During the occasional/rare times I'm breathing off the stony to extend a dive, which will be for a relatively brief period of time, say 10-15 minutes, towards the end of the dive, and not doing anything complicated like a wreck penetration the primary will be hanging free on my right shoulder. But you know, you've given me an idea to put a clip on it which would be preferrable to leaving it hanging there.
Thanks
Update: These will be the modifications to my gear as per the suggestions on this thread.
White zip ties swapped with black ones.
Add a clip to my primary regulator so I can clip it off when breathing from the stony bottle rather than having it hang on my shoulder. That clip can also replace the rubber hose keeper.
Rusty old shears on BCD to be swapped with Trilobyte line cutter with easily replaceable blades (I had it in my parts box) and it's not nearly as bulky as I recall especially compared to those shears.
Earplugs and case removed from BCD
Lower stony bottle BCD boltsnap to be swapped with double ender to remove that "metal to metal" connection.
I was going to remove the snap clip from the SMB but then realized with no clip it cannot be attached to the lower D ring (or anywhere else) and if I clip it using the reel's bolt snap they're really tight together, hard to separate especially with gloves, and what happens if I only need the reel and not the SMB?
Looking into replacing the corrugated hose with a shorter one. Getting parts here in remote areas of Greece is problematic most of my Ebay orders don't make it here. I'll check out a few shops during my trip to Florida next month.
If you can't find a suitable inflator hose, try a condensation hose at a hardware store.
If you don't want a jerry rigged hose, you can replace the retractor with a bungee loop on the BCD shoulder strap.
You can tuck the inflator in the loop. If you maintain horizontal trim durring ascent, you should have no problem deflating the BCD with the valve on your back.
Get rid of the Miflex SPG hose. There is no logical reason to have it. If the transmitter loses connectivity once in a while, so what?
You regularly check your pressure and you know your SAC rate, so you should have no problem figuring out your turn time.
If the transmitter and computers are really old an unreliable, replace them or get rid of the transmitter and get a proper SPG.
If you are going to have BOTH and SPG and a transmitter, then get a real SPG and clip it to the bottom left attachment point of your pony. This will keep it out of the way until you really need it and reduces the clutter up front.
Your big knife kept falling out so you got a retractor for it. Instead of solving the problem, you add gear.
Snorkel? How long are you using this snorkel for?
Some calculations:SAC rate of 20 liter/minute on a 10 liter tank gives you 5 minutes of a surface swim will cost you 10 bars
Those same 10 Bars at 40m depth with the same 10 liter tank give you 1 minute less of bottom time.
Those same 10 Bars at 15m depth with the same 10 liter tank give you 2 minutes less of bottom time.
And all this is without considering you pony.
Why do you need a snorkel in the pocket? It make sense to carry a snorkel if you routinely have long surface swims. But you are doing 40 meter "recreational" wreck penetrations.
Your regulator clip can be a simple plastic snap on a rubber band. Not everything needs to be a stainless steel boltsnap with cave line.
Put a doubleender on the SMB, and have a loop on the the reel line instead of the brass swivel snap hook.
This gives you the choice to connect the SMB to the line with the double ender or to the line directly. It also gives you the ability to use the reel independent of the SMB.
You can also replace the Manta swivel bolt with a bungee loop and use a double ender for both the clip and reel together.
This results in one double ender with one side bolted to the D ring and the bungee loops of the SMB and the reel connected to the other end. The bungee loops are easier to cut in a wreck penetration entanglement scenario and the reel can be used independetly from the SMB.
Did you consider that the slate and compass are not usefeul to you because they are in the pocket?
There is a much higher probability of using a slate if it is accesible.
A slate can be used to write turn pressure and turn time.
A slate can be used to write wreck survey measurments for those solo recreational 40m wreck penetration dive that you do.
A slate can be used to convey a message to the surface when attached to the SMB that you sometimes deploy from full depth.
You can even write down tank pressure at fixed time intervals in case the transmitter dies and you don't want to rely on your memory.
Some rumors say that with a slate and one computer, you can perform most dives.
1) Plan the dive
2) Write the plan on the slate
3) Dive the dive as planned on the slate
4) On the off chance that the computer does not die during the dive...you can ascend using the computer and maybe shorten decompression obligations.
Can you imagine how cool it would be to have one computer instead of three?
Think of all the room you would have in your pocket if you put the slate and compass on your arm where you can actually use them.
The line cutter can attach to your computer wrist bungee to declutter the inflator hose. Some people prefer the waist belt.
Have you considered that your gear choices stem from a single source?
The most critical modification to your gear needs to be you. Specifically how you approach problem solving.
There are many examples in this thread that point this out. You have inconsistent mission parameters and shifting requirements depending on how you are trying to defend your choices.
You want to be a 40m solo wreck penetration diver and a surface swimmer and carry a pony and deploy an SMB from full depth and use three computers and have a slate that you don't use and do all of this in a gear configuration that accomplishes none of these objectives.
Just like it is for me in my life, your problems begin with you.
