'Open Water' only sidemount BCDs: Your opinions?

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Yes, I am talking about the training. I'm not sure how great it is to have a piece of gear that enables you to go new places without the training to go there. If you're going to spend a couple of days in a class, why not go take a cavern course from a good sidemount cave instructor and really learn how to set up and dive the thing?

I don't know what you mean by "cave specific". Most of the rigs require you to do something to make them trim out right. Either you're adding trim weights to the shoulder straps, or moving the wing down, or folding over the top of the wing to reduce the bouyancy up top--something. The inflator swap is fine but like I said, keep an eye on that string. I also prefer a pull dump at the bottom of the wing and ideally, I'd like to have both (like on my OG homemade one).

Just because it enables new environments doesn't mean it forces its wearer into those environments. But otherwise I agree that training can be beneficial and in regards to cavern environments should be considered mandatory by most sane thinking individuals.

Yeah "cave specific" was probably a poor choice. "Cave model" probably would have been better since this thread is about the Cave models of the Nomad LT and SMS 50 versus the openwater models that have the LPI over the shoulder. I look at the openwater versions as giving me more options with dumps and LPI for the warm open water dives I do. Others here in this thread however see it as being badly trained if you opt for one of the open water models.
 
I think that the reason for the swap in most instances is to get it off the d-rings, which you're going to need for bottles if you're doing technical diving, which is probably why you want a sidemount rig in the first place. Most of the other stuff people do to these rigs either make them trim out better, or more streamlined, and those things work better wherever you are. Good luck.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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