buy my 2 80's and I'll spend the extra and get me a HP130.

To be honest I think your jumping the gun anyway, considering our dive experience, we have a lot to learn. Lets try diving w/ your BP/W setup and letting you get used to it before we venture off into a new aspect of diving.

 

[ekewaka]

Don't lock yourself down like this. There are workarounds that can be used. Specifically in your case, I'd be looking at a manifold that had no wheel on the left tank so it's just "always on". If you can reach the knob over there (and some divers can) then great. If not, it's not a showstopper.

If it is always on then you won't be able to remove the regulator without losing your gas. I think you would still need a knob on the left side, even if you only use it at the surface.

 

[GreenDiverDown]

. . . . stuck in a restriction with only one hand available.

Uh... OK.

 

[headhunter]

While I'm certainly no expert, I seem to recall hearing about GUE working with people who have some physical limitations.

We can guess our way through this 'til the cows come home and I think that it's a good mental excercise. I think that each idea whether it be a winder, sidemount rig, single with slung 80, etc. each have problems which they solve and new problems which they create.

Michael, why don't you contact Jarod Jablonski at GUE directly with your desire to dive with redundancy and an increased gas supply to see if this has already come up before? They may have already done a risk assessment of the various answers to the situation and may save you some time in coming up with an effective solution on your own via the Internet. Just to be clear, I'm not saying that this discussion should not take place on the Internet. In fact, I think it's interesting. I'm just saying that for an actual answer and stance on the subject, you may want to go directly to the source.

It seems that some people want to answer the question in a way that addresses what people will "say" when they see you or what you will "look like" with winders or sidemount rigs. I think that this completely misses the point of diving DIR and treats this like a fashion show. When things come together in such a way that they require us to do things differently, I think that the DIR answer is that we either modify our gear and procedures for those particular circumstances if the risk is acceptable to us or we decide not to do the dive. A desire to adhere to that philosophy is what I think I hear you saying in this thread.

So, that's my own guess to add to the rest.

If you contact JJ, please let us know what the answer is. It's my understanding that he's a great guy and always willing to explain the pros and cons of what they've learned about similar situations in the past.

Christian

 

[FishTaco]

I have been reminded by my mentors that I SHOULD be able to turn of ALL of my valves with either hand. . . . stuck in a restriction with only one hand available.

Tevis, you should be able reach your isolator with either hand.
A standard valve drill teaches moving from right post, to isolator, to left post. Assume a senario where you experience a failure on your left post/manifold, and after shutting down the left post, you need to isolate. You should use your left hand, not your right hand, as is usually practiced during valve drills.

Take care,
Chris

 

[lamont]

Supposedly, this is something that AG can do. I, myself have never tried it, but I'll give it a shot.

I've done half of it before. did the left post shutdown with my left hand, then turned it back on with my right and did the flowcheck entirely with my right. i should be able to do a complete drill with one hand.

it helps to keep the valves lubed up pretty well as its hard to get a totally solid grip on the left post. before i lubed up my valves awhile back i couldn't have done it.

 

[TSandM]

There's no WAY I will ever do a complete drill with one hand. I can barely touch my SHOULDER with the opposite hand. You need much longer arms than I have to do it.