I'm done forever with SCUBA diving!

[rick00001967]

the above mentioned avelo system may be an option for local diving but it will not be widely avail to use in vacation destinations.
sidemount has also been mentioned. i agree this may be an option as well. most people discuss sm in terms of double tank diving, but single tank sm works great imho.
no tank on your back. if you are making your way to the water you can move the one tank by hand. and you can also gear up in the water and take it off in the water if needed.
when i travel to warmer waters, i prefer single tank sm over single tank bm any day.

 

[Subcooled]

My Wife and I and our two German Shepherd Dogs went on a month long RV trip from Arizona up thru Virginia and down to Florida and then back to Tucson. I was able to set up some drift diving at Rainbow Springs. Unfortunately, while checking my gear in the parking lot, I discovered a tiny pinhole leak in a fitting on my regulator so I decided to just do the trip on a snorkel instead.

I have to back up a few years here, to 2006. I was an Officer for a large Law Enforcement Agency. At that point, I had twenty years in. I had a runner one night and chased him. Unfortunately for me, I caught him but was alone. He ambushed me, beat me unconscious and then stomped and kicked me for a while. He threw my radio into the ditch but I did not loose my weapon. I was unable to deploy it but I had such a death grip on it to keep him from getting it, that the Paramedics had to give me shot in my arm to make the muscles release it even though I was unconscious. (The Sarge told me about it later) I had several broken fingers, broken ankles, broken ribs, a broken arm and a cracked skull along with a Sub Arachnoid Hematoma. I have some brain damage and am disabled. I used to fall down a lot and not be able to get back up. Elevators were terrifying and escalators are impossible unless I ride them backwards. Physical therapy made it a lot better but I still fall down if I'm not careful.

I was careful getting out of Rainbow Springs at the ramp but I fell hard. I realized then that my days of diving with a tank on my back were over. If I had had a tank on my back, I could have been hurt possibly badly or maybe hurt somebody else. No more SCUBA diving for me. It's time to give it up. I'm almost seventy years old and have been SCUBA diving since I was about ten years old. I'm just to old and broken down to carry a tank around on my back anymore.

So instead, I'm going to start hose diving and leave the tank on the surface. I think it's called SNUBA now but I always called it Hookah diving. I've already got the rig and just have to try it out in the pool. I might even be able to talk my Service Dog into diving tandem with me since he won't have to carry a tank on his back!

Have you considered sidemount diving? With two small tanks?

I've fallen on my back with such a rig and it wasn't all that terrible (because the tanks were to my sides and they were small). I can also carry them one by one to the water and don there. No heavy loads to carry. A flexible back. A choice of tank sizes, no matter how small, as long as you add appropriate amount of lead.

If the water is warm, you should not ignore no-mount diving either. One Al80 (or smaller tank!) with one regulator and one SPG will be great when you dive in swimming tunks, maybe 4 lbs of weight, mask, fins, nothing more.

 

[tridacna]

the above mentioned avelo system may be an option for local diving but it will not be widely avail to use in vacation destinations.

You have it backwards. Avelo is available in vacation destinations and not locally.

 

[TMHeimer]

I haven't done a boat dive since 2015, so not sure how I'd do with that at 71 this month. I still shore dive regularly but have eliminated certain sites that were harder than-- gear up on my trunk, walk over basically flat ground and enter without much surf. Will see how long that lasts....

 

[Waterwulf]

Thanks for the good words and great suggestions. My "balance control center" got damaged when my skull broke. It thinks I'm leaned over to the front right at about a forty degree angle. Most of the therapy that I got, was to teach me to ignore the BCC and learn to use my eyes on things straight up and down like buildings to orient myself upright. I do pretty good until I get tired. Then I start to rely on the "old automated systems" to much and fall down.

At almost seventy, being tired after a dive is pretty normal for me so if I want to keep diving, I have to modify my style to dragging an air hose versus carrying a tank. Falling down while dragging an air hose sounds much less painful than falling down with a tank on my back.

My rig is uhhmm...well...ahhh....unique! Yeah yeah that's the word! I trained on horse collar type Buoyancy Compensators in the early 70's and still use one to this day. Yes, I have tried the vest type and the rear type. I even paid for a class on them. The Instructor said I was built wrong. I hate them and will continue to use my vintage style horse collar BC. However, I did like that the other types had everything incorporated in one harness versus my one strap for the weight belt, three for the tank and two for the BC.

So I built a rig that uses one harness, has integral QR weight pockets, a horse collar BC and can be used for Hookah(SNUBA), tank diving or even just snorkeling without the BC. It holds all of my "oh crap" gear. I won't be using it for tank diving anymore but it's still great for everything else. Yes, the BC has it's own air hose from the coupler on the back. I solo dive so it has an attachment for a small bail out bottle.

This photo shows it in the tank mode with a tank cam band. I have a fifty foot breathing air hose with a distributor valve on the end to supply air to the BC and two regulators. (Ones an Octo) My BC clips on to the front of it.

It all works for me and should give me a few more years of breathing underwater.