Enthusiasm beats knowledge on cylinder rigging?

[Mark Chase]

I sort of went to twins streight away.

Thing is I did about 75 dives in warm clear blue stuff over about 7 years worth of holidays and then I thaught lets give the UK a go. So after about 5 dives in the UK I thaught blimey this is dangerous stuff and I went twin independent cylinders on K valves. Then after about twenty more dives I whent to a full manifolded twin set.  

Now bearing in mind I hadent gone below 30m yet in the UK. It was purley a safety issue. I used to suck air like Gary Glitter at Toys Are Us so I only could manage 30mins on a 20m + dive on a single 12 so I used to dive 15's. The twin set allowed me to go right up to my no decompresion limit and still have loads of air in reserve.

I dive singles overseas but these days ONLY with a pony as back up. If I am doing any thing below 30m I still insist on a twin set even if that meens twin independents.

I have said it before, I see the in litigatious future of diveing, training being carried out with manifolded twin sets. Even if they are twin 7's they are safer than a single any day.

I didnt see the thread but If I replyed to the lad I would aplaud his choice for safety but warn against pushing the envalope of a twin set before he has had the necessary training and experiance.


Mark Chase

[arty93]

I agree with Dave and Mark (and anyone else who thinks its not a bad idea!)
When i learnt to dive (1989) there wasn't much/ any focus on redundancy, even an octopus was greeted with an 'ooh what’s that?' at our club, nobody had one, your only redundant item was your buddy, in an OOA situation buddy breathing was your only option (we practised this a lot!)

After about four years I dived very little and climbed much more (redundancy in anchoring systems is practised by all but the foolish) Last year I got back into diving in a big way and was really surprised to see how much the redundancy idea was being talked about on the net and in magazines, I was quite surprised when at my new club I mentioned I was going to replace my 10 year old stab jacket with a wing and BP most people looked at me as if I was talking a foreign language.

I think it would be great for beginners to be able to start off with wing/bp/twins.
Just because the stab is seen as the norm now doesn’t mean it can’t be replaced in the future. (I remember my first dives using a horsecollar) you don’t see many people using those anymore now do you.
Imagine having the thirds rule and shutdowns as part of your early training, it might take a bit longer but you would be a much safer diver.

paul

<dons flame retardant suit and prepares for backlash>

[Mark]

Me too. I did about 50 warm water dives before venturing into UK waters. My 1st UK dive was my 1st twinset dive and also my dry suit course. After doing a lot of research on the net twins seemed like the obvious choice for UK diving so I went straight for them. I've not looked back

Mark

[jjflash]

I agree with Dave and others that twins/wings are overall a better set up - my only concerns and the key part I picked up in Dave's post was the word 'training'. Yep certainly possible to teach from scratch on twins and why not ? - same goes for CCR arguement as the OC skills are in the main non transferrable. Get good advice and training is the key - as always ?!

Dive safe all
Paul

[Mr T.]

*bump*

[Ferg3333]

I decided to move to twin 12ltrs after 30 dives my primary reason was I knew I would start the gradual progression down the tech route and I would like the extra redundency but what made it crystal clear to me was that after a free flow at stoney in feb at 36m, the first stage had completely frozen up that if shit hits the fan you better be prepared now I dont want to be asked why I was 36m after 30 dives but a lot of experienced was gained it shook me up so now I practise shut downs at least three times on a dive descending, ascending and when swimming through something. Newbies on twins great idea in the UK after they have dived a few times and are keen to try new kit get them on twin 232 7ltrs almost a 15 but a little safer and a lot ligher than twin 12ltr