Use of Short HP hose for SM & Stages

[Caveeagle]

That is a great picture and explains a lot. Very few pics in the book ('profiles) allows you to see detail that might be useful for set-up. For example how you have the bungees over the up, looped onto the knobs. Maybe I missed it, but I looked through a few times trying to find a good pic of that.

I don't see chokers on that tank. Maybe just the angle? Do you sling onto the bungees after you get in the water?

 

[tbone1004]

no chokers, used to use them, they're annoying and not necessary. there are leashes on there normally, however these tanks were getting thrown into a set of doubles bands about 20 minutes after that picture was taken and I didn't want to dig through my gear bin to find them before this dive. The leashes are just a loop of gold line prusik'd through a bolt snap. Get clipped onto the high shoulder d-rings for walking around and on the low ones in the water. They should not have any tension on them once the bungees are snapped on. You can also prusik them around the tank neck and take them off in the water but that is personal preference.

 

[Caveeagle]

That makes sense. I sort of inherited a couple boxes of gear from an acquaintance that dove SM back in the 90's. In that gear is a bunch of ~14" loops of paracord knotted onto bolt snaps. Not using a prusik. Just an overhand knot, but the general idea sounds similar.

So aside from your pic, do you normally have the tank necks clipped into the lower D-ring? Or are just the bungees all that keeps it together?

 

[tbone1004]

they are normally clipped, but they don't do anything. They stay clipped but only so they don't dangle.

 

[tursiops]

Holy crap! I had no idea I needed to color coordinate my Right fin (Red) and Left Fin (Yellow).

No, left should be green, not yellow. Standard navigational aids. Red Right Returning.

 

[JohnnyC]

Unless green is ground and down, then blue is sky and up......

 

[tursiops]

Unless green is ground and down, then blue is sky and up......

Ha! I'm not giving you the helm on MY boat! If I had a boat, I guess. But you can rewire my house....

 

[kr2y5]

Having just gone through all these variants, and with the benefit of having few-to-zero pre-existing habits to bias my opinion in any way, I like the 9-inch hoses on top of/alongside the tanks the best. Nothing sticks out (well in my pictures the SPGs do hang, but that's just because I haven't gotten yet into the regular habit of tucking them on the inside of the tank), less clutter around the chest area, still easy enough to check gauges in drysuit, thick gloves, and deco bottle getting in the way. I have only tried it a few times, but no obvious disadvantages so far. Checking the SPGs is easier by pushing the mask a little to the side with the hand opposite to the one holding the SPG.

 

[Patoux01]

On a sidenote, this is also rig/region-dependent.

 

[tbone1004]

On a sidenote, this is also rig/region-dependent.

sort of, you can use any of them on the florida based rigs, except for SPG's down with the dive rite ring bungees as they will sag. Chokers require first stages down to work properly.
Razors with their idiotic continuous bungee require first stages up, so SPG's down is the only thing that works well there, but their valves are lower and farther up than you can get with a ring bungee so it's less of an issue in terms of reaching back to see. With properly adjusted loop bungees, it is a real stretch to see my spg's on a 9" hose, something that on a DPV requires coming off of the trigger, which isn't going to happen. That said, I'm a big guy, so most of it is a function of not being able to see around my shoulder, and I have buddies that have properly adjusted tanks on loop bungees with no issues checking their gauges, so you have to try for yourself