What do I Buy???

[noreastDIVER84]

He does not have a wing for it.

He does not have a wing for it, but a hydration bladder actually has enough lift to handle 2 Faber hp120s in a 5mil wetsuit. I was in the pool today with my instructor who is using the Razor harness and I handed him my tanks to try out. I am using the Nomad and I am using it for open water and intend to do it for wrecks as well.

 

[Jax]

Nomad XT, call Edd at Cave Adventurers, and go see Dive-aholic for training.

 

[tbone1004]

what's he do when that 5mm compresses at depth? Pool vs. 100ft is huge. He must also float somewhat naturally because I have a fair bit of air in my wing with a drysuit and two HP120's. With the top of a 7mm john I was barely able to stay at the surface when they were full...

I prefer the Nomad to that list. The full modular system is much better IMO. Those who says it's not streamlined don't have it pulled in right. Is it like a Razor? No, but can the Razor take me in 40* water with 2 stages and a couple of deco bottles? I think not... It has less drag than my drysuit does, and a lot less than doubles, so no complaints. I prefer using my Nomad with doubles over traditional wings as well because of the butt plate and I feel more stable with the wing tied in.
The OMS is a weird design with a ginormous plate in the back... Not a fan. Haven't dove it but wouldn't want to...
Oxycheq looks nice, but the wing profile is weird. I wouldn't want that much of a balloon on the bottom of the wing. My Nomad trims out fine without the huge bladder under the plate. I think that'd be far less streamlined than the nomad is...
Rob listed issues with the Hollis wing with the dump being on the bottom side of the wing making purging difficult and an issue with the rails that requires modification. Nice thing with the Nomad is if you don't like the plate, you can switch it. Have a small butt, ditch the plate get a double D ring or tail plate for rebreathers. If it's too narrow get the tech butt plate or 4xl butt plate. Sizing of the transpac is there too which is a huge plus. Obviously I'm biased towards my system, and there isn't anything wrong with the others, but it's my preference.

 

[Dive-aholic]

For wreck penetration, I would eliminate a couple of those right away for one reason or another.

The OMS and Oxycheq rigs. The OMS because it has a very high profile in the back. It wasn't designed with small passage in mind. And the Oxycheq because of the wing retainers that are there to retract the wing in. They pose a risk of getting caught up in the overhead, especially in metal structures.

 

[noreastDIVER84]

what's he do when that 5mm compresses at depth? Pool vs. 100ft is huge. He must also float somewhat naturally because I have a fair bit of air in my wing with a drysuit and two HP120's. With the top of a 7mm john I was barely able to stay at the surface when they were full...

I prefer the Nomad to that list. The full modular system is much better IMO. Those who says it's not streamlined don't have it pulled in right. Is it like a Razor? No, but can the Razor take me in 40* water with 2 stages and a couple of deco bottles? I think not... It has less drag than my drysuit does, and a lot less than doubles, so no complaints. I prefer using my Nomad with doubles over traditional wings as well because of the butt plate and I feel more stable with the wing tied in.
The OMS is a weird design with a ginormous plate in the back... Not a fan. Haven't dove it but wouldn't want to...
Oxycheq looks nice, but the wing profile is weird. I wouldn't want that much of a balloon on the bottom of the wing. My Nomad trims out fine without the huge bladder under the plate. I think that'd be far less streamlined than the nomad is...
Rob listed issues with the Hollis wing with the dump being on the bottom side of the wing making purging difficult and an issue with the rails that requires modification. Nice thing with the Nomad is if you don't like the plate, you can switch it. Have a small butt, ditch the plate get a double D ring or tail plate for rebreathers. If it's too narrow get the tech butt plate or 4xl butt plate. Sizing of the transpac is there too which is a huge plus. Obviously I'm biased towards my system, and there isn't anything wrong with the others, but it's my preference.

He does not use 120's at all, he just wanted to see if he would have the lift to do it. He has been using lp85s and it has plenty of lift for them when wearing the 5 mil. I personally would stay with the al80s for that setup, but that is me.

 

[tbone1004]

I understand that, but what I was saying was if he had to dive with those tanks in just a 5mm at any real depth, and they were full he'd be on the bottom faster than the Titanic...

 

[BertP]

Thanks, Dive-aholic. It appears that the Nomad is the hands-down favorite among folks here.

At the risk of hi-jacking this thread, may I ask what the procedure is for side mounting a single tank? Is that even recommended?

 

[tbone1004]

I wouldn't sidemount one tank. It throws you way off balance... The nomad is easily able to do single tank diving on the back. AL80's and monkey diving is different, but there are threads on monkey diving which is basically single tank sidemount

 

[BertP]

Thanks. I didn't know that you could mount a single tank on the back of a Nomad. That makes it even more attractive.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Single tank sidemount, aka monkey diving, can be done, but it's better/easier with an aluminum cylinder. Here's a video of me with a harness and AL80, no wing -



You can mount a single cylinder on the back of the Nomad, SMS100, and Recon. They all have the slots for cam straps.

The thing about the Nomad that is so different about the other rigs is the modularity. It is made up of a harness, wing, and butt plate, all separate units. None of the other rigs are designed that way. Also, the Nomad harness (the Transpac) has shoulder straps that can be repositioned on the waist strap. None of the other rigs are designed that way. Yes, the Nomad has its faults. But it's advantages, IMO, far outweigh the faults. And the faults are easily modified to fit your diving. This is not the case with the other rigs on the market.