Hopping my way to full cave...

[kensuf]

I've been told Bill Main dove there in backmount double 72s many times back in the day. I've seen Kelly dive there in double 95s (but he didn't go through the bedding plane).

 

[rddvet]

You can get up to and through diamond sands in BM without having any more impact than your average SM diver in Jug with proper tank selection and technique. Does that mean it should be done regularly? No. But it is possible. Some of the original exploration was done in backmount.

of course you can, and ai know the history. But it’s deemed a sm cave for a reason, and it’s more about conservation than safety. I think pretty much every cave diver knows it’s a sm cave, so nobody should be attempting it in bm. Anyone who posts videos on the internet of themselves diving it in bm should take them down as it’s not helping the issue. If I were diving jug and saw a team show up in bm, I’d have a polite conversation with them. Just like if I saw somebody pulling out a scooter at cow.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Diving with stages is harder than I thought it would be.

Hopefully it was is just that the stage isn't as streamlined as it could be, because I'm not sure that I went much further than I could normally make it on back gas (made it to the double lines jump).

 

[helodriver87]

That's learning stages for you. I thought they were stupid for the first few dives as well. Was basically like "**** this, I could get here on doubles and hurt less. This is dumb." After awhile, you get used to it and they start to be more effective. Won't be long before you're dropping at or a bit beyond the roller coaster jump.

The magic really kicks in when you can scooter. That's when stages go from helpful to essential.

 

[kensuf]

Most people go through that. Slow down, you'll go further.

 

[Jack Hammer]

My 1st time with a stage in Ginnie got me to The Keyhole, and with a lot of effort and irritation. Now its super easy, i don't really notice them, and they go quite a bit further.

@Manatee Diver , Just keep practicing and make sure your stage is set up so it's not flopping all over and dangling way far down. I wrap the bottom bolt snap around the handle to shorten it. Also check the length of the upper one. I've seen a few people made that were pretty long.

 

[Manatee Diver]

We made some adjustments, and it feels a bit more streamlined. Not sure if it added distance or not as we did Wishbone (which got very tannic toward what I believe was the end), so I didn't have any baseline to measure against.

He also suggested that I should perhaps try an AL72, it has a smaller frontal profile for minimal loss in gas volume.

Got stuff to work on. But I really feel that this is probably my plateau for cave diving. My next priorities are comfort related (water leg and drysuit), and any additional classes will probably be openwater (like normoxic, ccr, or adv wreck).

 

[tbone1004]

@Manatee Diver there is a negligible difference in al72's and al80's. That is an equipment solution to a skills problem. You probably also have sloppy stage rigging. Remember that the standard DIR style rigging is designed for use with a DPV, not necessarily with kicking. You may just need to continue to evaluate the rigging that you're using. Do you have a picture?

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

My 1st time with a stage in Ginnie got me to The Keyhole,

LOL--I had a student who made it all the way to the Lips during her first attempt at stage cave diving.

 

[Manatee Diver]

@Manatee Diver there is a negligible difference in al72's and al80's. That is an equipment solution to a skills problem. You probably also have sloppy stage rigging. Remember that the standard DIR style rigging is designed for use with a DPV, not necessarily with kicking. You may just need to continue to evaluate the rigging that you're using. Do you have a picture?

I'm using something close to my sidemount rigging. Hose clamp with bootstrap on a very short paranoid leash, and a top bolt snap bungeed around valve.

I know that this is something that I will have to work on.