Freedom Plate poll

[2TH DIVR]

Eric,

Thanks for the offer.
I only have a few dives with the plate, with no problems.
I was just toying with some ideas.

Thanks
Scott

 

[kazuo]

How you doing Kazuo?
good to hear from you.
Glad you like the plate.

One thing to remember about the weight of a rig and that is that only the stainless components count when in the water, not the weight of the whole rig on dry land. The wing and webbing will neutral out underwater but weigh a few pounds on a scale topside.

Holding the wing in place was a consideration at one point but I decided against drilling holes in the plate and holding the wing still with a sex bolt because then the wing would be pegged in one spot on the plate and wouldn't give people the option to move the wing up or down as they wish. I never let anybody touch my stuff on a dive boat. Besides I think most divemasters working on diveboats would be clueless about putting anything together other than a standard jacket BC. My experience is that when they see advanced gear they generally let the diver deal with their own stuff.

Happy diving!

My wife bought all new dive gear on our honeymoon and I was going to buy a new BC and reg over the summer for a dive trip planned this winter. Well, I bought the BP/W and then found out that we were expecting a little one so I never ended up buying the regs and like I said I only got to use the plate once. Its -30C right now with a wind chill pushing into -45C or so, so no diving unless we fly somewhere warmer. I too much of a pussy to go in any of the lakes around here unless its warm!

I like to set up my own gear too but sometimes I haven't been given a chance. I Mexico I ended up on one small boat and all the gear ended up on another small boat.
Someone assembled it all on the trip to the dive site and to have to re-do it on arrival would have held everybody up. No big deal and I am still very happy with my purchase. We are planning to leave the kid with my parents next winter and go somewhere to dive. Not too sure where yet.

Eric and Patrick at Oxycheq were absolutety awesome to deal with. I emailed Eric about his plate and he literaly called me within minutes. Thats right he "called" me, he could have just as easily emailed me back with all the info but he wanted to make sure that I knew what I was buying and called me long distance to talk to me about his plate. Same with Patrick, I was unsure of what wings would fit on my plate and didn't want to order something that wouldn't work, Patrick was very helpful in getting me the right wing for what I needed. This was my first BP/W and I had really only saw one in person so I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. Can't say enough about these two, I have bought a lot of stuff online and this was the least stressful purchase I have ever made. I knew I was getting something that would work the way it was supposed to.

 

[ScottB]

I have two plates from Eric.. over a year old.. a single tank set up with about 30 hours dive time varying from a 5/4 to a t-shirt, shore diving and boats... and a slightly more custom plate for my rebreather... I have been GREATLY pleased with both his customer service, and his WONDERFUL product.

Someone said something about wanting to sidemount... WELL... I had Eric send me one of his partially finished prototypes way back in.. jan/feb of 2007... I rigged it up for sidemount bailout, with a backmount Copis Meg.. I didn't need the foot since the meg can was short enough to not wedge into my tailbone... I don't have any pictures with the meg mounted.. but here's of the plate..:

PS. I am in the NE TN and SW VA area... if anyone wants to see one of his first generation single tank plates in person =)

-Scott

 

[Tom Winters]

When you were selling off the last of that first run, I forgot to get one. The plate looked gorgeous. Oh well...my loss. Good luck doing some more.

 

[Nemrod]

Just a curiosity question to ScottB, why did you run he upper harness under the bolt, is that to secure it from moving when you side mount? I guess I answered my own question, the Meg rebreather is short enough then that it does not sit on your "rear" thus allowing you to dispense with the lower wedge mount? I also see your harness is reveresed in the lower slots? Your plate is the same generation as mine--I love that thing, I keep saying it but I do. N

 

[ScottB]

actually.. that is a seperate small piece of harness webbing, just used to catch the bungie strap.. that way its just a sex bolt to remove, and the sidemount is gone

I actually the whole sidemound deal off halfway through my Meg course.. as it tucked the al40 so well, it was getting tiring reaching back to get it for boom drills... so I swapped to a more common stage... .. long story short, I need money.. so I am downgrading to a CCR Dolphin.. on the plus side, I get to try back mount counterlungs =)

I haven't fully decided how I want to rig the Dolphin, since I don't have it in my hands yet... but in all likelyhood.. it will be on the no foot Freedom =)

anyways.. i've been awake for FAR too many hours.. I am going to go lay down for a bit.. best wishes everyone,
-Scott

 

[ScottB]

So sleepy I forgot to answer the other questions.. Yes.. Meg is short enough it wasnt a bother... I had it set up with the bottom of the Meg cannister about 1/4 inch below the bottom of the Freedom.. and with the harness the way it is on the lower slots, it helps hold the plate against my back, where as with the harness run the opposite way, it would tend to lift up on the sides if I leaned much..

If it wasn't on such a short schedule, I would have considered drilling a mounting hole on either side of the plate, to clip the bungie to.. so that I could have just one side, or both sides clipped in... taking off anything extraneous.. I might get around to it in the next 6 weeks while I'm not allowed to dive =*(
-Scott

 

[Nemrod]

Thank you ScottB for the answers, hope you got some sleep. I will try that with the harness reversed and see how that feels. I too have thought to drill--very nealy and professionally -- some holes along the lower sides for equipment to snap to and having a neoprene cover sewn (not because it really needs one but just to add even more comfort).

Stupidly, sometime back in the summer, I thought to go back to my Hammerhead, I say stupid because I cannot think of a single reason why ever I would and quickly slapped some sense back into my head---doh--why ever would I have been thinking such a thing. I guess it was because I had used a few of the side holes for equipment and thus my wanting to put a few--a few--in my Freedom Plate being as I refuse those dork shorts like the X things and don't have any pockets on my suits due to the refusal to accept the drag that would result that I have fought so hard to eliminate.

N

 

[TN Traveler]

Eric

As an alternative to putting a series of holes in the plate for use in positioning the wing (which might limit it's position from being optimal)- how about cutting a slot in the plate, about the same length as the camband slots, where a single sex-bolt could be used to position the wing, if so desired? Might make it easier to set up when on a rocking boat, if the wing was held in place this way when changing tanks.

Just a thought.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Eric

As an alternative to putting a series of holes in the plate for use in positioning the wing (which might limit it's position from being optimal)- how about cutting a slot in the plate, about the same length as the camband slots, where a single sex-bolt could be used to position the wing, if so desired? Might make it easier to set up when on a rocking boat, if the wing was held in place this way when changing tanks.

Just a thought.

That's a possibility, but I would be affraid of weakening the top area of the plate by having essentially two halves in an area that needs to be fairly rigid.

I'm developing the "rail" system right now and I might toy with the idea of somehow figuring out a way to hold the wing onto the rail for assembly. Maybe a few small holes in the sides of the rails and string a small piece of shock cord through and attach it to the wing somehow?

Here's a quick peek of what I've been working on