halocline
Contributor
You’re in sidemount, correct? The first time I added a stage to sidemount I really struggled, although it was an AL80, same as the SM tanks. Why did you sling it on the right? Usually it goes on the left, then if you have two bottles it’s stage left, deco bottle right. Maybe people do it differently. I know there’s the ‘right-rich/left-lean’ adage but if you only have one slung bottle, why not left?
If you spend enough time swimming around with a stage, your balance and trim will get better. You figure out how to make those small adjustments. For me, it’s worse when the stage is near empty, it becomes quite buoyant. That’s when the tail mount can be very comfortable.
The skills that I practiced most when I was learning to dive with a stage were stage drop/pickup and to a lesser extent managing the stage in a restriction. That was for cave diving with a stage to extend the dive. For DP in open water, don’t know how much emphasis they put on stage dropping/picking up but you really want to be good at it regardless. Part of it is making the right buoyancy adjustments, part is getting fluent with clipping the stage in, presumably to your drop D ring. If you’re using AL80s as SM tanks, they are usually re-clipped forward by the time you pick up the stage, and that makes it harder to reach the drop D. I went from a cord leash to bungee leash under the band clamp and that really helped.
In DP I remember having to run the switching protocol several times before it felt natural. It’s a team communication issue mostly. It’s not hard, but your instructor will hopefully give you each step clearly and you need to remember to do them all in the right sequence. For me, I forgot to switch my computers a few times after the team had completed the switch and got dinged for that.
Sounds like you’re preparing well, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the class.
If you spend enough time swimming around with a stage, your balance and trim will get better. You figure out how to make those small adjustments. For me, it’s worse when the stage is near empty, it becomes quite buoyant. That’s when the tail mount can be very comfortable.
The skills that I practiced most when I was learning to dive with a stage were stage drop/pickup and to a lesser extent managing the stage in a restriction. That was for cave diving with a stage to extend the dive. For DP in open water, don’t know how much emphasis they put on stage dropping/picking up but you really want to be good at it regardless. Part of it is making the right buoyancy adjustments, part is getting fluent with clipping the stage in, presumably to your drop D ring. If you’re using AL80s as SM tanks, they are usually re-clipped forward by the time you pick up the stage, and that makes it harder to reach the drop D. I went from a cord leash to bungee leash under the band clamp and that really helped.
In DP I remember having to run the switching protocol several times before it felt natural. It’s a team communication issue mostly. It’s not hard, but your instructor will hopefully give you each step clearly and you need to remember to do them all in the right sequence. For me, I forgot to switch my computers a few times after the team had completed the switch and got dinged for that.
Sounds like you’re preparing well, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the class.
