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In the UK, most diving is done from RIBs (http://www.ribmagazine.com/ribtypes.htm#DIVE RIBS) After the dive, the boat picks you up (been following your surface marker bouy). The normal procedure is to hold onto the boat's grab rail/line with one hand, release your waist strap with the other. (handing up any canister lights etc. to the boat.) Undo Suit inflate. You then slide your other hand under your harness and flick the shoulder strap off. - it is normally quite loose at this time, due to the set being bouyant due to the inflated wing. The set can be then spun around your back, and is held by the arm holding the boat. At this point crew in the boat take hold of the set and lift it aboard. I have built several DIR harnesses for divers in our club who regularly dive off RIBs and all have no problem dekitting. The critical thing to get right, is making sure the shoulder loops aren't too tight - you must be able to place your hand under the harness and shrug it over your elbow and off. On the normal diving charter boats in the UK, You generally kit up and then stride-entry into the water. As the sea conditions can often be described as character building, with winds F5 making the dive platform quite unstable at times. The one piece DIR harness comes into its own. With several deco bottles and a heavy set of doubles on, the last thing you want to happen to you, is the whole rig to fall apart, just as you get up to jump in. It happened to me before I knew any better - I had a heavy set of doubles on with a stage bottle crash to the deck due to the failure of a fastex QR clip. Fortunately my buddy hadn't jumped in, and I was able to repair the clip with tie wraps. When I got back home, I took a knife to the harness (a Custom Divers) and replaced it with a one piece, and haven't looked back since. (I subsequently binned the bungy wing as well) Fastex buckles were never designed to take several hundred pounds of load. Sooner or later they will let you down. regards, Dave > OK, a hawaiin pack is easier. On a one peice harness you take both of >your thumbs, put one in each of your shoulder d-rings and pull them over >your shouders, its that simple. > -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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