Question Upgrade to XDeep Rec or Tec for me?

[Dann-Oh]

I am currently diving a SMS75, I dive both 5mm wetsuit and drysuit (with drysuit becoming more and more the preference year round). I use either my LP72s or my LP50s for my sidemount diving. I'm diving off the coast of Southern California, USA with dreams of diving some of the wrecks in Lake Huron and Lake Superior in the near future (2-5 years).

Should I keep training with my SMS75 or upgrade to an XDeep BCD? I'm planning to TDI sidemount and TDI intro to tech this year. I haven't had any issues with my SMS75 but I'm not too sure its up for the task of 4 cylinders deep diving maybe, hopefully I'm wrong. I know one guy who said he had 6 cylinders on his SMS75 and that was his limit for the BCD.

With my SMS75 in a drysuit and LP50s I'm using 20lbs of lead.

 

[VikingDives]

Sidemount and ITT won't require you to have 4 cylinders...

That said, the SMS75 has 35lbs of lift (or at least that's what they advertise). I guess you could replace the shoulder straps with webbing, but personally, I'd just get an xDeep tech and be done with it. That is unless you have CCR aspirations - I've heard that the center dump is a problem with rebreathers, but someone with more experience there could give you more info...

In Mexico, I've yet to see anyone in anything but an xDeep or a Razor. I've dived both and liked both enough that I started selling them. Personally, I wouldn't teach a tech course to you in an off-the-shelf SMS, but you could probably make sufficient changes to it to make it work. If you've identified an instructor, I'd say talk it over with them.

 

[berndo]

SM sucks for wreck diving an diving off boats in general. Gearing up with a bunch of tanks in waist deep water before a cave dive is fine an the configuration makes sense than. It's ok for shore dives too but on a boat it's not only impractical but you'll also annoy most people around you as you need more space. IMHO, the only reason SM got popular outside of cave diving is because it was marketed relentlessly online for the last 10 years.
If wreck divng is your goal, get a BP/wing.

That said, the SMS75 has 35lbs of lift (or at least that's what they advertise). I guess you could replace the shoulder straps with webbing, but personally, I'd just get an xDeep tech and be done with it.

Used a sms100 Edd mod (which is essentially a sms75) for a few years. It works fine and I like that it has a shoulder dump. When you actaully need the lift and fill the wing to capacity, the profile is better than any of the xdeep units... the wing of the Edd type wings distributes the volume better than the xdeep units which just form a massive camel hump.

 

[NDonahue]

If you dive both wet and dry and go with XDeep, I’d suggest looking at the Tec RB.

It only takes a minute and a zip tie to add/remove the redundant bladder so your chest isn’t cluttered by both a second power inflator and a drysuit inflator. I 3D printed some port covers to use with a single bladder just for a clean look. If you go this route you can ping me and I’ll print you a set of covers.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

I dive the XDeep Tech rig for Mexico Caves. 4 AL80’s with an drysuit all good. Super happy with the rig. It is a rig that is also designed to be used with the Kiss SM rebreathers.

 

[berndo]

I dive the XDeep Tech rig for Mexico Caves. 4 AL80’s with an drysuit all good. Super happy with the rig. It is a rig that is also designed to be used with the Kiss SM rebreathers.

It's not designed to be used with KISS SM rebreathers. The rig was out before there was a sw.
The guy is looking to do cold water wreck diving from a boat in the future, not warm water cave diving in Mx.

 

[Wibble]

Most sidemount divers I've seen diving off of boats seem to be pretty competent and don't fall into the "take up masses of room" trope. OK, some new sidemount divers might be like that.

The point is that you can take steps to make your kitting up a lot easier in sidemount with some modifications, such as using top boltsnaps on your cylinders and two D-rings on each side to hang the cylinders on.

Sidemount with only a single boltsnap on the bottom and pure bungees on the top tend to be a bit messy when used on the surface.

As with everything sidemount, it's all about the subtle tweaks which make an enormous difference.

 

[VikingDives]

two D-rings on each side to hang the cylinders on.

As in a second bolt snap for Al cylinders or something else?

 

[rddvet]

I dive the XDeep Tech rig for Mexico Caves. 4 AL80’s with an drysuit all good. Super happy with the rig. It is a rig that is also designed to be used with the Kiss SM rebreathers.

It's not designed to be used with KISS SM rebreathers. The rig was out before there was a sw.
The guy is looking to do cold water wreck diving from a boat in the future, not warm water cave diving in Mx.

While it pains me to say that berndo is right on something xdeep (joke), he is correct. The only unit built with the sw in mind is the K2. Surprisingly I acutally liked the K2, but I found it too bulky and had too much stuff going on. I prefer minimalism in a harness. But its a good rig just like the xdeep. The stealth was out well before the sw. But the stealth does work very well with the sw

 

[Wibble]

As in a second bolt snap for Al cylinders or something else?

You would normally have one chest D-ring either side. Traditionally this is used to clip "stuff" off (boltsnaps, lights, whatever), but also stage cylinders too. In the case of a DIR rig, this would only be on the left-hand-side.

(DIR people, please look away at this point as non-DIR things are being discussed )

If you dive both sides, e.g. lean-left, rich-right, then the weight of the cylinders pulls the chest D-rings down and it's a pig to hook "stuff" on them.

To solve this, add another D-ring each side about 7cm/3inches below the existing one (actually shifting the existing one a bit higher is easier to use). Thus you've now two D-rings either side of your chest. The lower one is used to clip of stages leaving the upper ones free for clipping "stuff" off to them.

For sidemount, the standard configuration is to have only one bolt snap on each cylinder with the top held back using bungees. That's fine until you need to pick up the cylinders or you're on a boat where they stick out sideways -- hence the "widemount" jibe.

You can rig your sidemount cylinders with a standard deco stage rigging kit, but canted 45 degrees "inwards" as below with sidemounted bailouts. The top boltsnap is clipped on to the lower chest D-ring and the lower boltsnap onto the waist harness with downward angled clips. Now you have cylinders/stages which are attached to you and don't stick outwards on the boat. Jump in the water and pull the bungees round to get the full sidemount experience.

Hope that's clear!