Why SPG on hip and not arm?

[Bismark]

i believe you're thinking of the "law of primacy".

another thing about the SPG being clipped off is that it makes it very easy for your buddy to do a sneak peek at your gas.

No, but this is important also. As I understand it the law of primacy is "remembering best what you were taught first" and while that definitely applies in this case, it is only part of what I was getting at. In my real life, we will design a manufacturing process with the capacity to adapt to increased load, etc, down the road without having to "reinvent the wheel" so to speak when the loads become more complex. If we are purchasing equipment, we will buy what we need for expected usage 5 years down the road and in a much more demanding environment rather than buy what we need now. The trick is knowing what you will need in 5 years. In this respect, knowing what you will need as a journeyman tech diver necessitates what you do on the path to get there. I don't want to have to "unlearn" something and I don't want to find myself in a dead end because of my chosen equipment or training. As I see it, this is the strongest asset of DIR and the one which really and truly sold me on it.

 

[TSandM]

Thal, I think some of the Mexico cave guys use a hybrid . . . I'm pretty sure my friends who did Cave 2 were taught that they could tuck the SPG (still clipped) between their tanks and their bodies, to help eliminate the entanglement tendency that the SPG has when you have to cross a line repeatedly. You DO decrease the profile of the SPG that way, but by keeping it clipped over, it is certain not to come loose and dangle, and you can easily find it and extract it from its tucked position by following the boltsnap.

I tried with when I was diving in my wetsuit, and it worked a treat. In my dry suit on this last trip, I couldn't seem to get it to stay where I was putting it. I had planned to ask one of the guys down there to take a look and see what I am doing wrong.

 

[RTodd]

Thal, I think some of the Mexico cave guys use a hybrid . . . I'm pretty sure my friends who did Cave 2 were taught that they could tuck the SPG (still clipped)

Which one of the three strokes told them that so I can set them straight. There isn't enough room on a properly configured HP guage to leave it clipped and to move it like that. We used to put a small locking d-ring (not quite the right term there) on the backplate and clip to that to keep it out of the way of stages. But, that practice has been abandoned as unnecessary.

 

[PfcAJ]

Lynn,
What I like to do is instead of back behind me (the argon bottle is in the way) is to tuck it forward between the waistband and my body. If im closing in an a real small area, I'll tuck it like that (clipped off, of course) and I use a rubber band (like for backup lights) cut in half to keep my crotch d dring up.

The SPG thing works well for clipping off multiple stages/leashes, as well. the SPG stays in one place and it is very easy to tell which snap is where and where its going.

 

[coldsmoke]

I have never tried or even seen this tucking method, but one thing comes to mind. I can see it being comfortable in the water, but it seems like it would poke into your back out of the water - if you have it tucked that is. If you don't have it tucked out of the water then what keeps it from banging on stuff (like the boat rail)?

Hunter

 

[TSandM]

RTodd, what, if anything, do you do when you are diving tight areas where you have to get very close to the line? When I dove Yax Muul with Fred in November, we had many places we had to cross the line, and the line is run rather high in the cave so I often had to push it down and away from myself, and I still got my SPG hung up on it several times. It just seems like that round shape is a good magnet for line. The tucking strategy sounded like a good idea to me. What do you do instead?

 

[Gombessa]

Seriously, you're just giving him another opportunity to throw out the s-bomb. Sure does spice up the room though

 

[RTodd]

RTodd, what, if anything, do you do when you are diving tight areas where you have to get very close to the line? When I dove Yax Muul with Fred in November, we had many places we had to cross the line, and the line is run rather high in the cave so I often had to push it down and away from myself, and I still got my SPG hung up on it several times. It just seems like that round shape is a good magnet for line. The tucking strategy sounded like a good idea to me. What do you do instead?

Nothing. Proper awareness is all it takes. For complete disclosure, I never spend a significant amount of time in the water without a stage and this takes more awareness than a SPG anyway. I tend to pass over the line so close on scooters that my p valve will occasionally catch it since it is the only item that is actually below your legs other than stages which I will pull up in this situation or twist to my right to get them above me if needed. I have spent 10+ minutes of dives crawling through the mud in order to fit and having to cross over the line continuously and never had any problems with the pressure guage catching.

When crossing over the line, push it down slightly and as you swim over it move your hand back toward your lower body to ensure the line clears everything. If anything past your knees is catching you have a skills problem or are towing a bunch of stuff and don't need to ask how to do this.

I have done the tuck in the waistband thing but it isn't necessary so I don't bother. It also doesn't work well because it puts the SPG in the wrong location on the D-ring (and is pointless) when you have stages.

 

[TSandM]

Okay, so I just need to get better at that kind of sweeping motion, down and back.

I'd love to stay further from the line, but sometimes it just doesn't seem to be possible.

 

[KMD]

I have done the tuck in the waistband thing but it isn't necessary so I don't bother. It also doesn't work well because it puts the SPG in the wrong location on the D-ring (and is pointless) when you have stages.

You may have the wrong mental picture. Its not actually being tucked into the waist band. The SPG is clipped to the D-ring like it normally would be. You are just pushing it back to rest between your back and your backplate. It will eventually fall out on own, especially when using stages so I only tuck it back there when preparing to go through a restriction.