You can also put your light on your shoulder. That’s how I carry one of my backup lights diving sidemount. Light gets clipped to D ring and it goes above the D ring on your shoulder. Loop of bungee around shoulder strap secures it.
How to minimize danglies
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For my DSMB I have it attached to a finger spool. With a double ended bolt snap I clip it off to my right rear D-ring. (Y crotch strap). Out of the way and hasn't bothered me at all.
Did that for a while until I went with a long hose setup. Even as a single tank diver I prefer it. Even with the long hose on the primary it is more streamlined than an standard primary/octo config. And I recover the use of my right shoulder D-ring.
I did learn, however, that even when running my primary 2nd stage on a regular 32" (ish) hose I liked having a bolt snap on it to keep it off the ground/floor/deck.
Ryan and Landon know their stuff. Rented gear from Aqui for a few days from them in the beginning of August. Liked it so much I came home with an XDeep Zen backplate setup. Ryan even worked to get it setup for me after hours so it'd be ready for me the following morning and spent quite some time ensuring everything was properly fitted, on a day he was normally closed.
If you haven't tried a backplate and wing setup, get in contact with Aqui (www.getaqui.com) as they have them available for rent. Since I did purchase from them, a day's rental fee towards the purchase. They also saw to it that I was able to get my large weight pouches that were out of stock at the time. Aqui really knocks it out of the park for customer service. (@custureri: Even if I still like my Costa Rican coffee)
Yeah, after my CF near drowning early this year I added that to assist me to shoot a sausage with one hand whilst my camera is being held with the other while inhaling water with my other parts
. Even tethered off or drowning I do not like to let go of my camera when the bottom is 600 feet!That Y fitting came from Dacor junk my sister gave me. The other bits from Piranha. It works like a charm, psssst, zooom, away the sausage goes
. Piranha has a splitter that is opposite of that one but I think it would work as well or even better.James
He needs to chop a few inches off that corrugated hose too!
I clip my backup torch/torches on my harness under the D-rings using a couple of snoopy loops (e.g. bicycle inner tube).
They're out of the way which is good, are a bit fiddly to get out (not that bad, just fiddly), but need to be stashed in the pocket or on a D-ring for the remainder of the dive.
If caving/mine diving there's lights on the helmet as well as the primary umbilical torch.
DSMBs.
I carry at least two of them as they're not only for signalling, but emergency buoyancy too.
My primary DSMB is attached to a large and very rugged 100m/330ft reel using bungees. The DSMB is inflated using two CO2 cartridges. I hang the DSMB off of my rebreather stand so it's dangling on top of the bailout cylinder, i.e. out of the way.
To inflate is exceedingly easy: reach back to unclip the reel+SMB; pull out SMB and remove the bungee loop and flap open; wind in any slack; look up and around; then pull on the two inflate triggers and off it goes.
The backups are in my pockets with a small reel -- I tired of spools after dropping them. These are large SMBs which are inflated using the suit inflation hose.
There's a small yellow warning SMB should I need to warn the surface that something has gone wrong -- using a pre-arranged signal -- this will be sent up the main SMB line so there'll be two SMB's, one orange, one yellow.
There's only one size for an SMB: big. The boat skipper has to see it for it to be useful. Girth is just as important as length. Bigger is definitely better.
I carry at least two of them as they're not only for signalling, but emergency buoyancy too.
My primary DSMB is attached to a large and very rugged 100m/330ft reel using bungees. The DSMB is inflated using two CO2 cartridges. I hang the DSMB off of my rebreather stand so it's dangling on top of the bailout cylinder, i.e. out of the way.
To inflate is exceedingly easy: reach back to unclip the reel+SMB; pull out SMB and remove the bungee loop and flap open; wind in any slack; look up and around; then pull on the two inflate triggers and off it goes.
The backups are in my pockets with a small reel -- I tired of spools after dropping them. These are large SMBs which are inflated using the suit inflation hose.
There's a small yellow warning SMB should I need to warn the surface that something has gone wrong -- using a pre-arranged signal -- this will be sent up the main SMB line so there'll be two SMB's, one orange, one yellow.
There's only one size for an SMB: big. The boat skipper has to see it for it to be useful. Girth is just as important as length. Bigger is definitely better.
Thanks for all the great advice. I setup a couple lights with bolt snaps on my shoulder d-rings and snoopy loops. Worked well. Have to figure out best way of stowing my DSMB. I do like the bungees on the backplate but do you still keep the reel attached and just leave it dangling? I'd be worried about losing my DSMB and not noticing. OTOH when I attach the DSMB/reel setup on a bolt snap to my waist D-ring, it tends to snag on things, like my flag line, which is very annoying and probably not the safest. Also trying to figure out the best way of stowing my camera setup when I need both my hands free. When I'm not towing a dive flag, its not much of an issue but when I am, its just another thing to get tangled.
Much depends upon your BCD and how many clips there are.
One of the benefits of using a backplate with harness and wing is there's less "stuff" on them, so you can put a D-ring on your waist belt and slide it 'back'. Hooking the reel + SMB onto that means it's out of the way, sits close to you and doesn't dangle down below you. With it resting against you it's hard for the bolt snap to work loose and its easy to feel back for it.
How big is the reel you're using? If small, you might find you can stash it in your pocket.
BigDaddyGlad
Contributor
I've just completed a week of diving with a new Xdeep Zen BP/W and a DSMB with finger spool. I had the sausage and spool each clipped to the d-ring on the hip weight pocket. It was fine for the spool (bolt-snap), but the DSMB has a plastic swivel clip and that was not easy to unclip at depth. I dove in a rashie with board shorts, so no pocketses.
The "bungie on the backplate" solution looks like a good one, but I'd be concerned about it slipping out and getting lost. I guess I have to look for other methods.
The "bungie on the backplate" solution looks like a good one, but I'd be concerned about it slipping out and getting lost. I guess I have to look for other methods.
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