Doing AN/DP with FFM, Realistic?

[Lake Hickory Scuba]

After watching Bryan's video again, it looks to me like for every disconnectable hose, he's using a starndard QD fitting, as upposed to either CEJN or QC6. And I'm a bit surprised to see that he doesn't clip the RSV off to a d-ring and instead just let's it hang at his chest with his necklaced octo. Last thing about his setup is the mask itself. WAY TOO MUCH stuff on it! I'm sure it works well for his purposes, but that would bother me to have that much additional weight around the mask. Seems like it would make it extremely cumbersome. I can maybe see having lights mounted to the sides and obviously the COMS unit, which I'm strongly considering picking up soon. But the addition of the gopro just makes it seems really top heavy and uncomfortable to me. But I digress. The setup itself looks very simple and straight forward; much more so than @tbone1004 descbribed his. Looking at Bryan's it makes sense to have it setup that way. But as I said it looks to me like he's using all standard QD fittings, with two locking ones on the RSV (I use the same ones on my mask and Hog 2nd stage) and then a non-locking one on his mask. So would his kit be acceptable if the fittings were replaced with QC6s?

You are correct, all standard Quick Disconnects. In short they work, and not only have I never had an issue with them, neither has any of the teams I dive with or have trained. I am the type of person that when some one says this system will fail, I go out and test it for myself. So far no failure. The clutterness of my Full Face Mask is not ideal for the average diver, but for me it works. It has the exact tools that I need to do a 20 minute job. If I find myself in a situation that it is not suited for, then well, I simply pull another tool out of my tool box. An example would be from a body recovery I did a few years back in 100 feet of water in a local lake. Visibility was 0, and there were only 3 divers that was trained on one of our teams to do the job safely and efficiently. So we had a safety diver on top, and another diver and myself did the dive. By the way we were both using more traditional type gear (what most on this board would consider true DIR, minus doubles), no full face mask, and no communications (Other than Line Communication for our tenders). After a 15 minute bottom time, as we still abide by the maximum 20 minute thresh-hold, we successfully bagged a body and recovered it to the surface. In this incidence, we had to adapt our systems to suit the needs of the dive

 

[Lake Hickory Scuba]

Please remember in terms of the stuff on his mask that he's using this for working dives. I.e. murky, nasty, dark. @Lake Hickory Scuba does not only salvage work, but also recoveries of stuff. The lights are required for the environment that he's diving in, and having helmet mounted lights is really not optional for that type of work. The camera helps for the PSD work since it provides documentation of the scene etc. SAV is really helpful when you're sitting in line waiting for your turn and want to be able to breathe and talk freely without removing the mask. Comms for that type of diving go without saying as you mentioned.

Don't personally agree with how long the suicide strap is on the secondary, but the style of routing is one of the least-bad options if you have to share air. Part of the issue with necklace length, especially with the Ocean Reef mask is the exhaust port on the bottom of the mask is quite big and gets in the way of the second stage coming up close. I imagine that was a big consideration for him keeping it that loose.

As @tbone2004 stated, the equipment I use is specific to the dives I make. The SAV (Surface Air Valve) is a huge plus when you are the back up diver on a team. Anytime we are dealing with swift water, I must be on stand by for immediate deployment into the water. I don't have time to put my mask on, so I wear it the entire time. I have sat for more than 5 hours before completely geared up. Every 20 minutes or so, team mates were pouring 5 gallon buckets of ice water on me, to keep me cool. This particular incident, I was a back up diver for a boat race on the lake. As far as the suicide strap for my alternate, its very difficult to look down while wearing a Full Face Mask, when there is a second stage digging into your throat. If you watch any of our other videos, you will notice I dive a really short necklace. I simply can't do this with my PSD gear.


@cruisekingkris, for what it is worth, I support ScubaBoard, and believe there is a lot of great divers on here that can help you grow as a diver, but we are all keyboard warriors in these post, myself included. I was told one time that there were over 300,000 members on this board, but compared to the millions of divers in the world, we are just a small handful. Take what you read on here with a grain of salt. Seek out an Instructor that dives the systems you want to dive, and get properly trained. Call the manufactures up and ask questions. We will all have our own biased opinions. At the end of the day, it's nothing really important, just your life. I believe every one here on ScubaBoard has your best interest at heart, but sometimes we get blindsided by our own personal biased when it comes to gear configuration and philosophies. No 2 dives are the same, no 2 divers are the same, and no 2 setups are the same. Stay safe, plan your dives, and dive your plans. When in doubt, back out. If you don't feel comfortable diving a certain way
then don't, but please make sure you are adequately trained and equipped for the type of diving you want to do.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

@Lake Hickory Scuba Thanks for commenting on your setups Bryan. I do actually use the XS Scuba QD fitting on my mask, as well as my wife's, and like you said so far no failures. I did have a ball swivel fail a couple months ago but only because the bolt that holds the two hemispheres together loosened up just enough to let the half separate under pressure just enough to let the o-ring pop out from between them. Could've been avoided by checking my gear better and it was a learning experience. I'm not quite to the point where I'm ready to incorporate switch blocks, RSV's, etc. so for now this is all informational and theoretical.

 

[tbone1004]

@Sh0rtBus those set screws need to have a dab of blue loctite on them as an FYI

 

[Addicted2H2O]

@Sh0rtBus those set screws need to have a dab of blue loctite on them as an FYI

Yeah, I took that one apart to check it and the o-ring was still good but I replaced it anyway. And used blue loc-tite when reassembling it.

 

[Lake Hickory Scuba]

@Lake Hickory Scuba Thanks for commenting on your setups Bryan. I do actually use the XS Scuba QD fitting on my mask, as well as my wife's, and like you said so far no failures. I did have a ball swivel fail a couple months ago but only because the bolt that holds the two hemispheres together loosened up just enough to let the half separate under pressure just enough to let the o-ring pop out from between them. Could've been avoided by checking my gear better and it was a learning experience. I'm not quite to the point where I'm ready to incorporate switch blocks, RSV's, etc. so for now this is all informational and theoretical.

You're welcome.

 

[Doby45]

That DTV is pretty bad ass and I see where that could make tooling around in sidemount and a FFM pretty fun.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

Here's a video I just happened across from Ocean Reef and gearing up with a twinset and their DTV. Looks like all of their removable connections are QC, too.


I like that he actually runs through a valve drill with this setup. It doesn't seem like he has any issues with the QCs but he's also in a pool under favorable conditions. I can see where less than that could increase the chances for error. But I think I actually like the idea of a short hose wrapped around the neck from the DTV to the ffm. Eliminates one possible point of entanglement. Currently I run a 40" hose under my right arm, which keeps it tucked up next to me pretty tight, but could still get hung up under the right circumstances. And after seeing that, I think I'm starting to like the idea of a long hose, too. Guess I'm gonna make mama not very happy in the near future. Funds are readily available for a BP/W geared for doubles. And for now I can dive an AL80 twinset. But I still have to spring for the manifold, a second Hog D3 1st stage, cam bands, and DTV. Maybe father's day.

 

[JohnnyC]

Here's a video I just happened across from Ocean Reef and gearing up with a twinset and their DTV. Looks like all of their removable connections are QC, too.


I like that he actually runs through a valve drill with this setup. It doesn't seem like he has any issues with the QCs but he's also in a pool under favorable conditions. I can see where less than that could increase the chances for error. But I think I actually like the idea of a short hose wrapped around the neck from the DTV to the ffm. Eliminates one possible point of entanglement. Currently I run a 40" hose under my right arm, which keeps it tucked up next to me pretty tight, but could still get hung up under the right circumstances. And after seeing that, I think I'm starting to like the idea of a long hose, too. Guess I'm gonna make mama not very happy in the near future. Funds are readily available for a BP/W geared for doubles. And for now I can dive an AL80 twinset. But I still have to spring for the manifold, a second Hog D3 1st stage, cam bands, and DTV. Maybe father's day.

Wow that's a charlie foxtrot. That's a really good way to shut off your gas and have nothing to breathe while trying to shut down a post. And that's not even adding high FO2 deco bottles into the mix.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

Wow that's a charlie foxtrot. That's a really good way to shut off your gas and have nothing to breathe while trying to shut down a post. And that's not even adding high FO2 deco bottles into the mix.

The one thing I'm unsure of though is why he has a DTV with only one hose connected to it. Why wouldn't he have a second hose connected to it and still have a long hose for that 2nd stage dangling from his d-ring? Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of a DTV?