hello everyone
i thought i'd post a couple of pics from our recent trip to st maarten. this is the first trip after my SM cert. in mexico. i got to dive all 10 dives with doubles with Dive Adventures in simpson bay. great crew there. we have used them quite a few times. thx to them for allowing me to do things a bit different then they are used to dealing with. it all worked out quite well.
after seeing the pics i would lower the bands on the tanks but at the time they felt fine in the water and my trim was pretty darn good i think. i also could have used a bit less weight when the tanks were full and then add some for the second dive when tanks were a bit lighter but i found that 8lbs (2 4lbers in the lower central pockets) worked just fine for both dives.
in case anyone is interested......i am obviously using the xdeep stealth but i lowered the central weight pocket on the harness from its original position and have 4lbs in each of the lowest pockets. the reason i did this was that during training it was necessary to put some weight on my crotch strap for proper trim. i wanted to avoid this so i tried moving that central pocket lower. seemed to work fine. also.....hog regs, allum 80's, 1mm full wet suit, and 5mm boots. (i know.....5mm boots ??......they are the only wet boots i own)
during my ow sm training we were simply jumping in the water with air in the bladder and no tanks. the crew would then hand us both tanks to don in the water. i wanted to try something different. turns out i found it worked quite well to do a giant stride off the back of the boat holding my left tank by the valve with the reg in my mouth. clip off tank, route hose behind head, reg bungie around neck, attach tank bungee. then have crew hand me the right tank in the water, clip off, attach tank bungee, route hose around neck, clip off reg (or keep in mouth), and go.
any thought, comments, or suggestions are more than welcome.
one last note......i have read quite a few posts about it being tough to travel using sm due to not always having proper valves. now i know we don't "have to use" left and right handed valves but if using both right hand valves we need at least one valve to have enough of a post for the tank bungee (the other side would go around the valve handle). seeing as dive adventures told me their valves did not have a long enough post i simply brought my own. they had no problem dedicating two tanks for my use and it was relatively simple to switch the valves. now i am not sure if most shops would be this accommodating but it worked out well for me doing it this way. just thought i would mention that.
thx
rick
i thought i'd post a couple of pics from our recent trip to st maarten. this is the first trip after my SM cert. in mexico. i got to dive all 10 dives with doubles with Dive Adventures in simpson bay. great crew there. we have used them quite a few times. thx to them for allowing me to do things a bit different then they are used to dealing with. it all worked out quite well.
after seeing the pics i would lower the bands on the tanks but at the time they felt fine in the water and my trim was pretty darn good i think. i also could have used a bit less weight when the tanks were full and then add some for the second dive when tanks were a bit lighter but i found that 8lbs (2 4lbers in the lower central pockets) worked just fine for both dives.
in case anyone is interested......i am obviously using the xdeep stealth but i lowered the central weight pocket on the harness from its original position and have 4lbs in each of the lowest pockets. the reason i did this was that during training it was necessary to put some weight on my crotch strap for proper trim. i wanted to avoid this so i tried moving that central pocket lower. seemed to work fine. also.....hog regs, allum 80's, 1mm full wet suit, and 5mm boots. (i know.....5mm boots ??......they are the only wet boots i own)
during my ow sm training we were simply jumping in the water with air in the bladder and no tanks. the crew would then hand us both tanks to don in the water. i wanted to try something different. turns out i found it worked quite well to do a giant stride off the back of the boat holding my left tank by the valve with the reg in my mouth. clip off tank, route hose behind head, reg bungie around neck, attach tank bungee. then have crew hand me the right tank in the water, clip off, attach tank bungee, route hose around neck, clip off reg (or keep in mouth), and go.
any thought, comments, or suggestions are more than welcome.
one last note......i have read quite a few posts about it being tough to travel using sm due to not always having proper valves. now i know we don't "have to use" left and right handed valves but if using both right hand valves we need at least one valve to have enough of a post for the tank bungee (the other side would go around the valve handle). seeing as dive adventures told me their valves did not have a long enough post i simply brought my own. they had no problem dedicating two tanks for my use and it was relatively simple to switch the valves. now i am not sure if most shops would be this accommodating but it worked out well for me doing it this way. just thought i would mention that.
thx
rick
