My venture into Sidemount.

[Jax]

The Razor is light and completely adjustable, very similar to a one-piece Hog harness. The problem with it for anything other than Al80s is the lack of flotation. In those videos, Steve is using an MSR hydration bladder in the small of his back to provide little extra flotation. He's working on a more sophisticated solution, but no word as to when it will ready. Steve Martin's site shows a Razor in combination with the Hollis SMS100 wing, which I'm going to try. It looks like it will work well, with plenty of flotation, and no indication that the wing will taco when inflated, but I haven't been able to get mine into the water yet.

When I had that "listing" problem, I unhooked the bottoms of the tanks so i could check them out . . . I was immediately standing on my head, with the tanks standing on the pool floor. The 7mm was straining me towards the surface.

I just cannot envision the Razor with heavy tanks. I would appreciate more waistband 'turf', though; I don't have room to hang anything.

 

[The Chairman]

[table 3,3] Reg to use: | Left PSI | Right PSI|Change Needed
Right | 3500 | 3500|200
Left |3500| 3300|600
Right|3000|3300|600
Left|3000|2700|600
Right|2400|2700|300
THIRDS|2400|2400|TURN
THIRDS|THIRDS|THIRDS|TURN
Right|2400|2100|300
Left|1800|2100|600
Right|1800|1500|600
Etc.|Etc.|Etc.|Until Exit [/table]

 

[Jax]

:shocked2: But I'm not supposed to do rule of thirds! (Ask all the know-it-alls in the Solo thread!)


:snicker:

 

[The Chairman]

:shocked2: But I'm not supposed to do rule of thirds! (Ask all the know-it-alls in the Solo thread!)


:snicker:

Well, modify it to meet your needs. When you can, please come join us at the grown ups table!

 

[Jax]

Well, modify it to meet your needs. When you can, please come join us at the grown ups table!

:kiss2:

 

[The Chairman]

:kiss2:

Snarky, with just a hint of sarcasm!

 

[Dive-aholic]

When you switch is a personal thing. I switch every 1000 psi or so keeping my cylinders within 1/6s of each other. I might switch more often if I'm crawling through really tight passage and want to make sure my regs are both working. But in big cave and open water, I don't see the point in switching more often. keeping the cylinders within 1/6s of each other means I'll have enough gas to get me out even if I lose use of the cylinder with the higher pressure.

 

[Scuba-1]

About switching reg's frorm what I understand if your diving AL80's you have two switch regs more often to keep balanced. But what if you were diving steel 100's, will you really be off balanced if you switch at 1500 psi on the way back from a 60' dive(Shore Dive). That way you'll have a total of 3000psi for a 2nd dive.

 

[The Chairman]

will you really be off balanced if you switch at 1500 psi on the way back from a 60' dive(Shore Dive).

Why would I dive sidemount on a 60ft shore dive? OK, I can think of a couple of reasons, but for the most part: I wouldn't. I dive sidemount because I need redundancy. If I need redundancy, then I want to divide my air equally, because if I lose the use of one cylinder, I probably won't get to choose which one. It's not redundancy if I don't have enough gas to live.

In any case, I don't want either cylinder to drop below two/thirds of it's capacity (A full third of the gas I started out with), BEFORE I turn the dive. That's a fail right there.

 

[Jax]

When you switch is a personal thing. I switch every 1000 psi or so keeping my cylinders within 1/6s of each other. I might switch more often if I'm crawling through really tight passage and want to make sure my regs are both working. But in big cave and open water, I don't see the point in switching more often. keeping the cylinders within 1/6s of each other means I'll have enough gas to get me out even if I lose use of the cylinder with the higher pressure.

Thanks! :kiss2: