Holy hog!

[rjack321]

Regaurdless of who the instructor is if they arent willing to put their personal dislikes aside and help me learn whatever system I'm using to become a better and safer diver to the best of thier abilities then I think I would do my best to stay away from them, I shouldnt (and wont) be forced to buy something I might not like and that might not work for me just to recieve instruction. Different systems work better for different people and we sure as hell arnt cookie cutter copies of each other....If I "Instructor" cant realise that then they arnt worth a d*mn to me. And Yes I would prefer to take the SM back near my home town (Ocala) as I believe that a cave instructor that teaches SM would try to give the best training they can, but at the same time I still have to be able to afford it.

Well the Razor is pretty expensive.

Sidemount is very person specific and I think you might be hard pressed to find a serious (cave) instructor in FL diving a Razor with steel tanks. Its just not an optimal setup for that. If you want a Razor, buy a Razor. But I think you'd be better off finding an instructor doing the dives you aspire to do and taking their advice on which SM rig to do those in. They will probably have several rigs, likely heavily modified, you can demo too.

Right now you are perfectly poised to spend a whole lot of money ahead of time, only to learn in class that a different system works better for the diving you want to be doing.

 

[Aquabot]

Well the Razor is pretty expensive.

Sidemount is very person specific and I think you might be hard pressed to find a serious (cave) instructor in FL diving a Razor with steel tanks. Its just not an optimal setup for that. If you want a Razor, buy a Razor. But I think you'd be better off finding an instructor doing the dives you aspire to do and taking their advice on which SM rig to do those in. They will probably have several rigs, likely heavily modified, you can demo too.

Right now you are perfectly poised to spend a whole lot of money ahead of time, only to learn in class that a different system works better for the diving you want to be doing.

I was just speaking in general terms lol, as I stated ( atleast I think I did ) I might not even get the razor since some good points were brought up that I was not aware of (Including yours). I've started to take a second look at all of the other systems, but as of the moment I am leaning away from the razor and more towards the xdeep stealth. You have also mention a couple that I wasnt aware of including the xdeep untill this thread and for that I am gratefull . I didnt mean for my previous comment to come off so snotty. I am not like that and am always open to suggestions, I just dont blindly follow them is all lol.

 

[Aquabot]

So figured I'd update a little, finally got the 7ft miflex lp and unfortunately didn't get my hog first stages but instead got the Hollis dc1 stages. In a effort to help remove some of the "memory" from the miflex hose I have it hanging with the second stage for a little bit of weight. Do you think this is effective or is there a better way?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

My understanding is that you'll be lucky to get all the kinks out. One of the reasons I don't recommend or sell braided hoses over 40inches in length. Plus they feel like sandpaper on the back of my neck.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Be careful with the braided hoses. The are positively buoyant and I've seen them hang up divers in an air share in the overhead because it got caught on the ceiling. When they kink that also cuts gas flow to the 2nd stage off. I've had this happen as well with a couple of students during an air share. The receiving diver took the 2nd stage and the hose was twisted enough that he had no gas to breathe. For this reason alone I do not like the braided hoses as regulator hoses.

---------- Post added February 1st, 2013 at 05:22 AM ----------

What is your instructor diving and is he or she a cave diver? Most of the people I know diving SM are cave divers and they are all using Nomads, the sms100 Hollis, or the JT. Only 1 is using a Razor and he is not using it in FL, only in MX with AL80s.

It varies. I have 3 different rigs I use, each for a specific type of dive. My primary rig is an Armadillo. I also use a Nomad. In Mexico I use a Razor with a Diver Rite Trim Inflation Pillow as my buoyancy compensator. It's enough lift for 4 AL80s. In total I have about 10 different sidemount rigs that I own.

 

[Aquabot]

Be careful with the braided hoses. The are positively buoyant and I've seen them hang up divers in an air share in the overhead because it got caught on the ceiling. When they kink that also cuts gas flow to the 2nd stage off. I've had this happen as well with a couple of students during an air share. The receiving diver took the 2nd stage and the hose was twisted enough that he had no gas to breathe. For this reason alone I do not like the braided hoses as regulator hoses.

Thanks, I'lll be sure to pay attention and watch out for this and hopefully I'm never in a OOA situation.

 

[rjack321]

It varies. I have 3 different rigs I use, each for a specific type of dive. My primary rig is an Armadillo. I also use a Nomad. In Mexico I use a Razor with a Diver Rite Trim Inflation Pillow as my buoyancy compensator. It's enough lift for 4 AL80s. In total I have about 10 different sidemount rigs that I own.

At this point, I am only using my Razor with steels when the cave is "crawly". I put about 25 dives on it with steel tanks before deciding it doesn't work with steel tanks, a drysuit (and for 20 of those dives) dry gloves.

The neck bungies are terrible and the necks will never be above the chest Drings and up behind your armpits by design. And my hips (32" waist) aren't wide enough to get the bottom of the tanks up below the plane of my hips when in trim. At one point I had the rear Drings up against the lower back plate with 3mm tails on the lower clips. They still hung too low for good swimming. I don't think its really possible to do anything but "front mount" steel tanks in a razor. Mine works ok on me with ALi tanks or my lp45s since they are only 5.5" diameter and if I am crawling through a sump who cares about swimming.

A smaller volume "trimmer" wing like the DR pillow is a good idea. The DSS razor wing is a giant booty extension on my butt since it has no baffles to flatten it out. Its also too damn long. Something 1/2 that size with ~20lbs of lift would be much more appropriate since the harness doesn't work well with larger capacity steel tanks anyway. Sadly, giving Tobin feedback on these things is like talking to a wall. Oh well.

---------- Post added February 1st, 2013 at 10:29 AM ----------

Thanks, I'lll be sure to pay attention and watch out for this and hopefully I'm never in a OOA situation.

Its your buddy who you'll be drowning. Why have a long hose at all if its not a reliable source of gas?

 

[gearhound]

The neck bungies are terrible and the necks will never be above the chest Drings and up behind your armpits by design.

I find it funny that nobody ever complains about this with the Hollis rigs. Out of the box, the tanks will ride out front of your shoulder blades. If you do the mods and set it up like the Armadillo, then you can get the tanks back. Why can't you mod the Razor? A short piece of webbing and some bungee is pretty easy to get.
Why is it okay to modify one system but not the other?

 

[Aquabot]

---------- Post added February 1st, 2013 at 10:29 AM ----------

[/COLOR]

Its your buddy who you'll be drowning. Why have a long hose at all if its not a reliable source of gas?

Just because there is a potential for something doesn't make it reliable. Being aware of that potential and being able to deal with it is what matters. Your standard rubber hoses could develop a bubble and burst at anytime, does this constitute that these aren't reliable then? A besides all I did was update asking about remove/reducing coil memory, so please explain how this makes anybody a wall lol?

 

[JamesK]

Aquabot,

I will be in town this coming week if you want to get together sometime. Just PM me.

James.