kafkaland
Contributor
I'm getting into sidemount diving, and currently taking the class. Now I'm trying to decide which harness system to buy. Unfortunately, my LDS has only one to try, a DiveRite Nomad XT, which I'm using for the course. And in terms of what to buy, my instructor is not of much help as he has no experience with other rigs, either. So I'm turning to Scubaboard...
The main reason why I'm getting into sidemount is that I will be taking cavern / intro cave in Playa del Carmen in January, and had to get into a technical rig for that. I preferred sidemount over backmounted doubles because of all the flexibility sidemount offers. So the rig has to be suitable for cave diving in warmer waters, presumably with Al80s. But I would also like to be able to use it for local Great Lakes wreck diving, which generally requires a dry suit, with my HP119s. I could imagine that the day will come where I will also want to carry a deco bottle, but not more. Which still is a broad range of uses for a single rig, but I really don't want to get two - one for warm-water caving, and the other for cold wrecks.
I have been looking at the XDeep Stealth 2.0. I like the minimalist concept, and the fact that I can simply add a second bladder if I'm worried about redundant buoyancy. However, a friend of mine has one nad warns me that the weight system doesn't work for him and he is no switching to a Halcyon Contour. Unfortunately, he lives on the other side of the pond and can't just lend me his Stealth to try. I have also looked at the RiveRites, but found the many different models a bit confusing. The new LTZ seems attractive, but it's not as modular and if I get the dual bladder for redundancy, I can't just take one bladder and inflator off when I don't need it. And always carrying both seems like a pain. And, with all of the rigs it is nearly impossible to tell just from the descriptions whether the dump valve locations will work for me or not.
Are there any other systems that I should consider? Any other thoughts? I'd hate to buy something just to replace it after a few dives.
The main reason why I'm getting into sidemount is that I will be taking cavern / intro cave in Playa del Carmen in January, and had to get into a technical rig for that. I preferred sidemount over backmounted doubles because of all the flexibility sidemount offers. So the rig has to be suitable for cave diving in warmer waters, presumably with Al80s. But I would also like to be able to use it for local Great Lakes wreck diving, which generally requires a dry suit, with my HP119s. I could imagine that the day will come where I will also want to carry a deco bottle, but not more. Which still is a broad range of uses for a single rig, but I really don't want to get two - one for warm-water caving, and the other for cold wrecks.
I have been looking at the XDeep Stealth 2.0. I like the minimalist concept, and the fact that I can simply add a second bladder if I'm worried about redundant buoyancy. However, a friend of mine has one nad warns me that the weight system doesn't work for him and he is no switching to a Halcyon Contour. Unfortunately, he lives on the other side of the pond and can't just lend me his Stealth to try. I have also looked at the RiveRites, but found the many different models a bit confusing. The new LTZ seems attractive, but it's not as modular and if I get the dual bladder for redundancy, I can't just take one bladder and inflator off when I don't need it. And always carrying both seems like a pain. And, with all of the rigs it is nearly impossible to tell just from the descriptions whether the dump valve locations will work for me or not.
Are there any other systems that I should consider? Any other thoughts? I'd hate to buy something just to replace it after a few dives.
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