Where do you carry your stage(s) and or deco in SM

[ScubaWithTurk]

I am like many others in this thread as I clip mine on the bottom of my back gas using lean left/rich right. Now of course there are instances where this might not be ideal, such as using a DPV...but for the majority of my dives, this works well.

I set my cylinders up using standard SM rigging but I use bungee instead of cord/line on the neck and lower attachment point. The neck gets clipped to the shoulder d-ring and the lower attachment point gets cross clipped onto my first attachment point (I use two fixed d-rings on each side and dive 11L AL) which would be the one on the side near my iliac crest.

This methods pulls everything together nice and snug and with a few tests dives to get the bungee length just right, you get little to no movement from the cylinders and keeps you streamlined.

 

[rjack321]

So with a dir style rigging kit did you clip shoulder d ring and hip d ring, where your main cylinder is clipped?

How snug was this?

It rides under the main cylinder on the left very much like it would in BM. "Low" by the length of the boltsnap on the neck. In BM the tail of most deco cylinders wants to ride up even when its overall neutral since the neck end is negative and the butt end is (almost always floaty). In SM the main cylinder holds the deco bottle's tail down and level.

 

[rjack321]

I definitely agree following the gas switching procedure, but I don’t see anything wrong with going beyond the standards if it helps a diver be happy.

Human nature is such that if you have tank MODs, colored hoses, and 2nd stage labels you will inevitably at some point skip looking at the MOD cause you "know" the hose is supposed to be XYZ color. That'll be the day you have a different reg/hose on that bottle. Forcing yourself to do the single only surefire check of the tank MOD is how you avoid this kinda mess.

 

[rjack321]

It rides under the main cylinder on the left very much like it would in BM. "Low" by the length of the boltsnap on the neck. In BM the tail of most deco cylinders wants to ride up even when its overall neutral since the neck end is negative and the butt end is (almost always floaty). In SM the main cylinder holds the deco bottle's tail down and level.

Amending this. The main SM cylinder is clipped to the rails of my SMS75 in the back, and has the neck safety clip and the bungie in front. The deco bottle is clipped to my hip Dring and the chest

 

[JonG1]

So you reach between body and sm tank to clip to hip d ring?

 

[J-Vo]

So you reach between body and sm tank to clip to hip d ring?

Yes, but I clip to the drop D on my but. A second stage on a side may be clipped to the hip D, but that won't work with AL80 side tanks on sliding Ds.

 

[JonG1]

I've settled on steel SM tanks on the hip d rings and stages on the drop ds but I use the "Gary Dallas" method of attaching them, where you clip the bottom leash with 1 hand first then pivot the front up, that way I don't have to wrestle my computer past the tanks.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

You don't just carry it with you?

 

[PEDiver]

You don't just carry it with you?

The final boss.

 

[rjack321]

So you reach between body and sm tank to clip to hip d ring?

Depends on how long the rail clip on the main SM tank is. But, normally I reach under the left SM tank to clip on stages (under). Most people carry their main SM tanks far too forward, get those suckers behind your armpit so they can be up in the same plane as your body. Then reaching under is NBD. Also helps with using hip mounted suit gas, suit heaters, accessing your waist cutter, and the scooter dring.