How to proceed ?

[grantmac]

Doubles offer redundancy which is important if things don't go perfectly.
Also moving into a backplate and wing arrangement will make the whole package more stable.

 

[Narked_Muffin]

What do you mean by door handles ? ATM i dive a Mares Prestige Jacket BCD, so i place my stage on my left chest D-Ring and the left kidney D-Ring. That works right now for me. The only thing im struggling is when i want to detach the stage. For me is difficult to detach the boltsnap on the left kidney D-Ring. But i guess that will be gone if i have some routine in it.

My Hollis SMS 100 has two rails along the butt plate for multiple stages, some people, myself included, often call them door handles

I personally carry several stages, both for extra bottom gas and deco stages.
As an example, this weekend I was cave diving, total depth was 46 meters, I used the first third of my twinset on the way in, switched to my S80 when I was at 140bar, then stayed on my stage till that started to get a little floaty at around 110bar and switched back to my twinset for the rest of the way out until I switched to my 7L oxygen tank to finish my deco. Over all the dive took 86 minutes and I still had over 100bar in all my tanks.

 

[steinbil]

As an example, this weekend I was cave diving, total depth was 46 meters, I used the first third of my twinset on the way in, switched to my S80 when I was at 140bar, then stayed on my stage till that started to get a little floaty at around 110bar and switched back to my twinset for the rest of the way out until I switched to my 7L oxygen tank to finish my deco. Over all the dive took 86 minutes and I still had over 100bar in all my tanks.

This is way above my pay grade as I don't have cave or technical training, but I have a question. Is this way of breathing down a little of each gas supply standard practice? Is it not better to conserve the back gas and breathe down stages first, to simplify gas sharing and make it possible to drop stages in an emergency?

 

[VikingDives]

Switch to doubles/sidemount and learn to do real technical diving. Get some (hard) overhead training and dive your open circuit until you reach the limitations of OC, then consider CCR.

There shouldn't be any real "Oh sh*t" moments in a properly planned tech dive. There should be sufficient redundancies and training to ensure that no matter what happens, you're getting home safely.

 

[Klopo]

This is way above my pay grade as I don't have cave or technical training, but I have a question. Is this way of breathing down a little of each gas supply standard practice? Is it not better to conserve the back gas and breathe down stages first, to simplify gas sharing and make it possible to drop stages in an emergency?

I prefer if the stage has around 100bar left ( At least with the 80cuft ). Because then it is more or less neutraly buoyant. If you breath down more then 100bar it becomes positivly buoyant. Thats why i prefer do not breath down if the situation allows it.

 

[Klopo]

I guess RT mean run time right? If that's what it is you can do really long dives on double 12l. The longest one I did was 75 minutes but I still had plenty of gas left. Yes I still take a stage with me but normally only a 7L stage and mine is right know getting checked so I'm diving without a stage at the moment.
Have never dived Walensee but sounds nice and I would like to try it out. Zürichsee I only did Halbinsel Au. I did most of my dives in lake of Zug or Vierwaldstettersee till now.

Yes i meant run time. If you want you can reach out to me we could arrange something on the Walensee. Halbinsel Au is a lovely dive to the table at around 42m if the viz is good. If you just dive a little deeper as the Table there is a overhang where many burbot ( Trüschen ) and char ( Saiblinge ) gather there.

 

[Klopo]

Switch to doubles/sidemount and learn to do real technical diving. Get some (hard) overhead training and dive your open circuit until you reach the limitations of OC, then consider CCR.

There shouldn't be any real "Oh sh*t" moments in a properly planned tech dive. There should be sufficient redundancies and training to ensure that no matter what happens, you're getting home safely.

Yes i see your points. So you mean that the Dive time or depht is limited by oc, and not my "experience" limits it ?
With the Oh S*it moments i mentioned i meant moments where for example my second stage free float while i was changing on my stage. It was my second dive with the stage and at the first moment i was overloaded with those things. Or once on 41m my drysuit decided to inflate itself because the inlet valve stuck open. i quickly realized that i just need to detach the inflator hose. But i know if you dont fix those things in time under water it can turn out pretty bad. I also learnt that it is important to know your equipment as precisely as possible.

 

[Narked_Muffin]

This is way above my pay grade as I don't have cave or technical training, but I have a question. Is this way of breathing down a little of each gas supply standard practice? Is it not better to conserve the back gas and breathe down stages first, to simplify gas sharing and make it possible to drop stages in an emergency?

Yes its common practice, especially in sidemount.
You breath a little from each tank at a time, switching every 20 - 30bar or so.
It helps keep the stages balanced with buoyancy, otherwise one side will be floating while the other one sinks so it's very difficult to keep level and well trimmed in the water, it also prevents any major "oh s*it" moments where you've practically emptied one of your stages, only to find out that the first stage on the other has siezed or frozen shut and you now have no available gas at all... With constant switching and use your regs are less likely to freeze or malfunction and you're going to notice a problem a lot sooner, before your 30 mins from any potential exit with only the reserve of one single stage available

 

[steinbil]

Yes its common practice, especially in sidemount.
You breath a little from each tank at a time, switching every 20 - 30bar or so.
It helps keep the stages balanced with buoyancy, otherwise one side will be floating while the other one sinks so it's very difficult to keep level and well trimmed in the water, it also prevents any major "oh s*it" moments where you've practically emptied one of your stages, only to find out that the first stage on the other has siezed or frozen shut and you now have no available gas at all... With constant switching and use your regs are less likely to freeze or malfunction and you're going to notice a problem a lot sooner, before your 30 mins from any potential exit with only the reserve of one single stage available

I know it is common with side mount, but I was thinking about doubles + bottom stage, since you mentioned a twinset. I would assume the doubles would be breathed upon entering the water, so those regs should work unless you have a critical failure. Isn't it then better to breathe the bottom stage first, to preserve gas in your doubles that have redundancy and can be isolated, donated etc. and when the stage is empty you have all gas remaining in your doubles and can drop the stage to reduce drag if you are in an emergency?

 

[Narked_Muffin]

I know it is common with side mount, but I was thinking about doubles + bottom stage, since you mentioned a twinset. I would assume the doubles would be breathed upon entering the water, so those regs should work unless you have a critical failure. Isn't it then better to breathe the bottom stage first, to preserve gas in your doubles that have redundancy and can be isolated, donated etc. and when the stage is empty you have all gas remaining in your doubles and can drop the stage to reduce drag if you are in an emergency?

People have different ways of looking at and doing things, I'm sure there are people out there who do breath their gas this way, for me it's more of a habit that I've gotten into, especially as I am primarily a cave diver and am often switching back and forth between back mount and side mount, so it's good to keep that habit of switching.
And I'd rather breath my back gas first than my stages, worst case scenario if I bump my back into the ceiling and damage the regs, I know that I'll have my sides to breath from. While if I had entered the water using said sides, then damaged my twins later on, I wouldn't have much gas left in my sides to bail me out.