Freedom Plate Divers Roll Call: show us your rig!

[stuartv]

I set him up with a premium heavy polished stainless FP with all the accessories, VDH 35, Scubapro MK25/G250-R190, GB SPG - The absolute holy grail premium setup.
You can lead a person to the water but you can't make them dive, and that's what happened here.
Hopefully that will be changing.

I am currently en route home from a week on a Bahamas liveaboard.

I spent the week diving my FC stainless plate with VDH 18 wing. A dream, as always.

But, my BPW was paired with an Atomic TFX/Ti2 Octo reg set, Shearwater Teric, and AI transmitter.

I think my rig (also counting the VDH 35 I have at home) is the absolute holy grail premium single tank setup.

A 15 lb carry-on weight limit is crazy! You will be able to shave a couple pounds by replacing the inflator and octopus reg with an AIR 2-like device, and your SS Contour FP with an alum Contour FP, and eliminating the wedge altogether. (Good luck finding an alum Contour FP, though! An alum VDH vintage DH plate will work, too, instead. And others here sing the praises of plastic plates and fabric "travel" plates.)

rx7diver

Have you actually weighed those options to know that an Air2-style setup is actually ANY lighter than the optimum “classic” setup?

I have not, but I would be really surprised if it were any lighter than my setup at all.

My corrugated hose and LPI hose are both way shorter than you can safely get away with on an Air2 setup (where you have to be able to actually breathe off it while finishing a dive with an OOA diver hanging off your primary). And, my simple little power inflator (a la DGX) and Ti2 Octo don’t weigh very much. I’m skeptical that the inflator and Ti2 weigh more than an Air2. Maybe if it’s an Atomic SS2 Titanium, it might be a smidge lighter.

Either way, you’re going to have a 40” hose for the reg you would donate.

So, the differences are:

Power inflator + Octo vs Air2-style all-in-one

Short corrugated hose + short LPI hose + short LP hose to primary reg vs longer corrugated hose and longer LPI hose

The Air2 setup might be lighter. Maybe. But, I’m skeptical it’s anywhere near 2 pounds. And if it’s not specifically a very lightweight Air2-style 2nd, maybe actually heavier (than the rig I’m using).

On top of all that, I’d put my reg set up against any Air2 setup for mine being MORE streamlined in the water. My inflator will never touch the bottom. My octo hose runs straight down from the 1st stage behind my right shoulder, under my arm, and into a holder. In my week of diving I just finished, it never came loose or touched the bottom, either. With its hose routed the way it is, the hose is hugging my body for its entire length. No sticking out to the side, into the water column, and then bending down to go under my arm.

My only hose that sticks out into the water column at all is the 22” primary hose, which has to have enough slack to allow me to turn my head fully to the left. So, it does stick out a little when I’m looking ahead, and a bit more when I’m looking to the right. But, nothing like a standard 32” hose does.

 

[Soloist]

I am currently en route home from a week on a Bahamas liveaboard.

I spent the week diving my FC stainless plate with VDH 18 wing. A dream, as always.

But, my BPW was paired with an Atomic TFX/Ti2 Octo reg set, Shearwater Teric, and AI transmitter.

I think my rig (also counting the VDH 35 I have at home) is the absolute holy grail premium single tank setup.



Have you actually weighed those options to know that an Air2-style setup is actually ANY lighter than the optimum “classic” setup?

I have not, but I would be really surprised if it were any lighter than my setup at all.

My corrugated hose and LPI hose are both way shorter than you can safely get away with on an Air2 setup (where you have to be able to actually breathe off it while finishing a dive with an OOA diver hanging off your primary). And, my simple little power inflator (a la DGX) and Ti2 Octo don’t weigh very much. I’m skeptical that the inflator and Ti2 weigh more than an Air2. Maybe if it’s an Atomic SS2 Titanium, it might be a smidge lighter.

Either way, you’re going to have a 40” hose for the reg you would donate.

So, the differences are:

Power inflator + Octo vs Air2-style all-in-one

Short corrugated hose + short LPI hose + short LP hose to primary reg vs longer corrugated hose and longer LPI hose

The Air2 setup might be lighter. Maybe. But, I’m skeptical it’s anywhere near 2 pounds. And if it’s not specifically a very lightweight Air2-style 2nd, maybe actually heavier (than the rig I’m using).

On top of all that, I’d put my reg set up against any Air2 setup for mine being MORE streamlined in the water. My inflator will never touch the bottom. My octo hose runs straight down from the 1st stage behind my right shoulder, under my arm, and into a holder. In my week of diving I just finished, it never came loose or touched the bottom, either. With its hose routed the way it is, the hose is hugging my body for its entire length. No sticking out to the side, into the water column, and then bending down to go under my arm.

My only hose that sticks out into the water column at all is the 22” primary hose, which has to have enough slack to allow me to turn my head fully to the left. So, it does stick out a little when I’m looking ahead, and a bit more when I’m looking to the right. But, nothing like a standard 32” hose does.

Did you dive Blackbeard again or with someone else? Hope you had a great trip. FWIW, boasting about the fact you have two VHD wings is somewhat annoying and selfish. It's like droning and dribbling on and on about owning two Contour Plates. Ahh wait, I own two Contour Plates...Never mind

Can't confirm or deny the weight differential between a conventional reg setup and an Air2. However, we service all of our regs ourselves, so having to purchase separate service kits for an Air2 and the idiosyncrasies associated with working on it is of no interest.

 

[lowwall]

I spent the week diving my FC stainless plate with VDH 18 wing. A dream, as always.

But, my BPW was paired with an Atomic TFX/Ti2 Octo reg set, Shearwater Teric, and AI transmitter.

I think my rig (also counting the VDH 35 I have at home) is the absolute holy grail premium single tank setup.

Naw, it's my long stainless Freedom Plate also with VDH 18# wing.

My Mares MR22 ($125 new from reseller in Italy), Proton Metal second stages ($150 used from SB classifieds along with a spare first stage) and Deep6 Excursion computer ($175 pre-release pricing) may not be "premium", but they are reliable, function perfectly, and the price difference is approximately what I paid for my dive trip to Coz last month.

 

[stuartv]

Did you dive Blackbeard again or with someone else? Hope you had a great trip. FWIW, boasting about the fact you have two VHD wings is somewhat annoying and selfish. It's like droning and dribbling on and on about owing two Contour Plates. Ahh wait, I own two Contour Plates...Never mind

Can't confirm or deny the weight differential between a conventional reg setup and an Air2. However, we service all of our regs ourselves, so having to purchase separate service kits for an Air2 and the idiosyncrasies associated with working on it is of no interest.

LOL!

No Blackbeard this time. I led a group trip from my shop, on the Allstar Aqua Cat.

If I had 2 identical VDH wings, I would agree that it was selfish.... Instead, it is just observing that I have a complete kit, for all occasions.

Stocking only one service kit would be nice, I guess. But, I'm okay with needing one for the TFX second and a different one for the Ti2 Octo. No way I'd give up the TFX in order to consolidate service kits. And no way I'd have a second TFX second stage as my octo.

The TFX as an octo (besides the ridiculousness of the cost) is not ideal (in my opinion) because of the shape and the way it needs to be submerged to keep it from free-flowing.

The Ti2 Octo is nice and compact and worked absolutely perfectly as an octo last week. I.e. it just sat there and did nothing. Nothing at all - except breathe just fine any time I tested it.

 

[rx7diver]

A 15 lb carry-on weight limit is crazy! You will be able to shave a couple pounds by replacing the inflator and octopus reg with an AIR 2-like device, and your SS Contour FP with an alum Contour FP, and eliminating the wedge altogether. (Good luck finding an alum Contour FP, though! An alum VDH vintage DH plate will work, too, instead. And others here sing the praises of plastic plates and fabric "travel" plates.)

rx7diver

... Have you actually weighed those options to know that an Air2-style setup is actually ANY lighter than the optimum “classic” setup?

... The Air2 setup might be lighter. Maybe. But, I’m skeptical it’s anywhere near 2 pounds. ...

@stuartv,

The "couple of pounds" savings (that I suggest above) would happen by switching to both an AIR 2-like device and an alum Contour FP without a wedge. I don't have an alum FP, myself; mine is a pre-Contour, 2010-vintage, SS FP. But the weight savings is very noticeable (to me) when I switch from my SS FP to my alum VDH Classic double-hose plate. Not even close, in fact!

Also, I returned quite a while ago to using a 32" regulator hose (rather than a 40"), which was the length of a SP octopus reg hose in 1987 when I purchased my first SP BA, and the length of both the SP standard and octopus reg hoses in 1988 when I purchased my first SP G250. And I don't attach a 45- or 60-degree SS swivel and a SS lure bolt snap to my regulator hose.

My AIR 2 is the 1994-vintage 3rd (?) generation model. I don't know if newer AIR 2 models have a different weight.

rx7diver