Moving to doubles....

[Super]

This is exactly what I did. I had the gear and knew I was going to doubles in the future so I hooked up a set of independent doubles and had at it!!! I had the same goals in mind, finding out how it felt with doubles on my back, adjusting to the extra weight, working on trim, etc.

The results: I learned how to walk to the water over the quarry's rather large gravel with 2 tanks on my back.

How to don my fins and not fall backwards if I forget how easy it is to turn turtle with 2 tanks vs one tank. ( I stood up too tall, after feeling a little too comfortable after I got in the water... stupid I know)

How to descend a whole lot slower than normal.....the extra weight really makes you drop fast!!!!

How to properly route hoses.....it's so nice now with my manifold.

And to generally FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE BEFORE THE TRANSITION TO DOUBLES.

That being said, I did get the stinkeye from a few people. And this may not be for everybody. But for me, it was a TRUE learning experience. From this I have progressed as a diver overall. It forced me to pay a lot more attention to HOW I dive. Keeping proper trim, buoyancy, etc..I had gotten complacent as a recreational diver as we can get away with a lot of things, especially during the more shallow dives.

Also, I did this in a controlled way. In a quarry no deeper than 80 FFW. Also, with buddies that understood what I was doing and how my hoses ran, just in case.

When I finally got to diving a manifolded doubles setup, I felt especially comfortable and had an idea of what to expect with doubles on my back and it made the progression to this configuration a lot easier.

This may not be "proper" in some circles but it worked for me. And I may get flamed for this but...so it is.

Have fun, you'll learn a lot.

 

[Dive Junky]

The only ones who will complain are those whose way of diving is the only way. Aint Nothing wrong with it. My avatar is a picture of me diving at Truk with independant doubles. Great way to dive. Completely redundant. Nice and safe.

 

[FishDiver]

I must have missed the part where the OP stated he was DIR.

The downside is that for half the dive you are breathing off the short hose reg, which creates a small hitch in the otherwise smooth "donate the long hose primary" OOA drill as you have to unclip and hand off the long hose if you are already breathing the short hose. My preferred way to deal with this is to clip the long hose off on the right shoulder D-ring when it is not in use with the bolt snapo secured to the second stage by using a large o-ring slipped over the mouthpiece. That ensures it can be pulled free by me or the buddy with no need to unclip it.

I dive independents with one standard hoses and I clip the reg I am not using at the moment to my right chest D-ring. Works great, especially for travel.

And for people with shoulder injuries who can't reach the manifold valve it eliminates a few failure points.