Stage Rigging Methods

[TracyN]

I am done with any form of back mounting stages. I'm tired of nearly having to dislocate my shoulder every time I go to clip the tank down. I'm currently using the "Weston" method. My arms just aren't long enough to reach around easily. We are tweaking a way of front mounting using the standard GUE method of stage rigging so that the tanks don't hang down.

 

[rddvet]

Here's how I rig mine, nice and simple:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sidemount-diving/486924-razor-configuration.html#post7170452

Dave

That's the way I was talking about. It dives like a dream. If you put the stage on first then add your normally rigged al40 deco bottle the deco bottle sits in a little triangle made by the stage and the primary tank. When I first rigged my bottles this way I thought it would be awkward. It's absolutely not. Being right in front pushing up a little on your primary, the stage is nice and tight. You can easily see it to identify the right gas and easily restow your hose.

Like Tracy said. My arm hurts trying to throw on a top mount stage.

 

[tbone1004]

Tracy, good luck getting the stages to ride properly with standard gue rigging. I think the only way to get it to work properly would be to use the chokers from DiveRite. Wouldn't have to cinch them down, but it would keep the clips from going 90* from the axis of the tank.

The razor style is really nice for bottom mounting and works really well, that is how I run my O2 bottle and deep deco mixes

 

[rddvet]

Tracy, good luck getting the stages to ride properly with standard gue rigging.

+1 I think using a standard backmount stage rigging (GUE style), all you're going to do is look like a rebreather diver when your tank butts push laterally past your primary tanks. Hell, no offense to backmount divers, but I've rarely seen a backmounter who's empty stages weren't 60-90 degrees vertical.

I'll post some of my photos of my setup later too.

So now we have the Edd way, the Rob way, the Weston way, and the illustrious Dave stage is the way I'm doing it. Gotta give credit to the inventors.

 

[TracyN]

I am very interested in the Dave stage way for sure. Looking forward to seeing your photos. Something has to give, lol!

 

[Razorista]

...using a standard backmount stage rigging (GUE style), all you're going to do is look like a rebreather diver when your tank butts push laterally past your primary tanks...

Does that really matter with the technique shown in the video eternaljonah posted (October 17th, 2014, 11:27 AM)?
(Which can be used with any type of sidemount system, in my most humble opinion.)

I am not using stages often myself and am not a technical diver, so I am just asking not advising, don't get me wrong there.

I was in the water today testing a stage regulator I am in process of buying used third or fourth hand, so I breathed the stage down completely and it never moved more than a few inches (because it is held in place by the main tank).
I also blew a pressure gauge swivel on the second dive on the single tank on the other side and had to turn off that valve and also breath down the other main sidemount tank to a few single digit bars, also no problem after re-clipping the breathed down main tank to the front D-ring and since I front/bottom mounted the stage I did not have to re-clip that one at all.

I am using sidemount rigging with a bungeed boltsnap on the valve, but that's just convenience, as all my tanks are used sidemounted anyway.
Using normal stage rigging the tank would be turned 90degrees, resulting in an awkward first stage position, but otherwise I see no difference.

 

[bamafan]

I am done with any form of back mounting stages. I'm tired of nearly having to dislocate my shoulder every time I go to clip the tank down. I'm currently using the "Weston" method. My arms just aren't long enough to reach around easily. We are tweaking a way of front mounting using the standard GUE method of stage rigging so that the tanks don't hang down.

But what will I have for entertainment now? You look so good doing everything else it made me feel better watching you have a hard time with something.

 

[rddvet]

Ok here's my photos. There are aspects of the Dave stage that are similar to Edd's.
First you take a piece of bungee and wrap it tightly around the neck. I was shown to take a quick link and put a knot in the bungee so it holds without pulling through the quicklink. Then place another quicklink(for clipping your reg) and the snapbolt style of your choice( I prefer butterflies) on the bungee. Wrap the bungee around the neck of the tank and run it back through the quicklink. Once you get it positioned, add a ziptie to keep the quicklink from moving. Up until this point it's similar to Edd's I believe. Now pull the loose end of the bungee so it's really tight around the neck and put a knot in it so that it stays tight. Being tight is important. If the bungee's too loose, the tank valve will have some play when clipped onto you. Here's photos illustrating up until this point


So at first when I was shown this I thought it would be weird in how you attach the top to your chest. It's really not at all. Once in the water it's totally comfortable. To clip the neck in you actually pull the butterfly back underneath and behind the valve handle. One point, this is a setup where your valve is facing down. Some people don't like that. Once on though you can easily see your valve and keep it out of muck. If you're scraping it, you're in some pretty tight stuff. So here's a photo of how the butterfly comes back for attaching to your chest d-ring. I was Edd-trained, so I have two chest d-rings. The lower where I clip off my primary and the upper where I clip off stage and deco gasses. It works just fine if you only have one d-ring and clip primary/deco/stage all to one.


The bottom attachment goes to your waist d-ring. It took me a few adjustments for proper d-rign positioning. If it's too far forward, your tank may hang too low. I have my d-ring right at the top of my hip bone. The bottom attachment is a snapbolt of your choice on a very short piece of bungee. Bungee is the critical part so it has some stretch to pull the tank in. I keep mine very short, although slightly longer is easier to grab. I like my stage pulled in really tight. In the photo, my bungee is actually longer than I would usually have it. If the bungees too long you may get a little tank hang. The attachment is basically at a 45 degree angle behing the valve (or just behind the handwheel). The wormdrive is 10 inches from the bottom. For me keeping the top and bottom attachments nice and tight are best.


For me the protocol is primary tanks on, stage on, then attach deco bottle which the leash goes between the stage and the primary to attach to the same waist d-ring as the stage. The deco bottle sits in the a shape created by the primary and stage.


*Photos courtesy of C & R Diving Unlimited, Inc- The official fill station and expedition logistics managers of the inventor of the Dave Stage

 

[TracyN]

Maybe we can go on a dive sometime so I can see this in action? I can't really tell anything by the pictures. Have you had anyone video you or take photos while diving it? That would be interesting to see. When I was front mounting them before I knew the stages were hanging low but I didn't know how low until I saw a video.

 

[Omisson]

More impressive than the tank switches was the ability to maintain buoyancy with the weight changes offloading and reloading the tanks!