Around here (Seattle), I've never seen an LP72. Before I got into SM, a friend of mine sold his. The advice I received regarding the tank weight was from Tom Steiner.
Last edited:
Tried sidemount - good experience
- Thread starter Marie13
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Better question here is, why would you switch to a system that does not support your most common type of dive? Cooler water, dry suit, side mount and steel tanks.
kafkaland
Contributor
kafkaland
Contributor
I have both, the Contour and the Razor. I use them for very different diving: The Contour for cold-water dives with drysuit and steel tanks, the Razor in the cenotes with AL80s and wet suit. Hybrid solutions where I use one harness with the other kind of tanks has always been suboptimal for me.
OP
Eventually...
Dunno about the contour, but Stealth works on steel tanks, pretty sure one could get the razor to behave properly with normal steel tanks.
Aluminium tanks in cold water work as well, depending on your plans.
Last edited:
I like all this talk about SM. My local shop is a Hollis dealer. So when the SMS harnesses came out the owner was trying all of them. I don't remember which came out first. It think it was the SMS100. Next was the SMS75 and finally the SMS50. He tried them all. One of the advantages to being the owner. 
He spent a few years trying different SM configurations. When the Razor started being available in Canada, he gave that a try (still in a box on the showroom floor) but ended up settling on the XDeep. He goes to Cuba once a month but most his diving is in Canada. Like me, he started with BM and the Worthington HP100 tanks. He is mixed on HP100 versus AL80 for SM. It definitely looks like AL80 is a good choice for warm water diving. You just don't need the extra weight when diving a 2.5mm wetsuit.
He does drysuit and deco diving. So the extra air makes sense for him. For me, like @raftingtigger, I hit NDL before I run out of air. So the extra air in an HP100 doubles isn't really that helpful. In addition to the extra weight of the tanks, the air has more weight as well. My Worthington tanks are only 34# but the extra air adds almost another 2# of weight, per tank.
I think the fact my shop's owner goes through all these different gear configs. He has pretty much settled on the XDeep because it is great at cold water SM, steel or aluminum and it isn't bad for warm water diving. I just laid down money for my first drysuit. Once I get comfortable with drysuit and BP/W I plan on switching to SM. That will probably be in the Spring. Maybe I'll see if I can borrow the shop owner's XDeep.
Not hooked on SM... yet. But I still remember switching from stab jacket to BP/W. Someone told me, "Come to the darkside... we have cookies." There was no cookies but I didn't care. Watching the guys cave diving in Mexico, SM just looks so nice.
The shop owner is recommending I use my doubles as sidemount doubles. Then I'll have a left and right valve, rather than two right valves. I think I'm going to see about diving 2 right valves instead. This way when I'm traveling I don't have to worry about finding someone with left valves. I can just use 2 right valves out of their regular rental stock.
Already bought a Perdix AI. Went diving with 7mm gloves in a 4 to 6 knot current and lots of hazards. Being my first dive in the area, it was challenging to avoid underwater hazards, stay below the commercial tankers and not get lost (5 foot viz). Add to that a new dive computer and needing to use the compass. The Perdix was so intuitive and easy to use. I did once miss press the buttons, got onto gas selection and switched from EAN36 to air but that was my 4th dive on the Perdix and conditions got a little hairy as I was trying to turn on the compass. I plan on using it in places I have been diving for years so I can get more comfortable with it.
I also read the manual for the first time... probably should have done that before using it in the water.
He spent a few years trying different SM configurations. When the Razor started being available in Canada, he gave that a try (still in a box on the showroom floor) but ended up settling on the XDeep. He goes to Cuba once a month but most his diving is in Canada. Like me, he started with BM and the Worthington HP100 tanks. He is mixed on HP100 versus AL80 for SM. It definitely looks like AL80 is a good choice for warm water diving. You just don't need the extra weight when diving a 2.5mm wetsuit.
He does drysuit and deco diving. So the extra air makes sense for him. For me, like @raftingtigger, I hit NDL before I run out of air. So the extra air in an HP100 doubles isn't really that helpful. In addition to the extra weight of the tanks, the air has more weight as well. My Worthington tanks are only 34# but the extra air adds almost another 2# of weight, per tank.
I think the fact my shop's owner goes through all these different gear configs. He has pretty much settled on the XDeep because it is great at cold water SM, steel or aluminum and it isn't bad for warm water diving. I just laid down money for my first drysuit. Once I get comfortable with drysuit and BP/W I plan on switching to SM. That will probably be in the Spring. Maybe I'll see if I can borrow the shop owner's XDeep.
Not hooked on SM... yet. But I still remember switching from stab jacket to BP/W. Someone told me, "Come to the darkside... we have cookies." There was no cookies but I didn't care. Watching the guys cave diving in Mexico, SM just looks so nice.
The shop owner is recommending I use my doubles as sidemount doubles. Then I'll have a left and right valve, rather than two right valves. I think I'm going to see about diving 2 right valves instead. This way when I'm traveling I don't have to worry about finding someone with left valves. I can just use 2 right valves out of their regular rental stock.
Already bought a Perdix AI. Went diving with 7mm gloves in a 4 to 6 knot current and lots of hazards. Being my first dive in the area, it was challenging to avoid underwater hazards, stay below the commercial tankers and not get lost (5 foot viz). Add to that a new dive computer and needing to use the compass. The Perdix was so intuitive and easy to use. I did once miss press the buttons, got onto gas selection and switched from EAN36 to air but that was my 4th dive on the Perdix and conditions got a little hairy as I was trying to turn on the compass. I plan on using it in places I have been diving for years so I can get more comfortable with it.
I also read the manual for the first time... probably should have done that before using it in the water.
Turn in your qualification right now - reading a manual??? What are you - some kind ofsnip...
I also read the manual for the first time... probably should have done that before using it in the water.
?
This basic sentiment is something I have really been curious about. I'm assuming you are using the term "hybrid" to refer to a rig that could be used for cold water/drysuit/hp steels AND also be used for warm water/wetsuit/AL80s. As opposed to the "hybrid" rigs that are intended to be able to handle SM and also single tank back mount.
It makes it sounds like the "FL Cave SM rig" (cold/steels) vs the "MX Cave SM rig" (warm/AL80s) is a case of the rigs being fundamentally different, so that neither one can ever really be GOOD for the other style of use.
But, I have read everything I can (and understand the limitations of reading versus doing) and what I read makes it sound like either kind of harness could be made to work perfectly well for the other style of diving just by (possibly) doing some very simple and very inexpensive modifications. This is presuming that the wing being used is of adequate lift capacity, of course.
Beyond that, what more is there to making a (for example) warm water/AL80 rig work for cold water/HP steels than maybe moving or adding a D-ring or Drop-D-ring to the waist belt? Or maybe (MAYBE) adding a butt plate with rails? And maybe changing the bungees around a bit, possibly changing them to thinner or thicker or a different length or maybe even changing them from a simple loop to using a ring? All stuff that is pretty cheap and easy (except maybe a butt plate not being cheap).
From what it seems like (to me, who hasn't gotten wet in SM yet), it seems like changing a cold water/steels rig to work just fine with warm water/AL80s or vice versa is something that could be done for pretty little expense and, once you sort yourself out in both configurations, you could change back and forth pretty quickly (if it even takes any time at all).
I do realize there may be some specific rigs that wouldn't be easy to change around. Maybe they have things that are sewn and not easy to change, for example. But, at least for the newer style of rigs that seem to be coming out, it looks like it would be totally feasible to have one rig that would work very well for either style of SM diving, though possibly requiring some cheap and simple mods to how it comes from the factory. I'm thinking of rigs like the xDeep Stealth, the Apeks WSX, possibly the Hollis Katana, the Razor, and even the DECO rig. Some of those possibly needing a change to a wing with more lift, depending on specifics of the cold water diving plans.
Is that not the case?
Similar threads
