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@Squid88 the necklaces are not really practical for taking up the weight and strain of the second stage because you have to adjust them each time you put the mouthpiece in and take it out. It's now a two handed operation and isn't really great.
In my experience, few technical divers in the US are buying newer Scubapro, Apeks, or Hollis regulators due to their dealer agreements forbidding the sale of parts kits. I don't believe Deep6 has a lefty reg out, but @cerich could have snug it by me. I doubt it though because he's been opinionated on that since the first switchback came out from HOG and didn't sell particularly well.
To my knowledge, every one of Poseidons regs have always been ambidextrous which offers much better flexibility over a dedicated lefty/righty regulator, but again, very few use them like that because there are very few of us that actually dive them.
to the videos the @leadduck posted. The fluffy bunny tunnel is certainly outside of the bounds of sidemount being a dedicated no-mount rig and with no-mount rigs, that was likely a comfort thing to just get back to that tunnel. There is definitely no thought about being able to share air in that type of gear configuration because no-mount is quite unique.
the Bogaerts video is how I route my regulators now *only the second stages, the rest is a bit different* and how I used to route them when I had my XTX50's. Now. The issue with this specific routing with a lefty regulator as mentioned above is that in a single file air sharing scenario, you have an artificial shortening of the hose due to triangles. It's not huge, less than half a foot, but it's still there and when the 7' is marginal for most divers to begin with, 6" can make a lot of difference. The other is it now is crossing and can more easily get hooked on things as well as increase torque on the mouthpiece for the diver up front causing jaw fatigue.
Steve is running what I would consider a solo sidemount, or potentially OW sidemount regulator configuration where there is no potential to share air in the overhead. What that means is the left and right tanks are mirror images of each other *hence the lefty reg on a short hose*. I have no problem with this in OW because the swivels/elbows allow you to make a face:face ascent or if you are using a ball swivel, swim side:side relatively comfortably. I would not use this setup with long hoses with the intention of single file air sharing and the horse has been sufficiently beaten on that.
Disclaimer is that my current hose routing is exactly that with long hoses, but I am using a Poseidon Jetstream which is not bound by the limitations of a true "lefty" regulator. When I donate, instead of rotating the regulator along the vertical axis like you have to in a normal second stage in order to keep the exhalation diaphragm on the bottom, I rotate mine along the hose axis so it goes from being a "lefty" reg when I'm using it to a "righty" reg when someone else is using it.
The best bolt snap mounting options I've found were stolen from Brent Hemphill and someone else. I use one from Brett that has been modified to my Jetstreams and looks like this.
and when pulled over
When pulled over a normal second stage, it looks like this
I only use those bolt snaps when I'm stowing a regulator to a stage tank or when I'm at the surface and gearing up. When in the water, I use a loop of bungee similar to that used to retain the inflator in backmount and slip the showerhead into that to allow rapid donation. It works very well on the Jetstream but not so much on anything else. @victorzamora gives me relentless sh!t about some of the weird things that I do to make my regulators work for me, but such is life.
What I would recommend for others though is to do this. It's a simple piece of bungee on a double ender, but you can clip the double ender to your d-ring and easily remove a "normal" second stage from it and have it completely free.
Circa 2010, oh how we have evolved!
In my experience, few technical divers in the US are buying newer Scubapro, Apeks, or Hollis regulators due to their dealer agreements forbidding the sale of parts kits. I don't believe Deep6 has a lefty reg out, but @cerich could have snug it by me. I doubt it though because he's been opinionated on that since the first switchback came out from HOG and didn't sell particularly well.
To my knowledge, every one of Poseidons regs have always been ambidextrous which offers much better flexibility over a dedicated lefty/righty regulator, but again, very few use them like that because there are very few of us that actually dive them.
to the videos the @leadduck posted. The fluffy bunny tunnel is certainly outside of the bounds of sidemount being a dedicated no-mount rig and with no-mount rigs, that was likely a comfort thing to just get back to that tunnel. There is definitely no thought about being able to share air in that type of gear configuration because no-mount is quite unique.
the Bogaerts video is how I route my regulators now *only the second stages, the rest is a bit different* and how I used to route them when I had my XTX50's. Now. The issue with this specific routing with a lefty regulator as mentioned above is that in a single file air sharing scenario, you have an artificial shortening of the hose due to triangles. It's not huge, less than half a foot, but it's still there and when the 7' is marginal for most divers to begin with, 6" can make a lot of difference. The other is it now is crossing and can more easily get hooked on things as well as increase torque on the mouthpiece for the diver up front causing jaw fatigue.
Steve is running what I would consider a solo sidemount, or potentially OW sidemount regulator configuration where there is no potential to share air in the overhead. What that means is the left and right tanks are mirror images of each other *hence the lefty reg on a short hose*. I have no problem with this in OW because the swivels/elbows allow you to make a face:face ascent or if you are using a ball swivel, swim side:side relatively comfortably. I would not use this setup with long hoses with the intention of single file air sharing and the horse has been sufficiently beaten on that.
Disclaimer is that my current hose routing is exactly that with long hoses, but I am using a Poseidon Jetstream which is not bound by the limitations of a true "lefty" regulator. When I donate, instead of rotating the regulator along the vertical axis like you have to in a normal second stage in order to keep the exhalation diaphragm on the bottom, I rotate mine along the hose axis so it goes from being a "lefty" reg when I'm using it to a "righty" reg when someone else is using it.
The best bolt snap mounting options I've found were stolen from Brent Hemphill and someone else. I use one from Brett that has been modified to my Jetstreams and looks like this.
and when pulled over
When pulled over a normal second stage, it looks like this
I only use those bolt snaps when I'm stowing a regulator to a stage tank or when I'm at the surface and gearing up. When in the water, I use a loop of bungee similar to that used to retain the inflator in backmount and slip the showerhead into that to allow rapid donation. It works very well on the Jetstream but not so much on anything else. @victorzamora gives me relentless sh!t about some of the weird things that I do to make my regulators work for me, but such is life.
What I would recommend for others though is to do this. It's a simple piece of bungee on a double ender, but you can clip the double ender to your d-ring and easily remove a "normal" second stage from it and have it completely free.
Circa 2010, oh how we have evolved!
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