Hmm. Yeah I sort of figured side mount. Like those harnesses you put on dogs so you don’t choke em if you break to hard.
Well, each to their own I guess.
Recommendations for pony bottle/regulator set up for solo diving
- Thread starter Tigerpaw
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Well, each to their own I guess.
And for a contrary viewpoint…
Stage cylinders, be they pony cylinders, bottom stages, decompression cylinders, or bailout cylinders, can be quite unwieldy in the water. They swing backwards and forwards on their clips, sucking your energy as you fin. They stick upwards and catch on things especially when empty. They’re not streamlined, sucking yet more energy and slowing you down.
The cure to this is to hold them tight against yourself. To control them you simply wrap a bungee cord on the cylinder neck and it’s pulled tightly into your side. No swinging too and fro. Just flat against your side.
Yes, of course there’s some practice required. And just a little bit of faffing with your kit.
But well worth it.
OTF
Coney Island Whitefish Biologist
I run my normal backplate "sidemount" bungees from one of the side holes just like @FishWatcher747 shows in post #15, but a slightly longer loop. The big difference is mine either runs down through the belt Dring (slid back on the belt almost to where the webbing enters the plate, same one the lower bottle clips to) or boltsnapped to the Dring (and typically not unclipped). This allows me to easily find the bungee again underwater and use a thumb to loop it around the tank valve/reg. If you have a free-hanging loop off the plate like the picture it's very difficult to find it again if it pops off or you need to remove/replace it underwater. But attaching it to the belt D-ring fixes this and doesn't seem to cause any problems.
Disagree. Even with a carefully adjusted rig the bungee will get the tank closer and higher; less likely to hit the reef or wreck and more streamlined. Not to mention taming tanks that want to float ass-up due to low pressure or high helium content.
To each his own. I used to think a bungee was a necessity too and always felt my stages were less than ideal. It took the right instructor seeing the right thing to make the changes in my setup to solve the issue. The same advice/assistance from said instructor has helped a few friends with the same struggles. I felt the same way for a while. Stages are always going to move a little and be less streamlined, but they should be comfortable and not flopping around. A bungee is far from necessary to achieve that. I've tried it both ways, but with the right fixes have no need for a bungee and think it could act as a crutch when a look at your setup could solve the issue. Do I think people that use a bungee are bad divers or don't know what they're doing? No. It's just not necessary.
I don't feel like getting into one of these pissing wars with you. Do what you want, I don't care. After years of experience and experimentation I'm of the opinion a bungee isn't necessary, and fixing the basics is the place to start. You're bascially proving my point with your photos. What you're showing me in the first photos are that that person's harness and rigging is absolutely nowhere near correctly setup. Sure, throw a bungee on it and problem solved. I agree it works and it does work well. But it is far from necessary and is potentially masking the underlying problem. There are several things that could be done to fix what's in the before photos. If you can't see them, then there's another part of the problem. I couldn't see the issues until someone much wiser and more experienced than me showed them to me.
OTF
Coney Island Whitefish Biologist
I ask this purely out of curiosity and a desire to become a better diver, no urine warfare intended, but you've mentioned these adjustments a few times. Could you explain how you set up your harness, what adjustment improved your rig, or post a few pictures? If there are ways I could improve my setup I would love to know. As far as I can tell it would be very difficult to rig things to hold a tank as high/tight on the side as a bungee does, yet still have enough room to reliably operate the boltsnaps in thick gloves or reach suit pockets (which the bungee alows thanks to elasticity). Maybe adding a sidemount butt plate would do it?
On the lower end, a shorter "leash" to the snap and a higher/further-back clip-in should go a long way to tucking it in.
Actually, on the top end, I can't see what is wrong (because the top end isn't visible.)
I am all for learning a better way. Fussing with the upper clip position helped a bit, but the limiting factor was always the length of the bolt-snap ( and potentially d-ring) even with the it stretched to a comfortable limit of clipping. Then I added a small bungee loop around the valve and the bolt-snap ... better, tighter to my body, but it still hung below the clip-in point (and it always will, because - physics).
The "sidemout" bungee pulls it up alongside the body occupying horizontal space within the shoulder envelope and minimizeing excursion below the chest envelope.
Honest question how do I (we) make it even better in optimizing harness and stage rigging ? As much as you can in the way of specifics, please.
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