leashes.

[Kern]

I have no experience with a leash for stage bottles. I'd appreciate the benefit of your experience. How do you rig it? How do you move bottles to & from it?

PS. I only have a short attention span, piccys & videos are good too. And yes, I am learning to dive on the intraweb.

 

[rjack321]

There are various types. With various rings or doubles enders used as clips. But it seems the majority of divers currently use a loop of 3-4mm cord with a bolt snap on it. Most put a small peice of vinyl or rubber fuel hose on the cord to give it some shape and not be too floppy to clip. The doubled cord length is a tad longer than the width of your palm. Use a medium boltsnap, not a mongo one.

In OW, when using a bottom stage & 2 deco gases you'd rotate the spent bottom stage back and bring the O2 forward during deco. Like this:


Put your finger through the stage clips to keep from dropping them and keep a finger through the leash to keep from dropping that half. Keep the leash in your left hand and clip & unclip the cylinders from yoru chest with the right hand. Try not to move cylinders from hand to hand, you won't be able to get more than 1 finger through the snap's ring so if you moving a cylinder from hand to hand you won't be able to have that security against dropping a bottle.

In scooter cave diving, you might have multiple bottles and then you'd rotate full ones up front for use before dropping them on the line. On the exit you'd just put the spent cylinders on the leash and scooter with the bunch - obviously only in bigger caves since the empties float up alot.

 

[Kern]

Thanx for that, exactly what I was after. I was imagining something a little more complex. Lots of "D" rings at the very least.

So you only need 1 clip to attach it to the hip "D" ring, & the stages clip, attaches to the loop of cord at the other end.

Just love where the leashed stage is positioned. :mooner:

 

[rjack321]

Thanx for that, exactly what I was after. I was imagining something a little more complex. Lots of "D" rings at the very least.

So you only need 1 clip to attach it to the hip "D" ring, & the stages clip, attaches to the loop of cord at the other end.

Just love where the leashed stage is positioned. :mooner:

They are pretty simple. Paranoid people like to use double enders in case the bolt snap jams. Although in that remote case I would just cut the leash and re-clip the cylinders by their noses.

If you use a captured boltsnap, that is the loop of cord runs through the eye of the boltsnap then you don't need any other clips. The boltsnap on the stage is clipped into the loop of cord.

Getting the leash length right is important so that the O2 sits on your ass properly. If its too short the bottle will slip off. This isn't too big a deal in mid-water but its an invitation for the bottle to bang around or snag. Spent bottom stages don't have this problem, they will always float up and out to the way.

 

[Doppler]

Assuming you are wearing standard North Florida Cave Rig on OC

To help you build skills and become familiar with the technique, work on your drills with bottles that are near empty (50 bar or less). There buoyancy characteristics will help you while you build confidence... and SHOULD you "drop" a bottle, it will likely float rather than sink! Not that I'm suggesting you WILL drop anything... you understand.

If you are Side-mount diving, two or three stages tend to sort themselves out with creative positioning of the stern bolt-snap and tail because of the butt-plate. On CCR many divers sidemount bailout gas and this configuration calls for a butt-plate. For non-SM configuration, invest in a leash while carrying deepest bailout cylinder like a stage would be carried with SNFCR.

Trimix bottles generally have a tendency to float even when filled; oxygen has a greater mass than anything else you are likely to be breathing and so it will start out life when filled, laying across your ass.

Good luck.

 

[rjack321]

To help you build skills and become familiar with the technique, work on your drills with bottles that are near empty (50 bar or less). There buoyancy characteristics will help you while you build confidence... and SHOULD you "drop" a bottle, it will likely float rather than sink! Not that I'm suggesting you WILL drop anything... you understand. .

Good tip, although for 80s I would propose learning the rotation in shallow water with a bottom and a little fuller so they are close to neutral but will of course hang butt up. When they are maximally buoyant it can be more difficult to clip the empties - at least it is for me.

BTW I have absolutely no idea how this stuff would work with steel bottles, never tried it, don't use steel deco cylinders at all.

 

[LiteHedded]

yea they suck to work with either full or empty
right in the middle somewhere is the sweet spot

 

[Doppler]

BTW I have absolutely no idea how this stuff would work with steel bottles, never tried it, don't use steel deco cylinders at all.

Allow me to quote from the equipment tips handout I give to students

"Steel stages are not recommended for any Techdiver Training courses (with the possible exception of shallow decompression gas stages for Cave and Mine diving). Steel stage bottles have very different buoyancy characteristics to the recommended aluminum 6 and 12 litre models. This will make it exceptionally difficult for you and your fellow team members to perform several of the required skills with proficiency and may jeopardize your success in your diver education program."

 

[wb416]

Allow me to quote from the equipment tips handout I give to students

"Steel stages are not recommended for any Techdiver Training courses (with the possible exception of shallow decompression gas stages for Cave and Mine diving). Steel stage bottles have very different buoyancy characteristics to the recommended aluminum 6 and 12 litre models. This will make it exceptionally difficult for you and your fellow team members to perform several of the required skills with proficiency and may jeopardize your success in your diver education program."

That's a very nice way of saying they can F- you up!

(....although not entirely related to this discussion, IMHO they can work nicely for O2 drops for cave diving.)

 

[rjack321]

That's a very nice way of saying they can F- you up!

(....although not entirely related to this discussion, IMHO they can work nicely for O2 drops for cave diving.)

So diplomatic :d

For the same reason, I have a steel 72 as a safety O2 bottle. I figure if I am using that I am potentially getting back in the water and some extra negative-ness will be helpful to try to keep warm.