So I finally pulled the trigger on getting my own sidemount bc last week, going with the Scubapro X-Tek harness and 45lb wing. Did 4 dives with it this past weekend during my Tec 40 class (not the best time to try new gear, I know) and thought I'd post my thoughts on it, since I found absolutely no reviews on it when I was looking. I'll warn you now, this is a bit long.
To give a little background, I've been diving with one my shop's rental SMS100's since I took the class last July. At 5'5", I've found the Hollis too long for me pretty much since the beginning but over time I came to notice other things I didn't really like about it. I started looking into other options, and came across the SP rig at a product seminar night the distributor had for dealers. Tried the harness on (which conveniently was already adjusted to pretty much exactly my size) and was pleasantly surprised that the buttplate actually sat at the butt, unlike the Hollis that sat a bit lower... I tried to do some research, but found no reviews and the pictures and description on SP's website were, in my mind, a bit lacking.
Decided to order one to get a closer look at it... Initial thoughts on it were that there is definitely some assembly required and the manual that comes with it doesn't really explain everything too well. The harness comes fully assembled, so you have to undo a bunch of stuff to attach the wing. One thing I was initially concerned about was how and where I could attach weights to the rig (I'm like a cork in my drysuit at this time of year). On the back of the harness, the waist belt is sewn down in the middle but passes through several (3 or 4) webbing belt loops spaced pretty much the perfect distance apart to attach a trim weight pocket without it moving around too much. Some of the spots are taken up for attaching the wing, etc, but you could put 2 weight pouches on there. There's also a supplied strap that bolts along the spine of the harness (referred to in the manual as an "optional weight attachment strap" but never actually shown anywhere) that you can attach pockets to or possibly thread weight directly onto it if the slots in the weight are big enough to allow the grommets on the strap to pass through. I'm sorta tempted to replace that with a v-weight pouch or something similar if the grommet holes line up with the harness.
Attaching the wing to the harness is pretty easy but it does require removing all the hardware from the waist belt in order to thread the belt through a loop on the underside of the wing a couple of inches behind the plate the shoulder strap attaches to. Aside from attaching to the belt, there's also a piece of webbing that bolts to the harness at the top, two small straps at the bottom corners screw/nut to the harness and the crotch strap (attached to the wing) goes through a webbing slot at the bottom of the buttplate. Thin bungees attached on the sides through loops on the wing and harness keep it from trying to taco.
Setup complete, it's time to go diving... I've always had a hard time clipping tanks on, especially finding the rails and getting the bungees around the valves with the Hollis. Pleasant surprise here. Finding the rails was easier than it's ever been in the past, even with drygloves on (I've got crushed neoprene/kevlar gloves... dexterity is not a selling point), I think this is because the backplate/buttplate actually sits right against the body, not on top of the wing like the Hollis so there's less searching. The bungees were also easy to do, despite the very small bolt snaps that they come with. They're definitely stretchier than what comes with the Hollis and because it's one long piece instead of 2 separate bungees, if you need a bit more length to get it clipped, you just give it a tug and steal some length from the other side.
In the water, I found it trimmed out well and the bc pretty much disappeared. Deflating the wing I think is going to take a little practice to find the right body position to make dumpling from the hose foolproof. There is a pull dump at the bottom of the wing, but I'm going to have to find a way to make sure it can't go hide under the wing. With an AL80, a 40cu.ft stage and drygloves, finding it wasn't the easiest when it decided to play hide and seek. I may end up just swapping the valves and putting the pull dump at the top, we'll see.
Some things about it that I can't figure out or will need to adjust to: the wing came packaged with a standard length bc hose (actually a regular LP hose with an adaptor) for some reason I can't begin to comprehend. Bungee doesn't always knot well, and set up the way SP suggest, this bc has 6 bungee knots (4 for the wing, 2 for tank bungees) - 2 of the 6 were undone at the end of dive 4, so I'll have to see if they hold better in the future.
Overall, I'm happy with it so far. The price is a bit on the high side though, considering that it doesn't come with any tank bands or clips.
If anybody wants specific details or pics of the bc, let me know.
To give a little background, I've been diving with one my shop's rental SMS100's since I took the class last July. At 5'5", I've found the Hollis too long for me pretty much since the beginning but over time I came to notice other things I didn't really like about it. I started looking into other options, and came across the SP rig at a product seminar night the distributor had for dealers. Tried the harness on (which conveniently was already adjusted to pretty much exactly my size) and was pleasantly surprised that the buttplate actually sat at the butt, unlike the Hollis that sat a bit lower... I tried to do some research, but found no reviews and the pictures and description on SP's website were, in my mind, a bit lacking.
Decided to order one to get a closer look at it... Initial thoughts on it were that there is definitely some assembly required and the manual that comes with it doesn't really explain everything too well. The harness comes fully assembled, so you have to undo a bunch of stuff to attach the wing. One thing I was initially concerned about was how and where I could attach weights to the rig (I'm like a cork in my drysuit at this time of year). On the back of the harness, the waist belt is sewn down in the middle but passes through several (3 or 4) webbing belt loops spaced pretty much the perfect distance apart to attach a trim weight pocket without it moving around too much. Some of the spots are taken up for attaching the wing, etc, but you could put 2 weight pouches on there. There's also a supplied strap that bolts along the spine of the harness (referred to in the manual as an "optional weight attachment strap" but never actually shown anywhere) that you can attach pockets to or possibly thread weight directly onto it if the slots in the weight are big enough to allow the grommets on the strap to pass through. I'm sorta tempted to replace that with a v-weight pouch or something similar if the grommet holes line up with the harness.
Attaching the wing to the harness is pretty easy but it does require removing all the hardware from the waist belt in order to thread the belt through a loop on the underside of the wing a couple of inches behind the plate the shoulder strap attaches to. Aside from attaching to the belt, there's also a piece of webbing that bolts to the harness at the top, two small straps at the bottom corners screw/nut to the harness and the crotch strap (attached to the wing) goes through a webbing slot at the bottom of the buttplate. Thin bungees attached on the sides through loops on the wing and harness keep it from trying to taco.
Setup complete, it's time to go diving... I've always had a hard time clipping tanks on, especially finding the rails and getting the bungees around the valves with the Hollis. Pleasant surprise here. Finding the rails was easier than it's ever been in the past, even with drygloves on (I've got crushed neoprene/kevlar gloves... dexterity is not a selling point), I think this is because the backplate/buttplate actually sits right against the body, not on top of the wing like the Hollis so there's less searching. The bungees were also easy to do, despite the very small bolt snaps that they come with. They're definitely stretchier than what comes with the Hollis and because it's one long piece instead of 2 separate bungees, if you need a bit more length to get it clipped, you just give it a tug and steal some length from the other side.
In the water, I found it trimmed out well and the bc pretty much disappeared. Deflating the wing I think is going to take a little practice to find the right body position to make dumpling from the hose foolproof. There is a pull dump at the bottom of the wing, but I'm going to have to find a way to make sure it can't go hide under the wing. With an AL80, a 40cu.ft stage and drygloves, finding it wasn't the easiest when it decided to play hide and seek. I may end up just swapping the valves and putting the pull dump at the top, we'll see.
Some things about it that I can't figure out or will need to adjust to: the wing came packaged with a standard length bc hose (actually a regular LP hose with an adaptor) for some reason I can't begin to comprehend. Bungee doesn't always knot well, and set up the way SP suggest, this bc has 6 bungee knots (4 for the wing, 2 for tank bungees) - 2 of the 6 were undone at the end of dive 4, so I'll have to see if they hold better in the future.
Overall, I'm happy with it so far. The price is a bit on the high side though, considering that it doesn't come with any tank bands or clips.
If anybody wants specific details or pics of the bc, let me know.
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