Zeagle Express Tech (44lb) - bit of advice por favor: too floppy with a single??

[roydude]

One of the things I liked about the Zeagle wings was the way the bungees are not run on the exterior. They face the plate and can not get caught on anything.

Mmm true true - the 44lb wing's bungees (not the ones I added) are between the bladder and plate so they're not exposed like my bungee . Is snagging of bungees something that happens a lot then? I've seen quite a few 'tech's with those red OMS wings covered in bungees.
Not a massive issue in open water I don't suppose, but I love cavern diving (and I'd like to get into cave diving) so it's worth me getting some things right from the start.

NETDOC I notice you re-routed these standard bungees to 'de-baggy' your wing a bit. I was going to do something like that but I wasn't sure if I could safely take the plastic clip unit thingy off the end of the bungees and put it back on again without damaging it (I'd need to do that to route it through the holes in the plate - also one of the wing loops the bungee passes through is too small fort the hook to fit through). Are they easy to remove?
Just thought I'd ask before risking serious damage to the new love of my life! :shocked2:

 

[bj139]

Flipping the wing over and resewing the bungee constraints really streamlined my configuration. I have never seen or heard of someone being snagged on their dumps, so it's not much of a worry. My problem was two fold. The hose was too long and I kept snagging the inflater hose fitting on the top of the cave. It was really getting beat up. Now it sits on the inside, just over my right shoulder. The hose goes around the back of my neck which only leaves 6-8 inches or so to deal with.

Can I assume you are diving sidemount this way? If backmount, the tank valve should stick up a quite a bit higher than the shoulder dump. I agree with you, the shoulder dump does stick up quite a bit.

Great idea on flipping the wing. Very innovative.

 

[The Chairman]

Is snagging of bungees something that happens a lot then?

Absolutely not. I dove a highly bungeed wing, the OMS "Bungeed Wings O' Death" and while I did puncture a wing, I never ever snagged a single bungee. They stay below the bladder.

NETDOC I notice you re-routed these standard bungees to 'de-baggy' your wing a bit. I was going to do something like that but I wasn't sure if I could safely take the plastic clip unit thingy off the end of the bungees and put it back on again without damaging it (I'd need to do that to route it through the holes in the plate - also one of the wing loops the bungee passes through is too small fort the hook to fit through). Are they easy to remove?

Yes, they are. I use a pair of side cutters to start the process, but the barrel just slides over the inner grips.

 

[The Chairman]

Can I assume you are diving sidemount this way? If backmount, the tank valve should stick up a quite a bit higher than the shoulder dump. I agree with you, the shoulder dump does stick up quite a bit.

I dive both side mount and single back mount with this.

Great idea on flipping the wing. Very innovative.

I was pretty happy with the results.

 

[roydude]

Woohooo!! A friend of mine made this video of our last dive of the weekend (probably my last wetsuit dive of this year ... brrr!). It show's how the bungee'd Zeagle Express Tech 44lb sits underwater (hopefully you can view it!):

http://www.facebook.com/v/10151246781426049

I haven't finished fiddling with the bungee idea (still trying to simplify it - I've now just looped the standard bungee through the backplate to pin it down a bit without reducing the inflation size as much, so I'll see how that looks in a couple of weeks).

The top cylinder strap is deliberately undone by the way: the weekend was a total 'playtime' to checkout some different configurations of the unit and I was trying having the cylinder lower (if I liked it I was going to move the cylinder straps to accommodate it). I didn't like it, it made me a bit 'leg heavy' so I'll leave the cylinder straps where they are and put the cylinder back to the original height from now on.

I've also moved the SPG from the front to the side now that I can see how much it dangles below me when I'm horizontal.

 

[The Chairman]

Your buddy needs blurry fix on his Go Pro!