How do you attach your tank valves to your shoulder D-rings?

[a878bob]

I have seen a lot of bad examples on how to attach/trim/mount cylinders. So I made my own video to check myself.

This is the result in my open cold water rig. Butt heavy in my 3ml, made for my drysuit and heavy undies, but the tank alignment is the same. You can clearly see the tank valves in my armpits, not sideslung, and inline with my butt and thighs. I don't like to rest my arms on the valves, so I have them pulled down abit. I tried the ring bungees for a year, but could not find a balance between pulling the cylinders back far enough and reaching them to mount in my drysuit because of the decreased mobility. Any comments welcome.

Sidemount Deco Rig - YouTube

 

[nandocave]

I personally use the system of the xdeep, and also for my students and it works very well, in caves and in technical dives, and I have never hurt my arm picks in the long penetration dives with more than 150 min, another reason why I like this system is as you don't attached to the d-ring is free to engage more things a regulator or a stage tank

Fernando Del Valle Prieto
Adv. cave Sidemount IT

 

[Progen]

I personally use the system of the xdeep, and also for my students and it works very well, in caves and in technical dives, and I have never hurt my arm picks in the long penetration dives with more than 150 min, another reason why I like this system is as you don't attached to the d-ring is free to engage more things a regulator or a stage tank

Fernando Del Valle Prieto
Adv. cave Sidemount IT

Can someone post photos of the xDeep's loop bungee from a few angles? Can't see anything from their manual. Only shows a loop of bungee around the webbing with the tank restraining one going into it and out. Is the loop fixed to anything or is it free to slide up and down?

 

[Progen]

Now comes my next question of whether is there a right or wrong to how close the valves are to the armpit? I was wearing my tanks fairly low for the past few dives with the valves somewhere in line with the midline of my chest. Felt pretty comfortable that way but earlier, I did a dive in a shallow swimming pool with the valves pretty high and closer because I'd tried shifting the shoulder D-rings high to somewhere near the collarbone. Still felt ok and I could push the tanks out in front comfortably. No idea how the overall trim was like because I wasn't recording myself. On the whole, it felt OK but then again, the previous configuration felt OK too.

 

[Progen]

I tried the ring bungee system today. It was alright although I sure as hell needed to loosen the bungee more so that the ring would be more accessible. Although it didn't have the advantage of any counteracting force from the usual bungee around the neck method, the valve knobs and 1st stage remained in position thoughout.

 

[a878bob]

That's what I have found with the ring system, I just can't get to it easily enough in a drysuit and heavy undies, but I may revist the system for my warm water setup, as I can reach back more easily.

 

[Progen]

Sorry to Lamar and gang if I've gotten this wrong but after some thought, I don't think the bungee tension needs to be high at all as long as it can retract the ring close to the diver's armpit so most of us copycats have probably gotten that wrong which resulted in the ring being a little too far back and difficult to pull forward to hook due to overly high tension.

The fun part of course was being able to climb out of the pool and walk over to another pool with both tanks still clipped on. It sure felt lighter to have two tanks on the side than one on the back.

 

[Aquabot]

I know I'm really late coming into this conversation but I thought this could potentially help you. At about 5:20 (ish) in the video you can see very clearly how the diver secures the valve with the bungee and you can also so the lower attachment on the cylinder.

Sidemount Penetration Techniques with Steve Martin - YouTube

.

 

[MSargeant]

There was a point raised that SM divers take hours compared to BM divers when it comes to kitting up on Facebook, so out of sheer boredom I made this video. Purely all out of water, and I'll make a better one when I have some more time going through the finer points of my rig.

Kitting up in sidemount - YouTube

1 point though, the D rings on my waist strap slide up and down so i can adjust cylinder trim, and at the time my cylinders had dregs in them . Also if I'm donning the cylinders above water i stick a loop of bungee around the neck and attach the cylidners via a double ended boltsnap then take it off in the water + adjust the bungee.