My venture into Sidemount.

[Jax]

Here's a question for you . . . I practice in the pool, and try to hold position a few inches off the floor. That really sucks when I'm in a silty lake (got silt in both my pony regs) . . . what is a good "hold" depth to practice? I can't be too high, or I scare the fuss out of the lane swimmers above.

 

[The Chairman]

6 inches is fine on a hard or rocky bottom. I have had my shock wave disturb silt over 2 foot way in a submerged building that gets very little traffic. The important thing is to be aware of your impact on the environment. A few minutes later I realized that my bubbles were also causing a disturbance. That was a little freaky-deaky!

 

[Jax]

Thanks!

<ran out of thanks clicks>

 

[Jax]

Alright, even though you can reach up to the pull dump, it might not always be that easy. It needs to be in the same place all the time and easy to reach. You should route it down along the shoulder strap. Darn! No more messing with the shoulder straps!

How do you have your tube secured to the wing strap? It looks like you peirced two holes in two places in the wing's shoulder strap, and put a small tie wrap around through the two holes??

 

[The Chairman]

It looks like two zip ties.

 

[Jax]

Thanks!


:shocked2: OMG, I see something . . . sshshsshhshhhshsh . . . I'm hunting a "Thanks" click . . .

 

[noreastDIVER84]

I got into GInnie Springs this weekend and had a good bit of success. I penetrated about 1,000 feet on the first dive and 1,100 on the second. My buddy turned it when I was only 100-200 psi away from doing it myself. I did get my camera snagged on a line as I was negotiating the Eye Bypass. That was tight, but FUN. We also did the Lips Bypass, but that was not nearly as tight.

Trim felt great: even my buddies thought so.

I LOVED having D-Rings on my tanks. They sit about 4 inches out from the ones that hold them to my harness. I even clipped my pony off on it! YAY!!! I really, really liked this. I need to get a hose that's just a tad bit longer and a side discharge reg and I will be set. The other D-Rings that I put on my neck strap were useless. Grrr. I need to rethink that with possibly a steel ring around the neck. I also could not find my double reg necklace, so I have to build a couple of them.

FWIW, I would love to find a second stage where the hose can be reversed. I want a long hose on both tanks with the hose going from the left on the left second stage and the right on the right second stage.

The Apeks XTX50's are reversible. I have the hoses coming out of the respective sides on each of my regulators.

 

[Dive-aholic]

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.

Yes, even in AL80s, that will throw you off by about 3lbs. It also negates the redundancy factor built into sidemount. If you lose the air in your full cylinder, you only have 1500 psi left in the other cylinder. Balancing pressure is more for the redundancy than the weight balance.

Here's a question for you . . . I practice in the pool, and try to hold position a few inches off the floor. That really sucks when I'm in a silty lake (got silt in both my pony regs) . . . what is a good "hold" depth to practice? I can't be too high, or I scare the fuss out of the lane swimmers above.

Practice where you are in the pool, but make adjustments in the lake.

How do you have your tube secured to the wing strap? It looks like you peirced two holes in two places in the wing's shoulder strap, and put a small tie wrap around through the two holes??

Yes, you and Pete are correct. Two small holes with a soldering tool or wood burning tool (something that heats up and will melt the edges) and small zip ties.

 

[Jax]

Thanks, Rob!

Thick silt . . . another reason to not dive cold, dark, murky mountain lakes!

 

[ianr33]

Thick silt . . . another reason to not dive cold, dark, murky mountain lakes!

Yep. No silt in caves..................