Nomad LS

[Six Feet Under]

Anybody diving a Nomad LS? I'm set to try one out this weekend (with proper instruction), if I can find a rental or loaner unit. Made the decision to go ahead and switch to SM before I take advanced nitrox/deco procedures and full cave (currently Intro level through TDI). I've never done any blue water diving but I may end up moving to South Florida in the future for work so I want something that will work for both cave and wreck environments. Currently diving Worthington HP100's and PST LP80's but I'd like to switch to Faber LP85's if the buoyancy characteristics work for me... If I'm able to find an LS rental harness this weekend, I'll rent a set of Fabers too as my steels are all banded together as doubles and filled with 32% still.

Just looking for any pluses or minuses of the rig, if you've got any experience with it, specifically the dual bladder model as I dive wet in a 5mm suit. I'll be swapping the ring bungee out for a floating loop style attachment a la the XDeep Stealth. I like that the dump valve and elbow for the inflator are on the underside of the bladder so they won't catch on rocks in the cave environment.

My only real concerns are the amount of adjustability, whether or not the wing will "beach ball" when it's fully inflated, and if it will provide the necessary lift for two steels, an AL80, and an AL40 (all I see me using in the near future - if I need more gas than that, I'll likely have to switch to something else).

The other option is to make my own and buy a Sump UK wing, which has 15kg/33lb of lift, and make my own harness. This is honestly the route I would rather go, but I won't rule out the LS until I try it just out of convenience. The Sump UK option would be great because I could change out the wing if I needed one with more lift, or add a second wing for redundancy as others have done. It would also likely be cheaper, and set up exactly how I want.

 

[Remy B.]

Curacao Tek-Lite- Part 1, Kokomo Tug Boat

I believe my buddy for this dive have a Dive-Rite Nomad, I'm not sure, there you can see how it looks like with two AL-80 and 1 AL-40

 

[nvs]

Any news on the LS unit?

 

[rjack321]

Just looking for any pluses or minuses of the rig, if you've got any experience with it, specifically the dual bladder model as I dive wet in a 5mm suit. I'll be swapping the ring bungee out for a floating loop style attachment a la the XDeep Stealth. I like that the dump valve and elbow for the inflator are on the underside of the bladder so they won't catch on rocks in the cave environment.

My only real concerns are the amount of adjustability, whether or not the wing will "beach ball" when it's fully inflated, and if it will provide the necessary lift for two steels, an AL80, and an AL40 (all I see me using in the near future - if I need more gas than that, I'll likely have to switch to something else).

The LS has no dual bladder model, their idea is to use their butt pillow as your redundant bladder... If you are seriously into cave diving in FL you should look into a drysuit.

It will "beachball" but that's a lot of swing weight with 85s, a stage and a 40 (assuming you are dropping the 40 in the cave at least). If you are thinking of using steels plus two stages (e.g. EAN50 and O2) for an ocean tech dive all in a 5mm wetsuit :/... I would say the LS is not the right rig for that (at all).

 

[Six Feet Under]

I ended up going with a dual bladder Nomad XT and love it. The LS did NOT work for me at all when I tried it (too small, too much adjustment and too many changes to things like the inflator hose length needed to make it work for me).

The XT is a much larger rig, but works well with my HP100's and LP80's, and it fits my large, broad-shouldered frame much better. I love it so far