'Open Water' only sidemount BCDs: Your opinions?

[rjack321]

I just helped a friend set up a new Hollis sms50 today - the bottom LPI was too short for manual inflation. I would love to know the justification for this. Do some sm divers just assume they will never need to orally inflate the wing and, with this in mind, criticize a top LPI that allows such an option, as being unnecessary.

they make corrugated hoses in various lengths you know...

 

[MSargeant]

I just helped a friend set up a new Hollis sms50 today - the bottom LPI was too short for manual inflation. I would love to know the justification for this. Do some sm divers just assume they will never need to orally inflate the wing and, with this in mind, criticize a top LPI that allows such an option, as being unnecessary.

As stated above... corrugated hose comes in various lengths, so you can easily make it fit.
I've noticed that on taller people (i'm 6'4/5) the sms50 just doesnt work. How tall is your friend? That could contribute.

 

[JamesK]

I just helped a friend set up a new Hollis sms50 today - the bottom LPI was too short for manual inflation. I would love to know the justification for this. Do some sm divers just assume they will never need to orally inflate the wing and, with this in mind, criticize a top LPI that allows such an option, as being unnecessary.

Nope nope nope. I am not diving, nor are anyone of my sidemount buddies that I am aware of, a rig that does not allow for manual inflation.

 

[ffdiver]

I tested out the SMS50 for an entire summer. It didn't work for what I wanted, but it is a nice system. They just didn't think through every piece of it. I then bought a Dive rite LT, (I got the cave version) but the OW rig would have worked well just the same. I think it is a better designed system. Both versions.

What they could have done was just make it one system without the OW version and Cave version. Which I guess is the original intent of this thread. I would have no problem using either OW or in a cave.

 

[DevonDiver]

I tested out the SMS50 for an entire summer. It didn't work for what I wanted, but it is a nice system. They just didn't think through every piece of it..

I think the SMS50 has numerous flaws. It is good kit, but there were some significant oversights in the design. One primary flaw is the under-sized LPI. I've taught several students in the SMS50 now... and all have identified that issue.

Hollis could have fixed that issue with a longer, more flexible LPI, but seem to have opted instead for the 'sport model' solution. I don't quite see the logic in that. Hopefully later releases of the SMS50 (sport or regular) will benefit from more diver feedback and show the improvements necessary.

I use a Halcyon 'flat' LPI on my sidemount. It is long enough to cross the chest, very flexible and easy for oral inflate. Don't have an issue dumping, from any trim position (it's bottom mounted).

 

[DaleC]

Humm... I wonder if Hollis bases it's LPI hose sizes off of someone diving in the tropics and not with cold water exposure suits?


Did another dive today (my buddies first SM dive) and planned to video him for review. I was able to rip some images of myself from a short clip.

This one shows how my traditional Apex donut wing lays and how the elbow doesn't jut out in any sort of dangerous way for OW diving:


Here's a shot that shows how the LPI lies at the chest - about the same as a bottom mount:


This shows Lamar's D.R. ring system I adopted - very happy with it. My cambands could come up a bit or I need to put some butt rings lower down:


This last one shows something interesting I did not catch earlier. One dive ago, I put an Omni swivel on my second stage and as a a result, it now hangs too low from the D ring when clipped off. Corrected.

 

[DevonDiver]

Humm... I wonder if Hollis bases it's LPI hose sizes off of someone diving in the tropics and not with cold water exposure suits?

The actual corrugated hose is short - even in the tropics LOL. It's also quite 'stiff' and doesn't extend much when pulled... although, maybe, they get looser with use/wear? All the SMS50 I've seen have been virtually brand new. Students stuggle with oral inflation. The LP hose provided is also very short - it doesn't seem ideally sized for the LPI, even if using a regulator that has a bottom-port. Another 2" seems ideal.

As you say, whether bottom or top mounted, the LPI itself tends to lie in the same location. The difference is whether you bend it back to orally inflate (top mounted) or have to pull/extend it upwards (bottom mounted).

I fitted a longer corrugated hose to my rig, which partially crosses the chest and is clipped off, via bungee and bolt-snap, on the opposite (right) shoulder d-ring. That provides ample length for oral inflation and the flexibility to dump from multiple positions/trim.

 

[drbill]

people suddenly become anal about other's skill issues only when they themselves are filming or photographing underwater, I just have to laugh my ass off when they get their panties in a knot over such trivial issues. What is so critical FOR THEM that they have to be skilled divers suddenly when YOU are filming?

When they enter my space while I am filming, I think I have every right to go ballistic. Last weekend I had an entire OW class swim right over (and under) me while I was filming on a remote reef. The stuff they stirred up destroyed my filming. I've even had an instructor and his OW class walk on my back while I was filming a flat fish on the bottom in 35 ft of water.

 

[DevonDiver]

and I shake my head when someone else's buoyancy issues affected your ballistic levels when you are filming. Who gets to say how another's buoyancy skills should or should not be when you are filming? If poor divers do not want to improve their skills in any way they dive what basis does an underwater videographer/photographer have to curse and swear? It's their problem not yours.

people suddenly become anal about other's skill issues only when they themselves are filming or photographing underwater, I just have to laugh my ass off when they get their panties in a knot over such trivial issues. What is so critical FOR THEM that they have to be skilled divers suddenly when YOU are filming?

As a general issue, I think divers should be concerned with other divers' buoyancy issues - because deficit of those tends to cause environmental damage. That's not just an issue which would be of concern to videographers. Of course, if I was filming other divers in the water, I know my results might be a lot more pleasing and professional if said divers weren't going through a bottom-churning rototiller routine..

I get a bit anal about others buoyancy issues because I teach technical diving. In that role, I am forever confronted with core skills deficits that have to be rectified before I can progress a student to the level of training they enrolled to complete. It costs me many hours...

 

[beanojones]

As a general issue, I think divers should be concerned with other divers' buoyancy issues - because deficit of those tends to cause environmental damage.

Causing "environmental damage" and "messing up my fun" are vastly different things. Population pressure and run off, and Ocean industry (inclduing commercial fishing) cause environmental damage. Bad buoyancy control just messes up what people want to see.

In the small way divers make damage, just getting in the water causes damage with the chemicals and chance for damage divers bring, and that does not really change that much from the best to the worst divers.

It would be nice if divers acting a certain way made a difference, but it really does not make much difference. It just messes with 'my view'. Large populations living near the ocean, and industrial action near or in the ocean makes a difference.