SMS 50 sport weighting question

I have a couple of questions about weights and the SMS 50 Sport (the sport is the model with the hose between the shoulders)

Like this http://www.proscubadiver.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/sms50-sport.jpg

I just picked one up this week and have not been able to get it into the water yet.



First, am I blind or is the third weight pocket totally absent on the sport model? I have the bc in my hands and cannot find a third weight pocket mentioned in the user manual...


Second,

I know each person is different, but I'm just asking for a generalization here, with a 3mm wetsuit and an aluminum 80 backmount in an oceanic excursion back inflate BC I usually dive in fresh water with 10 lbs of weight.

How much weight should I expect to need to wear with the SMS 50 and 2 aluminum 80's (again, Im just asking for a starting point, I know it will vary slightly)

I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that hollis thinks 2 weight pockets that hold 2 pound weights is enough....



I'm assuming that whatever happens I will feel overweighted and need a big bubble at the beginning of a dive with 2 aluminum 80's and will only really need the weight when the tanks get empty right?


Thanks in advance for your replies and advice,

I've had a few students come through sidemount training with SMS50's. In salt water, but with 2xAL80 and 3mm wetsuit, they typically have 6-8lb of weight.

Not sure about the 3rd (upper) weight pocket on the 'Sport' model - it might be that they removed the upper 'trim' weight pocket to make room for the OPV/LPI attachment. I'm not a fan of upper LPI routing with sidemount... it seems nonsensical for the configuration, when inflator hose routes from under your armpits..

I will usually dive ~10 lbs in my custom utd warm water rig. Not so dissimilar to the hollis.
For me I try to be neutrally bouyant without cylinders. So get in the water, everybody is so different when it comes to lead. It's a matter of working it out over multiple dives. I have no air in my wing over an entire dive, and never have to go back to my inflator.

And no two small weight pockets won't cut it. I have xsscuba weight pockets mounted on the spine and on the belt. When diving a single I just add a 2lber to the opposite belt. Bingo Bango. Perfect.

Adding weight to my rigs in an efficient way has been my biggest challenge. I wear ~24lb in my cold water rig. That was a tough one. But that's what it takes to be NB. I can get rid of all my cylinders at depth, and can hang them all and surface with my 40cuft 100% . I can't get out anywhere like that.

Your weighting needs should be similar to diving a single tank. Aluminum tanks are a couple pounds positive when near-empty, and now you have two of them, so you may need a couple extra pounds to offset that, which will indeed make you a little overweighted with full tanks.

Most of us who dive sidemount with Al80s put a 2- or 3-pound weight on the cam band of each tank to balance out the tank and keep it from going butt-light as it is used. This is 4-6 pounds that you will not need to add to the harness. Can be threaded onto the cam band or you can use weight pockets.

Additional places for weights include shoulder straps (2-pounders to make you more top heavy) or a weight belt.

theskull

Al80's are positively bouyant near empty without a reg attached. True. But I usually dive with a cylinder I can breath off of thats not empty. Some do dive with weights attached to the cam band. But if that's the case why not just dive hp100's and no weight. I do both, but I don't get confused to which is which.

What kind of AL80s are you planning on using? One brand is 3 lbs positive when empty and another is 4 lbs positive when empty. These are the buoyancy characteristics without a valve. So throw a lb back in there for the valve. So you'll need an additional 2-3 lbs bringing you to 12-13 lbs total. You should always weight yourself for worst case scenario. Here's what I use to carry weight with small rigs like the SMS50 - Weight Vest - Black [ACC-weightvest] - $42.00 : Chipola Divers, Sidemount, Technical, & Cave Diving Instruction & Mentoring. It holds up to 12 lbs and keeps it around the torso where the weight should be.

This vest looks sweet...I'm definately going to order that up and try it....in reference to the SMS 50 in particular I like theSkull's comments on this....I've found the waist belt to be a bit light for attaching tanks at the waist that become more bouyant as the dive progesses so I'm thinking the rails may be the better option on this particular rig. Putting weights on the tanks will allow you to use the rails and keep the tank down as the dive goes on....I'm coming to the place where I think this may be the best way to dive the SMS 50 although I know alot of divers don't agree with using the butt plate rails with aluminum tanks.....I haven't dove it this way yet...might just give it a try....feel free to comment...

Putting weights onto ali cylinders is a valid strategy providing you have no future intention to progress to overhead environment diving. There are downsides to that strategy when entanglement/entrapment becomes an issue. If you reach that stage of training having relied upon weighted tanks, you'll need to re-learn how to configure/trim/manage ali tanks without that quick-fix. That puts you at a disadvantage of unfamiliarity with procedure, when otherwise task loaded with new skills in the overhead.

If you have no intention of ever diving overhead environment, disregard the above as irrelevant...

scuba127,

I tried doing the whole weighted-tank thing and it got really annoying. The problem is where/how you route the cambands and the tri-slide to attach your clip. What ends up happening is that to get your clip in the right spot your weight has to be right next to it. That puts the weight on the inside, bumping in to you. I dive Worthington HP100s in caves, so I don't have that issue....but I dive SM exclusively and have been struggling with how to dive AL80s as my mains. An instructor in Mx (Jason Renoux) turned me on to clipping them off to your waist. It REALLY helps keep them lined up. He had me use home-made sliding d-rings (made from bungee and zip ties because we were out of time) similar to the XDeep Stealth and it worked fantastically well. I've now got two metal d-rings for reclipping my tanks, but don't have a sliding d-ring due to diving a non-compatible rig.

DevonDiver:

Putting weights onto ali cylinders is a valid strategy providing you have no future intention to progress to overhead environment diving. There are downsides to that strategy when entanglement/entrapment becomes an issue. If you reach that stage of training having relied upon weighted tanks, you'll need to re-learn how to configure/trim/manage ali tanks without that quick-fix. That puts you at a disadvantage of unfamiliarity with procedure, when otherwise task loaded with new skills in the overhead.

If you have no intention of ever diving overhead environment, disregard the above as irrelevant...

Click to expand...

Yes they will be used in an overhead environment.

I have YET to dive with the dang thing due to my hectic holiday schedule, but I believe instead of 2lb weights on the cam straps I'm going to put the 2 lb'ers on my waist belt and instead of moving the tank from the butt plate to added D rings I'm going to try something similar to what eternaljonah did in this post: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/si...nting-al80s-how-do-you-trim-your-tanks-3.html