Nomad XT vs EXP

[Dive-aholic]

I'm not saying it's ideal, but worst case scenario. In my cave class we did a simulated BC failure and I clipped one of my tanks off on the line and came out fine. Lost redundancy on the tank, and it's not ideal, but for the few times I ever dive with a wetsuit I couldn't justify the dual bladder wing. With a drysuit it's much easier. If I was diving mostly wet, then I'd consider the dual bladder. Total BC failure is rare though and you can hold some air somewhere in most bc's when they fail.
I do mostly wrecks and one of the things we've done for our scooters is custom sew lift bags that strap along the side of the scooters. If I was diving wet in a cave, I'd just carry one of those and could strap it to a tank or under the nomad. Would get me enough lift to come out. Not fun, but diving dry seems to be the easiest solution for me...

I have my students simulate a wing failure. Even then there's no crawling. It's more like hopping.

 

[tbone1004]

Sorry, I took crawling to mean more like hopping, not baby crawling. Similar to the scuba walks, exhale to go down, big inhale push against bottom and spring forward..

 

[CamG]

Greetings DUI_Diver and I like the weight pouch on my Nomad.
I use it in OW for bigger tanks to trim out correctly but with AL 80's you will want to put trim weight up on your shoulders.
I also added a little to each tank to keep them in better tail position.
You might be able to achieve your trim with optimizing tank bands and harness adjustment but it helps to have the correct set up for what tanks you are diving.

It does change from tank to tank depending on buoyancy characteristics.
The weight pouch is handy for the various tanks I dive OW with since I will mix and match at times. Not recommended for serious dives these are just easy go site seeing.
I like to use the light tanks of my wife's AL80's to burn that expensive fills at the quarry down to around 1000psi.
I need to add some weight for those dives and they are all OW no depth or overhead involved.

You will love your Nomad but as I said it is not just about purchasing one but about getting it set up correctly and then learning to dive it properly.
I waisted a lot of dive time fumbling around when I could have just taken the class and been done with it.

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

 

[Colliam7]

Not all wings are suitable for SM. The key to SM wings is the tabs to hold them to the harness.

Right. Fully agree. My intended point, which I might not have made very clear, was that you can actually add tabs / wing keepers to a wing casing. It is a DIY job, no question. But, it can be done. I did that with a Rec Wing, at each base. Without them, using a backplate and an OMS PROFILE for SM, the Rec Wing tacos impressively. With wing keeprs added at each base, the wing is more manageable.

 

[Teller]

Greetings DUI_Diver and I like the weight pouch on my Nomad.
I use it in OW for bigger tanks to trim out correctly but with AL 80's you will want to put trim weight up on your shoulders.
I also added a little to each tank to keep them in better tail position.
You might be able to achieve your trim with optimizing tank bands and harness adjustment but it helps to have the correct set up for what tanks you are diving.

It does change from tank to tank depending on buoyancy characteristics.
The weight pouch is handy for the various tanks I dive OW with since I will mix and match at times. Not recommended for serious dives these are just easy go site seeing.
I like to use the light tanks of my wife's AL80's to burn that expensive fills at the quarry down to around 1000psi.
I need to add some weight for those dives and they are all OW no depth or overhead involved.

You will love your Nomad but as I said it is not just about purchasing one but about getting it set up correctly and then learning to dive it properly.
I waisted a lot of dive time fumbling around when I could have just taken the class and been done with it.

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

I am diving a single AL80 right now. I think that I am going to pick up 2 HP100's for side mount, will I need to add weight still. I was assuming that I would be able to drop a few pounds. BTW I am taking a class, hopefully in June on R&R from Iraq. Thanks for you advice.

 

[tbone1004]

I dive HP80's in a drysuit with no lead, LP85's, just about anything. With the smaller ones I get a little light on the end, but I usually dive with a squeeze in most of my suit...

 

[diverlee]

I was cave diving with a friend when he had a total wing failure. It was not pretty coming out. Thank God we were only 100 to 200 ft into the dive. Leap frog in a cave isn't cool. Since then I use a dual bladder when diving wet AND check the inflation connections. I also practice switching to the "back up wing".