Hollis vs. Razor vs. XDeep SM Products

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BoltSnap

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Does anyone have feedback on their preferences and comparison between the SM offerings from Hollis, Razor and XDeep SM BC products?

I appears to me that the preference depends on locale where the Hollis is more popular in the US and the others are more EU thing but I can't find any comparisons on all of these products. The Razor and xDEEP appear to be similar in design in contrast to products from the US who appear to be very different from the EU design.

(BTW, in different forums on the net, it appears the the Europeans, especially the Brits, always attack the US designs in a very big way while supporting the EU products in a cult like manner).

Any feedback please?
 
Never seen the " always attacking US designs" from the brits... Seeing as i'm about as cynical as they come. Just different needs/ways of doing things.

SMS100 seems to be needing Edd Sorenson's mods to make it dive-able but then they made that into the SMS75...

Razor is a great design, XDeep took the idea and made it more "user friendly"? More points of adjustment and an easier way to adjust weighting. They're all good systems.
 
If you are diving steel tanks go with the Hollis sms75. If you only dive aluminum tanks I would go with the deep.
 
SMS100 seems to be needing Edd Sorenson's mods to make it dive-able but then they made that into the SMS75...

Hollis's issue is they try to make it an ALL in one. They designed it with every type of diving in mind while not really making it mission specific. Edds mods make it a Cave/wreck diving sidemount rig exclusively.

I have not dove the other 2 but I really like the XDeep from the pictures.
 
If you're NEVER going to dive aluminums or buoyant tanks go with the Hollis (unless you intend to weight the tanks).

Otherwise go with the Stealth cause it works for both steels and aluminums.

There's many of us old school sidemount divers that started out with a Nomad, Armadillo (a wonderful system that the modified Hollis' are trying to copy) or Hollis and have switched over to the Razor or Stealth. I think the diehard Hollis guys won't even look at other systems for fear that they'll find something better. Some people are open minded and others are not.

Whichever er system you get, master it! It's yours. Don't worry about what others think or whether you have the latest or greatest (which is the Stealth of course)��
 
There's been an active discussion going on here. I started with the Razor and switched to the Stealth. If I was going to look at a Hollis product, it would be the SMS75.
 
I started with the Razor and switched to the Stealth.

What reasons made you switch? They appear almost the same design to me :)


Is there a reason why you all suggest that for AL tanks, I should consider the Deep or Razor and for Steel to consider the Hollis? Is it the lift provided or design or other factors?
 
The Hollis wing has the cover over it so it doesn't blow up like a football on your back when you add air to wing to overcome the negative buoyancy of steel tanks. The Hollis also has the rails on the back that work great with steel tanks but not so well with aluminum tanks. If you use aluminium tanks with the Hollis and don't weight the aluminum tanks you will look like that infamous Padi picture of Jeff Loughlin in a pool with the bottom of his tanks on a 45 degree angle. For some reason I can't get my phone to attach it but a google search will turn it up. The Razor or Xdeep came out of Mexico where they dive aluminum tanks instead of steel so they have a way to adjust the rear of the tanks down as they get lighter during the dive . Now on the flip side these wings look like crap with steel tanks. You have to add Alot of air to their little wings and it blows up and looks like a football on your back. If you are diving a drysuit some of this could be eliminated but they just don't work as well for steel tanks. I have a modified sms100 and went to Mexico and hated the aluminium tanks on it. I only did 2 cave dives with it as it wasn't really a diving trip. I placed weights on the cam bands and didn't like it. I will probably buy an xdeep before I go back to Mexico for a real cave diving trip or spend some time playing with the aluminum tanks on my Hollis. There is no perfect system for every type of diving so I would make my choice on what type of tanks you plan to dive.
 
Hm...:idk:
This Thread seems to be full of misconception.

First of all, the Razor is not a European design.
It was designed in Mexico and produced in California. It could not even be sold in most European countrys before January this year because of the missing CE certification it received then belatedly.
The Stealth is produced in Europe (or at least that's where the company is located).

In Europe we have the same discussion. Of course Hollis as a big company is stronger here too. Scubapro and Halcyon will surely be very sucessful, etc...
Nomads and Armadillos are very rare here in Germany. Stealth and DirZone Diamond are much more successful at the moment then those ever where I am sure.

The other thing:
'The' Hollis (all of them) can be used with unweighted aluminum tanks very successfully. Seen it many times.

I commented on the Stealth and Razor comparison in the other thread linked by rongoodman above. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sidemount-diving/487834-razor-2-0-2-1-sms75.html

In my opinion the only reason for not using the Razor has been mentioned by him too: If you do not like it for some personal reason!
Any system can be used but the Razor is guaranteed to give a satisfactory result.
Naturally diving similar to whats shown in one of Steves videos is possible in the system featured there.
 
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