XS Airwave, Sherwood Minimus, opinions?

[Ragnar]

Anyone have any experience with these or the Genesis Sidekick? Scuba Diving Magazine rated the Genesis a while back as having very good performance, but I like the XS as it's adjustable for free-flow. Thoughts??

PLEASE....no speeches about wearing a reg around my neck.....I'm with ya on the advantages of that, but just want more info about these......Thanks!!!!

 

[scubatoys]

You'll find a current thread on the Air2 type systems... with a lot of folks saying they don't like them as they are harder to use... Personally, I like them, find them fast and easy to get to... but the one you're looking at, I'm not a huge fan. Picture bringing your inflator up to your mouth - not the sidekick style inflator octo will be about 3 inches to the left of that, making it more difficult to look forward, and almost impossible to look to the right. So unless there is a specific need, like you just carry your reg system and rent BC's, I'd say you'd be cheaper and easier to use something like the Tusa IR3 instead.

 

[Ragnar]

Thanks Larry, that was the one concern I had with it too, and I really don't want to have a longer inflator hose on my BC to fix it. The main reason I started looking at these are:

1. They are more compact than the other models.

2. They can be disconnected from the inflator hose when donating my primary, making it easier to control an ascent.......and....

3. You guessed it, I travel light sometimes and rent BC's.

I'd still like to add one to my arsenal......wonder how they compare performance wise?

 

[scubatoys]

Genesis is just an oceanic slim line octo with an extra hose on it... so the performance will be fine. I'll have to call up the guys at oceanic and see if they are making the xs scuba one for him. I know xs scuba buys their gauges, and some components, then some other stuff comes from Taiwan... not sure which that octo is, but if you give me a call later today, I'll find out for you.