Doc Intrepid, not to pick on your complicated and bulky DIR rig but with those valves sticking out like wings it would appear that such an unstreamlined rig would be especially tangle prone in those gill nets. Yep.
No arguments from me, actually. Although having seen how the gill net so thoroughly enmeshed a guy wearing a standard SP BC w/Air II, aluminum 80, Mares reg, weightbelt, and the basic sport rec rig, and so quickly, I'm not convinced that ANY rig is significantly less likely to be entangled in a gill net - even one of your classic Mike Nelson double hose rigs.
I certainly don't disagree with you or Thal with respect to doff and don. I've taken my steel doubles off and tried to put them back on on practice dives at 20'. With me in a drysuit and no weight, and all the weight in the rig, it was.....entertaining. I'm willing to concede that doffing and donning is much easier in a standard BC and single aluminum 80, especially if the diver is wearing a weightbelt, than with a set of heavy steels when the diver is NOT wearing a weightbelt. (The CO2 build-up alone would be a problem if trying to doff/don steels at, say, 200' - although, per my philosophy, the last thing I want to do with a set of steels at 200' is remove them. There are better ways to resolve issues under those circumstances, IMHO, among which is not getting in that situation to begin with.)
Fortunately, I own a number of different rigs. I think if I were doing extensive solo diving, I'd come up with a weight belt and the capacity to doff and don my rig expeditiously. (I just wouldn't count on being able to do so in the event I ran into a gill net. Those things are serious trouble no matter what you're wearing...)
