Wasn't as entertaining as I was led to believe it would be
That's cuz I'm the man!
new SM rig, +stage, +scooter, no problem
Mostly had to shorten a bunch of straps and bungies, lots of things were still a little too big.
Coolio. I must say, I'm almost surprised to hear you're moving to sidemount. Not that I have anything against it, mind you. I think I would probably be diving SM if I didn't dive a Meg. I assume you are playing with it for some cave stuff?
Wasn't as entertaining as I was led to believe it would be
That's cuz I'm the man!
new SM rig, +stage, +scooter, no problem
Mostly had to shorten a bunch of straps and bungies, lots of things were still a little too big.
Coolio. I must say, I'm almost surprised to hear you're moving to sidemount. Not that I have anything against it, mind you. I think I would probably be diving SM if I didn't dive a Meg. I assume you are playing with it for some cave stuff?
Yeah the cave up in BC is a beetch. 1km hike from car to the entrance (one way). 3 dry humps to climb over inside. We brought everything but the kitchen sink last time. Pulled out the small al80 doubles and it wore us out long before we got to the end of line. In fact we only got to the big dry section before realizing we needed ropes and harnesses to cave our way over it. The river flows around that somehow so with any luck we'll find a divable bypass.
Bottom line its smaller more nimble this summer. lp85/hp100 SM tanks and stages. I started working out specifically for this dive Jan 1.
Locally in OW I'll still be diving doubles. I don't wanna be a one trick pony
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
Joshua Smith wrote:Yeah, kinda figured. I think its cool, though. You're working with Nadwiny and Tomblin on this, right?
Brian N, his regular buddy John1, Kevin D from SFO, and a different John2 who was one of the original 1990 explorers. So 4 or 5 of us. Brian and John1 probably have the best chance to push the EOL since they will switch to CCR once we get to the area where it goes down. But I'm honestly not sure how they are going to get a KISS and a rEvo back in there. Kevin and I are diving OC SM and will be happy to find a swimmable bypass around the huge dry area and just get to the EOL. The line gets blown out every winter so its not like that won't be adventure enough. Its wicked cold and very hard on gear back in there.
Dave T. has dove the system but he's doing his own thing. I am not sure he's been past the big dry area or not.
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
CaptnJack wrote:I have 4 hp100 singles right now. All right hand valves.
2x 3/4" necked Worthington's 2x 7/8" necked PSTs. I broke apart some AL80 doubles this past summer and have 2x left handed 3/4" valves. I will swap those onto the Worthington's to have 2 left hand 100s and 2 right hand PST 100s. The PSTs have to be on the right since I don't have any left handed 7/8" valves. I suppose I could buy one but seems silly and they are really expensive. And all 11 of my AL80s will also have proper right handed valves for use as stages.
....
Late to the party (as usual), but would these work for you?
I have a few PST 100's and have toyed with the idea of picking up a matching pair for myself. I just haven't looked far enough into it to determine if the appropriate manifolds are still available.
CaptnJack wrote:I have 4 hp100 singles right now. All right hand valves.
2x 3/4" necked Worthington's 2x 7/8" necked PSTs. I broke apart some AL80 doubles this past summer and have 2x left handed 3/4" valves. I will swap those onto the Worthington's to have 2 left hand 100s and 2 right hand PST 100s. The PSTs have to be on the right since I don't have any left handed 7/8" valves. I suppose I could buy one but seems silly and they are really expensive. And all 11 of my AL80s will also have proper right handed valves for use as stages.
....
Late to the party (as usual), but would these work for you?
I have a few PST 100's and have toyed with the idea of picking up a matching pair for myself. I just haven't looked far enough into it to determine if the appropriate manifolds are still available.
Mike
Thanks for the link. I think I figured out the tank situation. For now I had to put proper left and right valves on the 3/4" neck Worthingtons. The plugged off 'post' where the isolator bar would go is actually pretty important to making the razor's neck bungie work correctly.
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
Jeanna and Lundy both left their camera's at home today. But I surprised them with decent vis in the lake
So there's no footage of me, the landing craft, the BFR we dove, or the 3rd shallow wreck we dropped on. Ce la vie
Diving the razor is really NBD. Gearing up standing in shallow water is also NBD. Gearing up floating on the surface is a royal pita. Hp100s are heavy SOBs hanging on gear lines and finding the rear dring with hands frozen in 43F water is ugly. Takes friggin forever to sort all that crap out losing thermal units all the time. Of course PhD Lundy was the smart one, he dove a single tank.
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
CaptnJack wrote:Jeanna and Lundy both left their camera's at home today. But I surprised them with decent vis in the lake
So there's no footage of me, the landing craft, the BFR we dove, or the 3rd shallow wreck we dropped on. Ce la vie
Diving the razor is really NBD. Gearing up standing in shallow water is also NBD. Gearing up floating on the surface is a royal pita. Hp100s are heavy SOBs hanging on gear lines and finding the rear dring with hands frozen in 43F water is ugly. Takes friggin forever to sort all that crap out losing thermal units all the time. Of course PhD Lundy was the smart one, he dove a single tank.
The issue I've had gearing up shore diving is that the sound is not usually so nice and calm as the lake. Trying to manage my fins, and both bottles while the waves are tossing everything around is kind of a pain. Underwater I like it, gearing up/down I'm not in love with it.
Haven't tried gearing up from a gear line yet, but I did do the superman thing where you swing them out in front of you with 2x100's, and that's fun to try to do and maintain trim....
Get some video!
"Screw "annual" service,... I get them serviced when they break." - CaptnJack (paraphrased)
"you do realize you're supposed to mix the with water and drink it, not snort the powder directly from the packet, right? " - Spatman
CaptnJack wrote:Gearing up floating on the surface is a royal pita.
Why are you gearing up floating on the surface? Clip the tanks, attach/route your hoses, and backroll into the water. Then attach bungees and clean up if necessary.
Alternatively, drop the right tank on a line to 5-6' under the surface, and backroll in with the left tank attached. Then drop down to the other tank and finish donning there.
CaptnJack wrote:Gearing up floating on the surface is a royal pita.
Why are you gearing up floating on the surface? Clip the tanks, attach/route your hoses, and backroll into the water. Then attach bungees and clean up if necessary.
Alternatively, drop the right tank on a line to 5-6' under the surface, and backroll in with the left tank attached. Then drop down to the other tank and finish donning there.
Well, after personally watching the 3-ring circus a few times now, I can say that your suggestion wouldn't be nearly as entertaining to watch
CaptnJack wrote:Gearing up floating on the surface is a royal pita.
Why are you gearing up floating on the surface? Clip the tanks, attach/route your hoses, and backroll into the water. Then attach bungees and clean up if necessary.
Alternatively, drop the right tank on a line to 5-6' under the surface, and backroll in with the left tank attached. Then drop down to the other tank and finish donning there.
The razor doesn't have a "hard" neck attachment like you use on the Nomad. There's just the neck bungie which is non-load bearing out of the water. In fact if you compare the razor with the nomad you'll see that tanks with the razor are WAY further up in your armpit as its just neck bungie holding that end of the tank. I can add another clip to the neck but the chest drings are quite cluttered already. On the left chest I have a backup light clip, the power inflator clip, and tank neck bungie clip. On the right I have backup light clip, lighthead (when clipped off), long hose (when clipped off), neck bungie clip. While Bogaerts does mention using a boltsnap girth hitched around the neck if you want something to hold the tank in the dry, adding another clip onto the chest dring is something I would prefer to avoid. He helmet mounts his backups so his chest is less cluttered than mine.
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
CaptnJack wrote:Gearing up floating on the surface is a royal pita.
Why are you gearing up floating on the surface? Clip the tanks, attach/route your hoses, and backroll into the water. Then attach bungees and clean up if necessary.
Alternatively, drop the right tank on a line to 5-6' under the surface, and backroll in with the left tank attached. Then drop down to the other tank and finish donning there.
The razor doesn't have a "hard" neck attachment like you use on the Nomad. There's just the neck bungie which is non-load bearing out of the water. In fact if you compare the razor with the nomad you'll see that tanks with the razor are WAY further up in your armpit as its just neck bungie holding that end of the tank. I can add another clip to the neck but the chest drings are quite cluttered already. On the left chest I have a backup light clip, the power inflator clip, and tank neck bungie clip. On the right I have backup light clip, lighthead (when clipped off), long hose (when clipped off), neck bungie clip. While Bogaerts does mention using a boltsnap girth hitched around the neck if you want something to hold the tank in the dry, adding another clip onto the chest dring is something I would prefer to avoid. He helmet mounts his backups so his chest is less cluttered than mine.
A couple of times I neck clipped mine and just walked to the water wearing both tanks. Then I unclipped the necks and wrapped the bungee over the tanks in the water. Worked OK, but the dangling boltsnap is less than ideal.
"Screw "annual" service,... I get them serviced when they break." - CaptnJack (paraphrased)
"you do realize you're supposed to mix the with water and drink it, not snort the powder directly from the packet, right? " - Spatman
I also found my midwater ascent a bit rough. This is partially due to not being in the water since Oct. due to back surgery but also due to the fact that I can't use the power inflator to dump the bat wing. In my normal rigs I use the butt dump for coarse/major bouyancy adjustments and the power inflator for finer adjustments. The batwing I can only dump from the butt. And since the dump faces up there's alot of water in the wing too. Having a lot of water in there and so far away from my ear its hard to tell how much I am dumping.
I have considered using a loop of cord around the neck with a temporary double ender as a dry side connection.
But I didn't buy this rig for OW lake diving - boat or otherwise. For instance its not easy to access thigh pockets for wetnotes or SMBs. Bogaerts uses a butt pocket for these which avoid the keyholing issues of SM tanks and thigh pockets, but that is unpleasant to reclip with cold hands, gloves and weight attached (weights are placed very near and partially on top of the square cut drings where the pocket attaches. Really I only bought this rig for a specific sumpy cave and I'm just goofing off with it off and on until August. With any luck I will be using it for a week in some FL caves next month or maybe in April. But even those are are just caves with a nerd gate (restriction at the opening then big after that).
At least yesterday, single tank was the way to go. SM hp100s is completely overkill BS in 80ffw.
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
CaptnJack wrote:Jeanna and Lundy both left their camera's at home today. But I surprised them with decent vis in the lake
So there's no footage of me, the landing craft, the BFR we dove, or the 3rd shallow wreck we dropped on. Ce la vie
Diving the razor is really NBD. Gearing up standing in shallow water is also NBD. Gearing up floating on the surface is a royal pita. Hp100s are heavy SOBs hanging on gear lines and finding the rear dring with hands frozen in 43F water is ugly. Takes friggin forever to sort all that crap out losing thermal units all the time.
CaptnJack wrote:Jeanna and Lundy both left their camera's at home today. But I surprised them with decent vis in the lake
So there's no footage of me, the landing craft, the BFR we dove, or the 3rd shallow wreck we dropped on. Ce la vie
Diving the razor is really NBD. Gearing up standing in shallow water is also NBD. Gearing up floating on the surface is a royal pita. Hp100s are heavy SOBs hanging on gear lines and finding the rear dring with hands frozen in 43F water is ugly. Takes friggin forever to sort all that crap out losing thermal units all the time.
HTFU. All I am hearing is whining.
It was 43F in the lake, where were you?
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
CaptnJack wrote:Jeanna and Lundy both left their camera's at home today. But I surprised them with decent vis in the lake
So there's no footage of me, the landing craft, the BFR we dove, or the 3rd shallow wreck we dropped on. Ce la vie
Diving the razor is really NBD. Gearing up standing in shallow water is also NBD. Gearing up floating on the surface is a royal pita. Hp100s are heavy SOBs hanging on gear lines and finding the rear dring with hands frozen in 43F water is ugly. Takes friggin forever to sort all that crap out losing thermal units all the time.
HTFU. All I am hearing is whining.
It was 43F in the lake, where were you?
At home. With the heating on. Actually, doing a few reconnaissance laps of your favorite dive site. Made it almost 30 mins.
CaptnJack wrote:Jeanna and Lundy both left their camera's at home today. But I surprised them with decent vis in the lake
So there's no footage of me, the landing craft, the BFR we dove, or the 3rd shallow wreck we dropped on. Ce la vie
Diving the razor is really NBD. Gearing up standing in shallow water is also NBD. Gearing up floating on the surface is a royal pita. Hp100s are heavy SOBs hanging on gear lines and finding the rear dring with hands frozen in 43F water is ugly. Takes friggin forever to sort all that crap out losing thermal units all the time.
HTFU. All I am hearing is whining.
It was 43F in the lake, where were you?
At home. With the heating on. Actually, doing a few reconnaissance laps of your favorite dive site. Made it almost 30 mins.
30mins? HTFU that's barely a dive.
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
with water and drink it, not snort the powder directly from the packet, right? 
" - Spatman
