Nathan Doty
Contributor
I'm a newbie as well but I'm a huge proponent of muscle memory. I was a competitive fighter, I can do horrible things to people with my eyes closed. I was a cop, had to do things very quickly with no light under stressful situations. I put the same things in the same place for a reason. I've had 1 situation under water I needed to help someone and while keeping my attention on 1 thing grab her inflator to solve a simultaneous problem, and didn't have to look to do it, which would have slowed things down. Had she been configured opposite of standard, it would have caused issues. Instead of a PROBLEM, she had a problem and we got it taken care of.
As long as I dove with the same people that knew my gear, I'll configure it differently. If im with someone that doesnt, I'd be more comfortable keeping things where the can easily find them. The rest of it like cutters etc you can put anywhere you want that works best for you, there's no standard I'm aware of and it wouldn't matter if there was. But I'd like the important stuff to be where I'd expect it to be if I trying to help you.
As long as I dove with the same people that knew my gear, I'll configure it differently. If im with someone that doesnt, I'd be more comfortable keeping things where the can easily find them. The rest of it like cutters etc you can put anywhere you want that works best for you, there's no standard I'm aware of and it wouldn't matter if there was. But I'd like the important stuff to be where I'd expect it to be if I trying to help you.