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Bill you wrote <<<Instead of promoting gear configurations that *eliminate* unnecessary risk, your statements boil down to "It's OK to dive high risk rigs -- we've done it and we survived." >>> Bill my stance on diving safety and proper training is a matter of record, my question on sidemounts / independants was rhetorical. I do not belive that independant doubles are a high risk rig. In fact its a pretty simple system which works quite well for an experienced diver, or one who has trained on that system. Granted it's not the optimal rig of choice, but it sure works well. Diving sans wings..... that's not a great choice. I like the idea of having surface flotation, but there are some divers right or wrong, that still dive just a plain harness. There is a diving rig which has become the standard for open oecean technical gas diving, Billy Deans shows it on the IANTD equipment video. I use it as do many many many other open ocean divers. Its a slightly different modification of the cave rig adn works quite well. Sometimes manifolded doubles are not available. I learned to dive doubles on independants, the Selpac manifold that was available then just didnt cut it, the USD Navy manifold didn't either. Independants were the choice system. Once Sherwood developed the Isolation Manifold ..... bang....... most of the East Coast went to them. But, I will share with you, that it was all those dives using independants that taught me how to manage gas, and gas usage. To this day, instinctively I will check my second regulator every 1/6th just by habit. Dependancy on any one type of gear configuration is a recipe for disaster. A diver needs to be flexible and smart enough to make the right decisions as they are needed. Someone asked about holding your stops with no bc. My only answer on that is to hang on the the anchor or up line. However if that flooded dry suit is freezing your butt off to the point of hypothermia, blow off the stopps get on the surface and let the crew take care of you with blankets, oxygen and evacuation. Until divers start to realize that strapping on a set of doubles and buying a set of wings does not make a tech/wreck diver we will continue to have accidents. Some fatal other not. Safety is a non-competitive issue. Joel Silverstein Scuba Training + Travel Co. http://www.NitroxDiver.com -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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