hitting head when using BP/W

[Nemrod]

Not a matter of any great experience. No one has given one single real and valid reason to wear thanks up so high they hit your head other than it is a "tech" look. I never was a follower anyways so looking tech is not important to me.
You guys leanred to dive that way because some one trained in tech diving perhaps told you so and he told you so without thinking it through, fine, swim around with the tank hitting your head and out of trim. It really is quite useless to argue such stuff as it is much easier to show someone and it is always amazing to see the look in their face when they understand. Diving styles come and go, now it is "in" to wear tanks high. Soon, some guru will discover wearing tanks low and then many of you valve checkers will start wearing your tanks low. By that time I will probably wearing mine high--lol. Do you wear a helmet? I can see it now, high tank wearer drowns after tank valve knocks him senseless when he fell of the boat--about as likely as drowing becaue you stepped off a dive boat with the air turned off. Y'all have fun, it is all good. N

 

[Mel.B]

uh geez... I guess getting used to it was a bad choice of words... maybe...learning how far back you can tilt your head? I dunno..I mean.. I don't even notice it's there anymore maybe I just changed the way I look up...

The problem is I can only tilt my head a couple of centimeters...maybe an inch for you guys who aren't metric :1poke: For me that's not acceptable, especially coming from a setup where I never hit my head. I'm still waiting to hear about a STA for my setup and i hope that will move the tank back a bit and allow me to move my head some more.

And please...no more talk about valves...let everyone agree to disagree...the arguement is going nowhere. :icon_roll


Mel

 

[Nemrod]

Mel, the single tank adapter I have is from Hammerhead as is my backplate. the back plate is shown in one of my pics mounted to double 50s. The adapter I got from them is the two piece unit. These raise the tank a touch and also allow one to drop the upper tank band lower independent of the lower band.
I think I mentioned it and I will again, backplates tend to carry tanks higher so your goingto have to work with it to get it wear you like it. Rather than following dogma just try different adjustments until you get what you like. The tank being raised slightly by the STA adapters will help eliminate the head banging I think. N

 

[gecko3s]

Ok mel... an inch or... a couple cent...centim...eh...whatever does seem like a bit much to deal with.. I get a few good inches of play there

 

[GreenDiverDown]

I think N is just exagerating things and painting a picture that makes things look like he wants.

There is no reason you can't have your cake and eat it too. As I've said, I don't hit my head on my valve/reg and I can still reach it with little difficulty and my trim is dead on. The valve/reg certainly do not inhibit me from looking up...not at all. At most, if I lean my head way back, I can just feel the reg touch the back of my head.

I really think the problem is in your BP and reg choices. Try the STA. Consider a BP that has a deeper channel or more of a bend. Maybe you might try changing regs to one that doesn't protrude upwards. I mostly use DS4s and they are almost even with the top of the valve. They're also DIN which has a little more shallow profile.

I do agree with N that you will just have to get in the water and play around with things until you get it the way you like. A descent compromise might be to set things up so that you are able to look up but to reach your valve you may have to pop your waist buckle to get some slack so that you can push your tank up a little. If you have your crotch strap right then you ought to be able to push your tank up a little even without having to loosen the waist belt.

...just some ideas.

 

[Nemrod]

Stepehn Ash, you are getting personal, is this enough exaggeration for you (like your not), you guys like to wear your tank so high you can use it for a flag pole---lol, about as reasonable as people drowning because they fell in the water with the valve off. If someone drowns from that they had --or shlould have---found some other sport to involve themselves in..
Perhaps your tank is not really all that high, perhaps you are right and you might be surprised to se that in reality we wear them close to the same position. Both of us can reach the valve but I have to lift my tank slightly but for some reason I fail to understand why I need to reach it. I also use diving gear and methods MUCH different from most.
What got me to eaggerating is that I have seen in diving over the last couple of years a definite trend to wearing tanks way high. I have seen people with the tank so high that when standing the valve is about middle of their heads. I have gone back and read several texts going back into the 50s to review tank position. The recommended tank position in all of these is centered between the shoulder blades or very slightly higher. Some double hose divers drop their tanks a bit lower. I find no documentation for manipulating a single tank open water divers valve while in the water or anything about tanks hitting people in the head except that should such happen the tank should be lowered. I in fact suggested several helpful methods by which the initial poster could accomplish that while all you do is complain about me exaggerating. Yep, I love to exaggerate. Enough of this silly thread, love ya. Y'alll be good. N

 

[Mel.B]

Nemrod, thanks for your helpful suggestions. I'm still waiting to hear back about a STA for my BP b/c it was actually designed to be used without one, which is why I'm not sure I can put one on.

 

[GreenDiverDown]

Thanks to everyone who gave freely their valuable time to help a fellow diver.

 

[djanni]

Ash, you and Nemrod both have made this a pretty interesting thread. Off subject fortunately but interesting and educational. Neither of you were tossing out that off-the-wall wild stuff like "gee, someone might push you overboard while you're 20 lbs overweighted."

I think I learned a little from both of you and by reading both of your posts I think I gained some confidence that I do some things right. I would like to hear more. Quite frankly I had never put much thought into the need to reach back and open the valve. I'm sure thinking about it now.

Can't you two kiss and make up? Okay, forget the kissing part.

Thanks to everyone who gave freely their valuable time to help a fellow diver.

 

[ccohn2000]

I have an Eclipse as well. I also use high pressure 80s. The tank is so short I had trouble with the positioning of the BC because the top strap was too high. I could just barely get it on there and then the valve was only reachable with the very tips of my fingers. That worried me a bit, as I'd dearly love to reach that valve with ease at need. My BC has an STA, I also have a buddy with a drill press. He put lower slots in the STA for me, so now I can position the BC on the tank just about anywhere I want it. I reach totally reach the valve now. FWIW-I only hit my head on the first stage when I have to use an adapter to swtich from DIN to yoke on rented tanks.