Starting sidemount
- Thread starter sjmueller61990
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sjmueller61990
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thanks for the input everyone, its greatly appreciated and deffinatley noted. I always thought that a donut wing would be better that way air wouldnt get trapped in pockets and cause your bouyancy to be off, is that not the case? or does the benifits of using a horse shoe rig just out weigh the donut?
FWADIVER
Contributor
depends on what your diving objective is, I love the donut wing for recreational diving, and single tank diving. Once a stage/deco bottle gets thrown in, not so much, different strokes for different folks.
SJ, as it was explained to me, the horseshoe has a weakness (You can trap air in one side) and a strength (You can trap air in one side.)
At first, I found it annoying, as I would get more air 'parked' on the right rear than on the left. That made me list to the left. I found that, with practice, I could move the air around, putting me in whatever orientation I wanted. . . . sort of. Still a novice. . .
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sjmueller61990
Guest
well my LDS carries both dive rite and hollis, so between those to what are all of your opinions? And believe me I intend on trying both out and testing them both, but I find it helpful if there are some tips beforehand I can look for and decide how I like them. Like for instance the donut and horse shoe wing shape. Anything else noticeable I should look for? What do you guys use and why that one?
scuba127
Contributor
Are we talking aluminum or steel tanks?
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I got the Nomad XT. My reasons were simply that I'm planning to use it predominantly for cold-water OW diving, where I'm going to be in a drysuit and heavy undergarment, carrying largish steel cylinders. For recreational diving I'll be using HP100's, and for more aggressive dives HP119's ... possibly with a stage and deco bottles. So I chose the XT because I felt it best suited those needs.
Likes ... I felt it had a nicer harness than the SMS100 ... meaning that I didn't care for the soft webbing that the SMS uses. I also like the optional "backplate" with the four weight pouches ... it puts the lead I have to carry right where I need it.
Dislikes ... it's relatively bulky, and there's more "clutter" on the harness than I'd like. Eventually I'll get around to taking some of that stuff off, but so far I've only got about 40 dives on the rig, and I want to take some more time thinking about it before I start futzing with what's on there.
I too had some reservations about using a horseshoe wing, preferring donut styles for my backmount diving. But when I used the rig and realized how easy it was to dump air, I was sold.
Eventually I'm planning to get a second SM rig for warm water diving ... something less bulky and with a smaller wing for AL80 and/or singles use. If I had to choose today I'd probably go with a Razor ... but I think over the next year or so we're going to see more options become available.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
scuba127
Contributor
I agree with NW. I took my sidemount class in a rented SMS 100 and aluminum tanks which is why I'm asking aluminum or steel. It was a nice rig and I had no problems adapting to it but after the class I felt like a razor harness engineered to be dove with aluminum tanks would be the better choice for lighter tanks. It would have been difficult to transport the SMS100 to the carib I think and it seemed better suited for heavier tanks after diving it like 8 times or so. So, like NW, my intent is get the Razor harness for aluminums and either the Hollis or the Dive Rite for steels. I like the Hollis rig. I was able to dive it fairly well right away and by the second dive I was doing all the drills my instructor wanted me to do in an acceptable manner. One of these drills was a deco tank drill where I was taking the deco tank off and putting it back on the rig while under water. I did this many times with little problem in the Hollis so I'm not sure what the issue would be with the donut wing when adding stage or deco tanks. My expirience is very limited so maybe there's something I'm missing on this. I wish I could speak to the Dive Rite but I've never dove it so I'll suggest this; Try and get your LDS to let you dive both of them before deciding. I rented the Hollis because I didn't want to commit to it without checking it out first. Sure enough, I decided against it for aluminum tanks. I know this probably doesn't help much but I wanted to weigh in since I do have some expirience in the Hollis.
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sjmueller61990
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well thanks very much guys, your information helps a lot. Right now i have an al80 so i was planning on getting another one to dive with sidemount. BUT during class since I believe its 4 OW dives i might see if on maybe 2 of the dives I can switch to steels so I can test them out. This is probably how my dives will look. dive 1. Dive rite al's dive 2. dive rite steels dive 3. hollis al's dive 4 hollis steels. hopefully that doesnt screw with me to much to mess with my class with all the adjustments. If it seems to be difficult to manage I will probably just try out the hollis with al's and steels, since thats the one im most interested in.
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