Solo gear configuration

[jamiep3]

You said it, not me Captain.

But since you brought it up, why don't you employ redundancy? I read your argument that your reg has a zero failure rate (which I find hard to believe) and that you believe in redundancy enough to carry a second cutting tool. Why nothing else?

I'm jumping in without reading to the end of all the posts, but I have to say, that the regulators that the Captain and Nemrod, and on occasion myself dive, have so few moving parts, that a failure is almost unheard of. They where made before dive equipment was complicated enough to fail.

All of that said, although I dive my vintage gear solo from time to time, I keep my depth resticted to 60', when I learned to dive in the 70's, I was trained to get myself back from that depth without the equipment if necessary.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Something that I may have missed in this thread, or it wasn't touched on possibly...

For those that dive independent doubles..Do you run one LP hose from one tank to your BC, and another LP hose from the other tank to your dry suit...or run them both off one tank?

Currently I am running them off one (my right bank) tank, starting my breathing on my left bank...take that down 500psi or I start to list....then move over to my other tank 'til it is down...then back to the first tank...etc..
I am figuring if the tank with my BC and drysuit hoses goes down/empties, I can still manually inflate my BC...and if at any depth, there should be already plenty in the BC to ascend safely..more than likely having to dump air from the BC than add to it..

Is there protocol on this?

You should be running the LP hoses from separate bottles - 1 2nd stage reg, 1 spg, and 1 LP hose from each 1st stage valve. That way they will truly be independent and should you experience complete air loss from one, you will have complete redundancy in the other.

 

[Scubadoo72]

Perfect, thank you...and that was my thought as well, makes perfect sense.

 

[micklock]

Something that I may have missed in this thread, or it wasn't touched on possibly...

For those that dive independent doubles..Do you run one LP hose from one tank to your BC, and another LP hose from the other tank to your dry suit...or run them both off one tank?

I have the bc inflator on the left tank and the drysuit inflator on the right tank.

 

[Dive-aholic]

One from each tank.

 

[Stoo]

You said it, not me Captain.

But since you brought it up, why don't you employ redundancy? I read your argument that your reg has a zero failure rate (which I find hard to believe) and that you believe in redundancy enough to carry a second cutting tool. Why nothing else?

I think that more than any other diving discipline, solo diving requires flexibility for the type of diving one does. While I "almost" agree with Captain with regard to reg failures, to me that sounds like hubris. All regs have the potential to fail and to assume otherwise is temptimg fate IMHO. On the other hand, if a guy is only diving to shallower depths and in warmer waters, then this is probably a legitimate option.

Up here, any regulator is subject to freeze up, no matter the tuning or brand. For that reason, redundancy is absolutely mandatory. (For what it's worth, I think everyone up here should be diving isolated doubles on even moderately deep dives..... many of our fatalities have been "doubles" and involved failed attempts at buddy-assisted breathing. Doubling the demand on a first stage can easily lead to that reg freezing too... not to mention the added challenge of working with frozen lips!)

 

[Stoo]

For those that dive independent doubles..Do you run one LP hose from one tank to your BC, and another LP hose from the other tank to your dry suit...or run them both off one tank?

Yes. I use my suit for buoyancy control (It's a Viking...) and my wings generally only get used at the surface when I ditch my tanks before climbing into my boat.

I run the suit inflator from my "non-primary/left" first stage mostly because it reduces the odds of a first stage freeze-up but also because my left tank is closer to the drysuit inflator and it was easier to buy a longer BC hose than a drysuit whip...

I'm not sure if this is anyone's "protocol", but it works for me...