can light can on the right side - nhz

[Pez7378]

No wonder I'm having problems. I'm still trying to figure out why I put the Black Fin on the left foot, and the right fin on the right foot. I thought it was to maintain consistency, but then I figured there must be some scientific reason for it.......

Maybe I'm just overthinking things.

Oh, and to stay on topic, I put the can on the right side because Bob told me to.

[kitsapdiver]

So here's my question for the UTD/DIR type. After reading the deco bottle article that Brian posted I was surprised to see that he said the scooter is stowed on the right side when not in use. It seems like the scooter would also interfere with deploying the long hose for donating. Now I don't have a scooter and only 2 scooter dives in my log book, but it just seemed counter intuitive to me.

I've seen folks who have a snap bolt on the nose of the scooter and the tow cable and stow it on the left like a deco bottle. Why not stow it as your second (or third or fourth as the case may be) deco bottle?

Like I said I don't have much scooter history so I was just curious?

[CaptnJack]

Only the X scooters get nose clipped (by and large) and it a temporary OW thing, if you were on a 2 scooter dive you wouldn't stow your spare here for instance. You also wouldn't stow an X this way in a cave or wreck while swimming an unscooterable restriction where you might actually need all 7ft of long hose either. Your profile would be too wide stowed this way. So #1 you aren't in situations where all 7ft of hose is required.

The Gavins, SSs, and Mako types are usually stowed between the legs even if its a one scooter dive.

Stowed on the right, only the portion of the scooter from the 1st stage down to the can light is "trapped". You get to deploy the remainder of the hose which is longer than what you might donate from your mouth on deco (38-40" deco hose). Its pretty easy and intuitive to free that portion of the hose from under the can light and around the tail of the scooter in one motion anyway.

Stowing it on the left while the tow cord is still clipped off is worse because the portion of the hose crossing the chest is now trapped, net you have alot less to deploy. And you can't free the trapped hose with just a slightly exaggerated motion of the right arm around the can light - you'll have to unclip the nose or the towcord to free the long hose.

Anyway that's why the X is typically chest clipped on the right side vs. the left or stowing between the legs (which is an option, but really gets in the way of back kicking on an OW ascent up a line from a wreck)

[BDub]

So here's my question for the UTD/DIR type. After reading the deco bottle article that Brian posted I was surprised to see that he said the scooter is stowed on the right side when not in use. It seems like the scooter would also interfere with deploying the long hose for donating. Now I don't have a scooter and only 2 scooter dives in my log book, but it just seemed counter intuitive to me.

I've seen folks who have a snap bolt on the nose of the scooter and the tow cable and stow it on the left like a deco bottle. Why not stow it as your second (or third or fourth as the case may be) deco bottle?

Like I said I don't have much scooter history so I was just curious?

That's a good question, Austin.

First, in open water (non-overhead) diving, I think too much emphasis is put on "trapping" the long hose. Of course you must be able to donate quickly and efficiently and the longhose must be clear in order to do that. However, once the OOG diver has gas, the emergency has been solved. Now you can clean things up, deploy the remainder of the hose, etc.

If my scooter is stowed on the right, I can still donate the longhose. Yes, it takes a step to clean it up, but I can donate (solve the emergency) and have plenty of room before deploying the remainder of the hose. Even if I didn't deploy the remainder, that's plenty of hose for an ascent (no single file).

We store 2 bottles slung on the left side. If we're carrying more bottles than that, the remainder goes on a leash (up to 3 bottles per leash). Anything more than 2 slung bottles just gets too busy with gas switching/stowing, etc. The scooter is no different. Additionally, the tow cord of the scooter, like all line, would have a strong desire to start getting wrapped around the deco/stage bottles. If I'm stowing the scooter temporarily, then unclip the nose to hit the trigger again, I may have to untangle the tow cord from the stage/deco bottles first.

So, if we're on the bottom, and we're kicking (scooter clipped off on right), and I need to donate, I'll donate, as I've got plenty of of room/hose to donate, then cleanup, deploy, then exit appropriately.

If we're on the ascent, and the scooter is clipped off (on the right), and I need to donate, I'm donating what's in my mouth (primary, stage or deco reg). If I'm on my deco reg, I'm donating that, then figuring out what the f just happened (since the odds of you running out of deco gas and backgas (AND stage, if applicable) is rare). I can then give you my bottle or unclip the scoot and tell you to switch to my longhose. If the scooter is clipped on the left chest d-ring, I may have trapped the shorter stage/deco hose that I'm donating.

Since this is in the UTD forum, I'll give a UTD answer to clipping on the right. If my scooter is clipped off, it's because I'm not using it or it's dead. I donate to you, unclip the scooter, deploy, reclip, etc. However, the scooter was clipped off to the right side DURING the dive. This is different than clipping off a bottle on the right side, when I've clipped it off on the boat, or on the surface, prior to the descent. In that case, I may have "trapped" the longhose in such a way that really, I can donate, but I if I need to deploy the remainder of the hose, the most efficient method *may* be to unclip my deco bottle. To me personally, that's not ideal. I don't want to unclip my gas to deploy the rest of my reg.

(as always, I'll say that this is not the only, or god forbid the "right" way...just the "UTD answer")

[loanwolf]

One reason I have always seen and had the light on the right side is that your suit inflation is on the left side.