Course starts tomorrow!

[JBFG]

Day 2.

Completed 2 more dives but without the additional tanks.

I felt a lot more comfortable by dive 2. We adjusted my weight placement so that I’m more in trim and that was huge.
Additionally the cam bands were lowered a bit so that the tanks were more in line. In the end of the 2nd dive I was pretty dialed in!

We did all of the drills again and again and did a share air file swim.

So funny thing happened, on dive 2 of the day I went to do some drills on my left tank and the tank non fell off. We had to spend time searching for it in the water and I was holding it there for most of the reminder of the dive. I used a lot of air trying to solve this issue which meant that our wreck penetration didn’t happen.
We have just postponed it until tomorrow.

So far SM is awesome. Really well balanced and swimming on my back feels awesome! I’m getting a lot better at stowing my long hose after deployment also. No dangly!

 

[JBFG]

Day 3 (last day)

Again today was going to be a 2 dive day.

The first dive was with 3 tanks. I had to stage my deco and retrieve it. The dive included a beautiful wreck penetration on multiple levels. Of course as soon as we about to exit I had regulator malfunction. Those halcyon regs I tell ya, not worth it! I’ll stick with my HOGs . It was a really good test as I was busy focusing on the wreck. I did the drill right away but I had to “snap” out of my day wreck dreaming. Right when I thought the dive was over and I was relaxing at the safety stop after having executed my NOTOX, Paul was out of air again. That guy has serious gas management issues . He realized that I forgot to put my long hose on top of my deco hose and I bet he was quite amused when I was fumbling to deploy the rest of the hose.

Following a nice SI, we splashed again. This time we carried all 4 tanks. We staged them at their MOD and went for a nice long deep dive. On the way back we found an octopus that was stuck in a lobster trap (no fishing allowed here...). We freed it and that was the best part of this course!!!

Upon regaining my last tank and executed my last stop I was now fully qualified!


Tomorrow 2 more dives as I’m xompleting my deep dive course. I’m trying on some smaller tanks to see how they feel. It’s good to have different exposure I think

 

[JBFG]

What I leaned aside from the obvious.

If you are out of trim, you will pay with 4 tanks. Also my travel fins are great with 2 tanks, or with 3, but I cannot generate power to back kick with 4 tanks. The fins aren’t stiff enough.

Staging tanks take practice. Your buoyancy gets really affected event just including may throw you off (if if you are still holding the tank).

I take less weight in sidemount than I though, even with 4 tanks.

My xdeep Classic is definitely strong enough to carry all of these tanks. I love that rig. I made the monkey fist modification that Andy has on his site and I love it. I hated the bungee crotch strap. I also love putting the lower bladder band through the crotch strap. It keeps it from ridding.

I find the inflator hose too long. I may shorten t but only after I’ve tried it with my dry suit.

The fifth poet is definitely money. It streamline the hose routing a lot and the swivel turret really helps with keeping the hose in location. I didn’t like how their left tank hose doesn’t have a swivel at the 2nd stage. I can’t wait to try it with me and see if the hose are even more streamlined.

My frog kick needs work. I generate enough power but I drop my knees when I “load” the kick. Something I need to work on.

I love love love love sidemount. It has more freedom that I ever expected.

 

[decompression]

Welcome to the dark side..........good.......good.......let it flow through you.....
Seriously, well done, Bravo Zulu!

 

[JBFG]

Cheers Jay. I’ll send you some pics later on lol

I just can’t believe how much I like this setup. Why did I not do it earlier?!?

 

[JBFG]

2 more dives to 140’ today on SM as I was completing my deep certification.
I used smaller tank (7ltrs so 65s?) to see how they were. I’m. It gonna lie it was pretty sweet. I didn’t need the huge amount of gas and they trimmed nicely. I need to put a lot more dives on my new toy to get really comfortable with it. Comfortable enough to start tech is the goal

 

[JBFG]

Comment and judge away! feedback requested
Note that I didn't have a left and right valve so my right tank is reg face down.
I also haven't trimmed the leftover of my bungee at this time but it's done now.

 

[Schwob]

The fifth poet is definitely money. It streamline the hose routing a lot and

@racanichou :
I am not int SM yet, just looking at it... thanks for letting us know how it went (so far) for you.
Can you elaborate a little about that fifth poet. Obviously I am not putting 1 & 1 together correctly from context and can't figure out what it is ...

 

[JBFG]

@racanichou :
I am not int SM yet, just looking at it... thanks for letting us know how it went (so far) for you.
Can you elaborate a little about that fifth poet. Obviously I am not putting 1 & 1 together correctly from context and can't figure out what it is ...

It should have read the fifth port. Referring to the bottom port on your first stage.
That way you can run your inflator hoses direct from the first stage to your bladder or dry suit. This puts your first stage in the same orientation that your valve are. You can run a much shorter hose that way.

 

[divezonescuba]

Your comment about donating while on a deco tank is interesting.

I have seen donation of the deco reg rather than the long hose. The necklace then goes in your mouth. After the situation stabilizes, you switch back to the donated deco reg and give the oog person the long hose.

That prevents the long hose under the deco hose issue and is also consistent with donating the working reg in your mouth to the person in distress.