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Bob,
If all your dives are in essentially the same type of environment then you are absolutely correct. For active divers who dive a wide range of environments I believe different configurations are called for. A while back a group of us went to South Florida to wreck dive. The weather turned and the boat trip was cancelled. We decided to make the best of it and dive Blue Heron Bridge. The only gear we had with us was back mounted doubles. Did we look funny diving in 25 feet of water in doubles? Yep! Was it a lot of work walking the doubles down to the water? Sure. Did we do the dive and had fun? Absolutely! Did we wish we had our single tank rigs? Oh we did! To this day I tell that story when I dive Blue Heron and always get a laugh. I'm glad the article is being read and the disagreement is a good thing. The primary take-away is that people are thinking about their decisions. It's not a good thing to allow ones self to be led blindly. When you truly understand why a D-ring on your equipment is where it is or when you make an adjustment because you know in advance the effect it will have then you've gained enough experience to be a good diver. Equipment configuration recommendations should be a part of every dive class. Savvy divers will take the recommendations, consider them and make decisions that are right for them.
Although, GUE divers pretty much dive the same configuration anywhere and everywhere because it serves the purpose just fine in near every situation, everywhere from Blue Heron to deep caves. I've been with them at Blue Heron and they were all in doubles and nobody complained! LOL Although, they were doing training exercises. I've seen some of them dive SM but only when it was completely necessary. AKA cave with very small passageways where a BM rig would never fit. But, GUE generally recommends the same configuration for near every dive and I personally don't see anything wrong with that!
Know that feeling! Had that sort of happen in the reverse. A couple of months ago I got my LP 85s filled with 19/40 to dive the Skye Cliffe out of Boynton Beach. We got blown out. A week later I was invited for a photo shoot at Eagles Nest. I figured we'd stay in the entrance room so I brought that gas. The camera malfunctioned so my buddies who had a more appropriate mix took off to enjoy the dive. I spent an annoyed hour doing deco and making my way back out.
Why do you think that reg tech gives his time for free? He services my reg, I pay to the club ( hint: not for profit does not mean no money, but no profit made), club uses this money to send that tech to dive/barbecue/social event/training etc.
Only thing you were against in your article was sidemount, so that's the feeling I got. In your later posts you explained your position, but article is definitely anti-sidemount.
+1
