Will, you're new here, aren't you? After your head stops hurting from
beating it against the wall, I start to sound reasonable. Up until then, 
what I say makes no sense. After the last couple of weeks, I have been
afraid to ask where you were ( not the market, the diving):) - G


William M. Smithers wrote:
> 
> George, you're scaring me.  This was a reasoned, rational,
> intelligent, and informative reply - the seventh or eighth in a row...What
> the hell has happened over the past few weeks?
> 
> Oh, my TV just blanked out...that's it...I've entered the twilight zone.
> 
> -Will
> 
> On Sun, 9 Nov 1997, G. Irvine wrote:
> 
> > The argon bottle does not interfere with the stages on the left side.
> > If it is on the right, where the light is, you can not reach behind you
> > to untangle yourself. You can reach around the argon botle, or  the
> > light, but not both together. It appears that the bottle would get in
> > the way of stages, but it does not in fact do so. Try putting on your
> > tanks and have somebody hold the argon bottle on the right, and se how
> > much range of motion you have lost.
> >
> >  The bottle needs to be upside down ( so you can reach the valve easily
> > ), it needs to be closer to the bottom of the tanks ( so that it is in
> > the slipstream of the tank and not making its own pushwave, and so that
> > the hose feeds freely below the edge of the wings when they blow up),
> > and it needs to be stable so it does not set up its own drag by moving
> > around.
> >
> >  It is preferable to be able to release it yourself so that if you get
> > keyed in a restriction or stuck on something, it is removeable, just
> > like your light should be. Carmichael makes a great argon bottle holder,
> > but I do not have one. I have two types - one for tight cave, and one
> > for powercave. The tight cave uses hose clamps on the tank to slide
> > smoothly through a restricition, as in Sally Ward, and the rest have
> > webbing.
> >
> >   I use black 1/8" bungee loops to keep the velcro secure, but they
> > easily pull away if I try to remove the straps.
> >
> >   The bottle needs to be a low pressure 2015 bottle with a 3000 burst
> > disk. It needs to be permanently marked "argon", and it should never be
> > filled on a compressor with air. These bottles will let go. The
> > regulator needs a pressure relief valve so that you do not lose your
> > hose or damage your drysuit valve in the event of a first stage failure.
> > The intermediate pressure of the reg needs to be set way low , like 60
> > to 80 psi to keep the action of the inflator very slow ( you anticipate
> > and take the pinch off ) and to buy you some time in the event that the
> > drysuit valve sticks. The inflator hose heed to have a positive release,
> > as in the kind supplied by DUI. For high rollers, commercial
> > quick-dissconnects are the ticket.
> >
> >   I hook everything in front of me and send it back between my legs, so
> > can get my stuff from front or back, but if something gets between my
> > second scooter and my legs, I need to be able to reach it. This is hard
> > with 121'as, easy with 104's. For 121's, you pull your legs into  tuck
> > and get whatever the problem is.
> >
> >   Obviously, the way we work, the buddy would solve problems for you,
> > but thinking of all situations in advance makes this placement correct.
> > We also like to have everyone place gear in an identical fashion so that
> > in the event of a problem, the other divers can deal with it routinely,
> > rather than trying to figure out some new convolution in the middle of
> > an emergency. We do not want to have somebody disconnecting the wrong
> > hose or turning of the wrong valve.
> >
> >   On the rebreathers, Vinnny and JJ are using the argon bottle to hold
> > up their switch blocks ( whc8ih are on the right), and you can not reach
> > behind the 121's with the reabreather anyway. I keep mine on the left
> > with the rebreather because I always do everything the same way so that
> > in a pinch, I can react automaticly - mine stays on the left. I tried
> > other placements but they all resulted in loss of range of motion or an
> > inabiilty to reach the valve. I lay my switchblock hoses over my light
> > and that holds them up. Vin and JJ have a bigger light so that will not
> > work for them. I have a small nicad light which is sitting a couple of
> > inches below the tanks so that the rebreather hoses can get behind it.
> > However, with the rebreather diving we all watch each other so closely
> > that by the time one discovers a problem, the other guy is already
> > fixing it.
> >
> >   The original argon rig from the Gavin days was according to the
> > original Hogarthian thinking, which was that all gear should be easily
> > replaceable at any dive store. Hoses were standeard lengths, etc. I
> > changed that by asking the dive gear manufacturers to make what we need
> > , and now you can buy everything we use right of of the shelf in most
> > places. Dive Rite has all of our hose lengths as standard, for example.
> > What started out as custom gear for me is now stock stuff anywhere.
> >
> >    All of our gear decsions have been thouroughly thought all the way
> > thorugh and we have tried all of the other combinations. Since we are
> > diving a total system, the whole package must be considered dynamicly,
> > not each piece in isolation. That is what the strokes do, and that is
> > why we have the classic "portrait of a stroke" taped to the door of the
> > van, as a reminder of what happens when personal prefrence is placed in
> > front of team safety where people with no clue make life and death
> > decisons over a bowl of Gainesville Red- if you live through it, it is
> > becuase the gear failed and stopped the dive - see the Bible of the
> > Stroke, for 129 examples of this.
> >
> >
> > Jeff Bentley wrote:
> >
> >  >I was jsut playing with my skeet thrower again and came up wtih this
> > one:
> >  >From what I have seen most folks have the argon bottle on their left
> > > side?
> > >
> > > What is the logic behind this?
> > >
> > --
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> >
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