OP
Dived the rig today! It was different. I have been slinging stages for several years now but this was a new experience. I set my regs up like Steve suggests and that worked well. The rig took a little time to figure out. I managed to get it and the tanks set up in about 45 minutes. This included installing the new valves and transfilling them on site. Once that was done I got a couple tips from Bill Downey of Downey Diving who sold me the unit. But as he had 8 OW students for checkouts with his other instructors he did not have time to spend over seeing my efforts. Which was no big deal. Bill knows me and that I would have little trouble and if I did run into anything I'd ask.
Once I got the rig adjusted and my other gear on I hit the water. I had a minor weighting issue that delayed the dive a few minutes. Was not sure if I'd need any as I was diving wet with two steel 75.5 tanks so I didn't put any on. Mistake. 5mm merino with 2 mm core warmer and I was light. Had anticipated this and had my belt in the water by the shore. So once I got it on it was off we went. Turns out SM is not as hard to trim out as I thought it might be. Took all of 4-5 minutes to do and most of that was getting used to how it dumps air and takes it on with the inflator elbow at the bottom of the wing.
Spent a good part of the first ten minutes just playing with that and once I got a feel for it everything else just seemed to fall into place. I did discover that I need to lengthen the leads on the bottom bolt snaps and I am going to put stage straps on the bottles. My right shoulder has some mobility limitations and clipping the tanks was a bit of a pain out of the water to walk down to it. Stage straps will allow me carry the bottles down and clip them on there. I may get used to feeling of them on while walking but not at the expense of hurting something. Lengthening the leads will help with clipping them in. Not much though. Maybe an inch or so is what it seems I'll need. Especially when I dive this set up dry and have to deal with the extra bulk of the drysuit.
Trim according to my dive buddy was good. I did not find it hard to do. At one point I unclipped the bottoms of each tank and swung them forward and then back to reclip and that had no effect on my trim or buoyancy. The other thing I found quite easy was managing the gas supply. Switching regs every 250 psi was what I was doing just to get in the habit and by the second dive found it to be second nature.
Looking forward to more adventures with this and to Doppler's class in July.
Once I got the rig adjusted and my other gear on I hit the water. I had a minor weighting issue that delayed the dive a few minutes. Was not sure if I'd need any as I was diving wet with two steel 75.5 tanks so I didn't put any on. Mistake. 5mm merino with 2 mm core warmer and I was light. Had anticipated this and had my belt in the water by the shore. So once I got it on it was off we went. Turns out SM is not as hard to trim out as I thought it might be. Took all of 4-5 minutes to do and most of that was getting used to how it dumps air and takes it on with the inflator elbow at the bottom of the wing.
Spent a good part of the first ten minutes just playing with that and once I got a feel for it everything else just seemed to fall into place. I did discover that I need to lengthen the leads on the bottom bolt snaps and I am going to put stage straps on the bottles. My right shoulder has some mobility limitations and clipping the tanks was a bit of a pain out of the water to walk down to it. Stage straps will allow me carry the bottles down and clip them on there. I may get used to feeling of them on while walking but not at the expense of hurting something. Lengthening the leads will help with clipping them in. Not much though. Maybe an inch or so is what it seems I'll need. Especially when I dive this set up dry and have to deal with the extra bulk of the drysuit.
Trim according to my dive buddy was good. I did not find it hard to do. At one point I unclipped the bottoms of each tank and swung them forward and then back to reclip and that had no effect on my trim or buoyancy. The other thing I found quite easy was managing the gas supply. Switching regs every 250 psi was what I was doing just to get in the habit and by the second dive found it to be second nature.
Looking forward to more adventures with this and to Doppler's class in July.
