[Roobydoo]

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<font color='#000080'>Greetings all!

I want to progress to twin set diving, and would like to couch some advice on a reasonable set up.  I want to get in to the realms of diving between 40-50m safely, in order to "reach the places some recreational divers cannot go" and appreciate some of the wrecks thus far outside of my reach.

My budget is reasonable, and having read various previous threads on YD, advice is abundant.  People have offered advice on specific aspects of twin sets, but my question is this: -

"What would be a perfectly reasonable twin set configuration, from the choice of wing, regs, ancillaries, hoses etc?  Manifolded or not.. Inversion or not, etc....."

Currently, I am diving on a 12 or 15 with a pony.  I don't intend to travel abroad with wing etc (unless I can be persuaded of the benefits), and so it would be purely for UK diving.

Thanks in anticipation of your advice.

Safe diving all

Regards

Steve  

 

 

 

[chrisch]

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Oh dear...

Time for some silly debates.  I'll get in first.  The reason you give to progress are very sound - that is you need more gas.  Therefore your set up should reflect that simple desire.  Twin 10s or 12s is a good start, as is a 15 with a deco cylinder side mounted (maybe 45m max on that set up).

Regs at this point should be what you have now but set up on a manifold, so maybe you need to buy another first stage.  If you have a long hose you are about there..

Dive with that for a while 'til you find it less than you need and buy accordingly.  Gear doesn't make you a good diver, commonsense experience and good training do that.  You have commonsense if you want extra gas and redundancy below 40m so good for you.

Enjoy the next level.
Chris

 

[Stu Sheridan]

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Quote[/b] (Roobydoo @ April 29 2004,20:41)]"What would be a perfectly reasonable twin set configuration, from the choice of wing, regs, ancillaries, hoses etc?  Manifolded or not.. Inversion or not, etc....."

Hi steve,

I'd reccomend you dive twin 12's @ 232 bar or twin 10's at 300 bar.
Both setups have pros and cons of which I'm sure you are aware. ie. Availability of 300 bar fills vs more gas and smaller cylinders etc.

Wing, lots and lots of choice here. My ideal wing at the moment is the abyss single bladder 80lb wing. Bungied, but inside the bag so acceptable to use in GUE/DIR circles and doesn't flap about all over the place. I use an OMS which I'm more than happy with but hey, the grass is always greener..  

Regs, well I would choose poseidon but you may want to utilise your existing regs. If you dive single and pony you have two already right?

Ancillaries. Much the same as you are now probably. Think of investing in an O2 clean stage cylinder & reg.

Hoses. 2m hose on your primary reg. The rest depends on your choice of regs/kit.

Manifold. Yes. MDE/Agir brokk. Again only MY preferences.

Inversion. No. Unless you need to.

My only other advice is:
If you are not already Nitrox and deco procedure trained, this course(s) would probably be of great relevance to the type of diving you are about to embark upon.

Good luck and let us know what you decide!

Stu.

 

[Roobydoo]

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<font color='#000080'>I am currently Nitrox trained, with IANTD Adv Nitrox booked for later on in the year.  My regs are currently Scubapro Mk25/S550 on main cylinder and Mk20/R380 on pony, on air clean cylinders.  

I understand and appreciate the advice on "use what you have till you need others", but this throws up the old DIN versus A-Clamp fittings debate.

My dream sheet would be to go to Poseidon regs for this reason, but am aware of the cost implications!  

Steve

 

[Rick Huggins]

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<font color='#0000FF'>Incase you go for twin 12's as PressurE mentioned.

You will also require a small punkawalla, from some Papa New Guinean tribe by the name of Bongo Bongo to help you on/off with the twins.

Good luck and happy hunting

 

[Jules]

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You should talk to Andy Hayhurst at Dales Divers. He gave me loads of Advice on what to buy with my latest twinset/wing purchase and he is really helpful. He can also source the gear for you at very competitive prices (I rang around a few places for prices and Andy was way cheaper).
www.dalesdivers.co.uk

 

[Mark Chase]

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As said before much is down to personal taste and stile of diving. That clarified a couple of points from my personal consideration list:


A balanced manifold is preferable to an unbalanced one as the risistance to operation of the knobs does not alter dependent on level of gas fill. MDE is widly beleived to be a good solid choce of manifold. Dont be tempted by cheep alternatives.

Make sure the bands you get match the pitch of the manifold. You might think they are standard but trust me they are not. I have to use a 15ltr manifold on my 12s to match the LB SS bands I have.

If you are opting for a wing then ensure it is easy to configure for twin independant tanks for when you go to the Red Sea and do some of the deeper dives. I ust need two cam bands and I am away. Some of my buddies on the boat last week were not so lucky and one had to rent a twin set because there was no way to rig twin tanks on his wing without SS bands. You might not think it important now but being able to twin up alowed us to do some of the deeper stuff like the arch at Elphenstown and the more hazadous dives like penitrating the engine room on the Aieda and Namibia wrecks.

Having the abuility to add a second bladder is another consideration if you are thinking of doing deep dives in warm water using a wet suit. I have the option but havent bothered yet but this has ment I have to carry a dry suit (in my case 7kg) to places like the Red Sea and Gozo to ensure secondry boyancy options. This can be a PITA.

Apart from that the arguments on which wing/rig/tank size will role on and on so take your best ges and i ave no doubt you will be tinkering and fiddleing for months before you are  90% happy. 100% happy is never acheivable and would be no fun if it were

ATB

Mark Chase

 

[Digger]

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<font color='#000080'>OK, my suggestions. Twin 12 232s will do pretty much anything you want to do at that sort of depth. I've only found a couple of dives where 15s would have been nice, but not necessary.

You want an SS plate, at the moment I'd reccommend a Woz plate, www.kitfondle.co.uk, as they're cheap for what they are and you can get 5mm plates that will be indestructible. Harness on the plate is your preference. I'd suggest one piece for most types of diving, but youc a put breaks in it if you find the one piece hard to deal with.

Wings. Hmmm. I think given my money again I'd probably go for the same. OMS. Twin 12s you'll need about 50lbs lift, which the OMS does nicely. Masiive wings are useful for very big sets, but if you don't need it, don't take it. It'll be some time before a set bigger than twin 12s is necessary. If you don't like the idea of bungeed wings, leave them off. If you do, fine. There's pros and cons for them, I'm not completely decided yet. They're on mine because it's a pain to take them off and realise I want them back on.

On the regs front, you already have 2 1st stages and 2 second stages. You should be able to use those. If you trust them, use them. Get a long hose for one of them. Very useful. If you're thinking about deeper darker diving then you want gear you can trust.

Inverted vs uprights debate will go on for years to come, I'm sure. I like inverts because they do the job for me. Others don't need/want them, that's fine with me, but I won't dive with you if you can't shut down. You're a liability if you can't, you either get inverts, indies, or find another way. There are lots of acceptable ways to get round the problem, or do the exercise and get through the problem. I can shut down, but I choose my tanks inverted because it's twice as fast. So twice as much air saved, so Digger twice as likely to survive it. That'll do me for logic.

Hope this helps. I can see this thread running and running....

Digs.

 

[Digger]

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<font color='#000080'>Just reading my own post. My air consumption isn't bad, if yours is, you may want to think about bigger tanks. 232 is much better than 300 for nitrox and trimix diving as it's easier to blend, worth thinking about becaus you should be diving nitrox at those sorts of depths to make life easier, and you'll need trimix for the bottom end of that scale.

Digs.