h2oyak:
The deeper water and deeper wrecks fascinate me and thus I want my diving to start moving deeper and want to begin taking Tech courses (TDI is the only option in Colorado I do not have a GUE instructor any where close). I like the idea of the long primary (7'/5') and the short secondary on the "necklace".
My question is this:
Being so land locked most of my diving is on vacation and thus much of it is on rental tanks. I would be suprised if many places offer H valves. I would like to convert my normal rig (single first stage on a yoke) to the long hose set up to get used to it (as well as my dive partner/girlfriend) ? Is there a down side to doing this ? Do you switch your regs back and forth from single 1st stages for non-technical vacations to independant valves (H or manifold) or do you ultimately wind up with your travel rig and a Tec rig ?
Thank you for all your experience.
Michael
Hi Michael,
Rigging your regs so they are streamlined and do not trail behind you in the mud, silt, or coral reef will always help make your diving safer, easier, and more enjoyable. Converting your rig to a long hose primary and necklaced backup does much for streamlining and is a good first step towards being able to comfortably handle an airshare. Of course, the air share technique should be learned and practiced often to become proficient. That is one of the reasons we make it part of our pre-dive routine. S-drills have been a staple skill in the cave & tech community for as long as I can remember....even before GUE was founded. As a matter of fact, most all of what we teach in the GUE classes are just common sense techniques, configuration, and mindset that has been around and in use by most of the world's top divers. All JJ (et al.) did was to bring it together into a system that promotes a uniform equipment configuration, training system, technique, and mindset so that all players on the team are on the same page for the dive. This serves to help increase the enjoyment of the diving because it removes incompetence and confusion from the team. As in any endeavor that one desires to be proficient at, training and dediciation (work and time) are required to achieve a level of competency that will give the diver confidence and thereby increase their comfort level while diving. GUE sets the bar very high, points the diver in the direction of how to train to reach that "bar", and does not pass the diver until they reach that level. This philosophy apllies to all aspects of training to include use of the long hose and necklace...meaning, sure go ahead and switch over, but learn how to correctly use that configuration. Just switching over to the gear does nothing if one is not proficient at using it for an emergency. I don't believe it's too hard to imagine actually complicating an air share if one was competent w/an octo rig and switched to the long hose w/o becoming proficient at it's proper use and deployment.
That being said, the learning curve for it's proper use is short and there are enough on-line sources to gain a good beginning for educating one's self on how to do this. There are videos on the GUE website as well as on Andrew Georgitsis's 5thd-x website (
www.5thd-x.com ) that show how to deploy the long hose in an airshare. This can get one started, but ideally you should seek proper training.
In regard to switching the reg setups between twins and singles, personally, I use a dedicated set of regs for twins and a set for single tank setup, but this is as a result of getting weary of switching out hoses when I went from singles to twins, whereas I would teach open water one day, then jump in for a dive w/twins the next. It does simplify life greatly by having dedicated setups. But a lot of that is dictated by the availability of funds for this stuff.
I am not a big fan of y or h valve setups. My thought is if you need redundancy in the regs due to depth, then certainly we need the gas as well...otherwise my teammates are my reg (and gas) redundancy in the range of diving that can be done w/single tanks so the y/h valves only serve to complicate those dives needlessly. This is my personal opinion of them and I know there are many who like them and would present a differing view. Ultimately, this (like the rest of diving) is your own choice.
As far as inability to rec've training in your neck of the woods, there are several of us that will travel to your locale to teach. Mike Kane and I do it quite often, as well as a few other instructors (Andrew G., Tyler Moon & Dave Sweetin, just to name a few--there are others as well). So the training is available if you desire it. Another avenue that may help you is to hook up w/divers in your area that are GUE trained and they are usually very happy to help out those sincerely interested in improving thier diving. This may help get you started.
If other questions arise, feel free to pm me at your leisure. I am always happy to help where I can.
Does this answer your questions?
dive safe!--brando
Just kidding
