Scubaroo
Contributor
An alternative to the doubles is a slung aluminum 40cf or 80cf stage bottle.
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
SimonN once bubbled...
Kind of, but nowhere near as bad as it sounds. Some people I know breath one tank down until there is enough gas in it for bailout and then swap - that's only one reg swap.
On the rare occasion I dive independents I'll breathe one down to 150bar, swap, breathe the other to 100 bar and then, in theory, would swap again (in theory because I am normally doing deco by that stage, so don't need to swap again). This is 2 swaps.
Neither is really task loading.
Only people who have never dived independents ask this.
Why not bring a manifold and bands so you could set up doubles on site?leadweight wrote...
As pointed out above, there are advantages to having a manifold. However, in some locations manifolded doubles are not available or are too difficult to transport. Gadgets (Dive Rite Ultra) that allow a set of independent doubles to be quickly assembled from easily available aluminum 80's can be brought in easily. Apparantly, this technique has been used on a number of expeditions.
Do what Scubaroo suggested and sling one of the rental tanks as a stage...metridium once bubbled...
Why not bring a manifold and bands so you could set up doubles on site?
I must be particularly obtuse this morning, but how is that an improvement over independent doubles? Other than saving a little luggage space, you still have gas management concerns and potential loss of one tank's contents to a bad 1st stage.O-ring wrote...
Do what Scubaroo suggested and sling one of the rental tanks as a stage...
You aren't obtuse, just not astute today... It isn't an improvement, but would be a hell of a lot easier, IMHO, than rigging them as independent doubles. If using rentals and you need more gas, I think it would be easier (and cheaper) to just get some stage straps and hook one of your stage/deco regs on another rental tank rather than rig them as doubles. Wear one, stage one (or two)...metridium once bubbled...
I must be particularly obtuse this morning, but how is that an improvement over independent doubles? Other than saving a little luggage space, you still have gas management concerns and potential loss of one tank's contents to a bad 1st stage.
No doubt in extreme cases.O-ring wrote...
I'm with leadweight...some places you just don't have access to that kind of stuff and have to improvise.
Banded doubles with iso would be the best choice. I am just thinking what a caribbean dive op would tell me if I walked in and started taking their tanks apart. If you could pull it off, that makes a lot of sense. If not, a little creative staging might be in order.metridium once bubbled...
No doubt in extreme cases.
But I don't get why rigging a stage is equivalent or superior to setting up rental tanks using a manifold and bands you brought yourself, if you have that option, as you indicated earlier. It takes me ~15-20 minutes to set up mine, now that I've had a bit of practice. I haven't done any stage diving; is it really that much easier?