Will a 80cf bottle change my buoyancy much?

[DA Aquamaster]

I agree, the turning around and ok'ing the boat/DM thing is best left to recreational diving, not hot drop, live boat technical diving. Just be sure your valves are on before jumping in negatively buoyant, especially with a dry suit.

I think gearing up in side mount is fairly simple, you can clip in both SM tanks while sitting, then just top clip the stage, stand up and go swimming. I'm not a big fan of chasing anything I actually have to use.

 

[Mr.X]

Thanks

FoxHound & beanojones.​

Carry it in, clipped off somewhere? Giant stride?

If I am on a bouncing boat and I have to swim HARD to the anchor line, or descent line I ask for some help (verification mostly) in clipping in multiple bottles correctly and in the right order. The bottles are typically 80, or 40 Luxfers. The Catalina tanks are not so good for slinging unless you have a fair amount of helium in them. If you are using regular air - the bottles are bottom heavy and do not fly well.

Depending on whether I go in OC , or RB I have a hand on my mouthpiece and put a hand on the slung bottles and other danglies. I have yet to have a bottle come up and whack me in the face. In fact - that's rather difficult thing to do if it is attached the right way to the harness. If the giant stride is some epic fall like 10' - I'd rather clip in bottles manually vs jumping in because height does make a difference. Here's a hilarious Youtube video of a guy with his bottles slung waaaay too low and mates not making sure to get crud out of the way. Good thing he didn't get injured and certainly looks like the earlier days of Inspiration RB diving when gear config was all over the place.

Jeff Cornish - Top Technical Diver - YouTube

Cheers,

X

 

[mulla]

beanojones - Thanks once again for sharing your experience, definitely opened my eyes for alternative entry methods. Tho I don't think I'll be up to that level anytime soon, but it's good to know how some of the more experienced divers enter over what I've always been taught.

DA Aquamaster - Some of the commercial boats here have seats with side rails which allows one person with the BM doubles to fit nicely. It's a little bit more difficult clipping off SM tanks sitting down. Last time I dived off such boat I clipped everything off (non deco dive) and remained kneeling and stood up last minute before entry. This wasn't ideal as the long wait time makes kneeling tiring. It can't be a full boat for me to have a seat after gearing up coz I'd take up double seats. Am in the process of seeking more SM friendly boats to dive from, but there's not a lot of commercial choices over here. I actually find small non purpose built boats to be easier to SM from!

Mr.X - Thanks for that video, I'd make sure no one's videoing when I'm entering the water next time just in case