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SSiiiddeemmoouunntt,,, TTeecchhnniiiccaall aanndd WWrreecckk DDiiivviiinngg EEqquuiiippmmeenntt 0 | P a g e ©Andy Davis 2015 www.scubatechphilippines.com Andy Davis First Published 2015

Copyright Andy Davis

Photography, illustrations and text by Andy Davis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission of the publisher.

All registered trademarks acknowledged.

This publication is not intended to be used as a substitute for appropriate dive training. Diving is a dangerous sport and proper training should only be conducted under the safe supervision of an appropriate, active, diving instructor until you are fully qualified, and then, only in conditions and circumstances which are as good or better than the conditions in which you were trained.

Technical scuba diving should be taught by a specialized instructor with training credentials and experience at that level of diving. Careful risk assessment, continuing education and skill practice may reduce your likelihood of an accident, but are in no means a guarantee of complete safety.

This publication assumes a basic understanding of diving skills and knowledge. It should be used to complement the undertaking of prerequisite training on the route to enrolling upon technical diving training.

Contents Sidemount BCD ...... 2 Sidemount Regulators ...... 3 Cylinder Bands and Hose Retainers ...... 5 Fins ...... 6 Technical Dive Computer ...... 7 Mask ...... 8 Wetsuit ...... 9 Gloves ...... 9 Primary Reels ...... 10 Finger Spools ...... 11 Lights ...... 12 Technical Primary Light ...... 12 Technical Back-Up Light ...... 14 Equipment Stowage ...... 15 Dive Ancillaries ...... 15 Spares and Repairs...... 18

A Primer for Sidemount - Technical Diving Equipment Considerations

I wrote this equipment primer to help you select and configure the optimal gear prior to your sidemount/technical/wreck training. My advice and recommendations reflect my own personal approach to sidemount technical wreck diving; which is, in turn, shaped by the conditions that I dive in, my unique goals and personal preferences shaped by decades of advanced diving.

There is more than one way to approach sidemount configuration and you are encouraged to investigate options and alternatives for yourself. This is especially true if you primarily dive in a cold-water environment, not the tropics.

That said, there is a lot of sub-optimal diving equipment on the market; and some equipment philosophies that don’t stand up to experienced scrutiny or in-water testing. If in doubt, do contact me directly and we can discuss your personal needs. Cheers, Andy

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Sidemount BCD There are many sidemount BCDs on the market. Quality, functionality and appropriateness to environment/activity vary between the models on offer. The main considerations when selecting a Sidemount system are the necessary lift, redundant buoyancy and the amount of weight/bulk that you can tolerate. Those three factors are primarily determined by whether you will be using the system for recreational or technical diving; and whether you will be diving in cold water with steel tanks or warm water with aluminum tanks.

There are two dominant ‘styles’ of Sidemount BCD; heavy-weight cold-water rigs and lightweight, minimalist warm water rigs. For diving in SE Asia, the warm-water rigs are more than sufficient. They have the added benefits of being very lightweight for travel and lower profile for confined overhead environment diving.

Recommended Options:

 XDeep Stealth 2.0, Tec and Rec (redundant buoyancy options pending)  Razor 2.0 (oral-inflate redundant buoyancy)  UTD Z-Trim (no redundant buoyancy)  Aquamundo (no redundant buoyancy)  Apeks WSX-25 (no redundant buoyancy)

Please note that PADI TecRec course standards require redundant buoyancy for Tec45 and above. If your Sidemount system does not include redundant buoyancy, then you will need to address that deficit by either wearing a drysuit or adding a supplementary bladder (for instance, a 10l MSR hydration bladder with oral inflate).

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Sidemount Regulators Regulators are a critical part of any diving system, but especially so with sidemount diving. Hose routing is a critical factor in making Sidemount effective, comfortable and to reduce task loading; so your choice and configuration of regulators plays an important role in the core of your system.

Regulator 1st stages should be configured with a rotating barrel and an ‘end’ port (or ‘5th port’). For technical diving, they must be balanced design, reliable and deliver copious gas. The 2nd stages should be lightweight, sturdy and reliable. You will need to source custom length/sidemount specific hoses to configure your system optimally. Rubber, not nylon/Kevlar hoses are preferable – especially on the long 2m hose. The basic layout is as follows:

Right Side Regulator (as worn):

 2nd Stage on a 2m rubber hose  Small boltsnap attached by zip-tie to hose near 2nd stage  Small, bare (metal/glass) SPG on 6” rubber or nylon hose  9” Low Pressure hose for DRYSUIT ONLY (if used) on 5th Port

Right Side Regulator (as worn):

 36” rubber regulator hose (with rubber necklace)  9” Low Pressure Inflator hose, rubber or nylon, on 5th port  Small, bare (metal/glass) SPG on 6” rubber or nylon hose

Recommended Options:

 Scubapro Mk25 1st Stages with S600 2nd Stages  Apeks  Hog  UTD  Halcyon

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These are my primary sidemount cylinders configured with ScubaPro Mk25 1st Stages and S600 2nd Stages.

You can see that the left side (as worn) cylinder is set-up with the 1st stage horizontal. The 9” Low Pressure Inflator hose routes out from the end (5th port) of the 1st stage – to directly connect into the inflator mechanism that routes across my chest from the left side.

Note the bungee necklace on the 36” regulator hose.

Here you can see the routing of the sidemount hoses, as worn.

The short hose routes directly up and around the neck, stowed in the bungee necklace.

The long hose is is stowed under the cylinder bungees with sufficient length deployed to hog loop the neck and reach the mouth.

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Cylinder Bands and Hose Retainers You will need cylinder bands and hose retainers for each cylinder you use; primary, deco and/or stage. There are three main choices for cylinder bands: Cam-Bands, Mini-Cam-Bands and Worm Screw Bands.

I recommend using worm screw bands as they are more secure, less likely to get entrapped in the overhead environment, lighter and less bulky to travel. The only downside is that you need a screwdriver to change them between cylinders.

When shopping for 316 stainless steel, worm-screw, cylinder bands, please note the following sizes:

Pony - 4.50”/11cm diameter fits AL-13, AL-19, Luxfer AL-30 Deco - 5.25 “/14cm diameter fits AL-30, AL-40, LP-45, LP-50 Primary - 7.25”/18cm diameter fits LP-72, LP-80, AL-80, HP-80, LP-85, HP-100 X-Large - 8.00”/20cm diameter fits LP-95, AL-100, LP-104, HP-119, HP-130

You can cover the cylinder band with 1”/2.5cm tubular nylon webbing, if you like. This helps protect the metal and also your exposure suit against wear and tear. You will need length to match the diameter of the bands.

Use a short loop of 440 cord to attach a medium sized (3.75”/9.5cm) 316 stainless steel boltsnap (the type with a large ‘eye’ on the swivel).

To retain hoses on the cylinder, I recommend making some simple loops of 6mm bungee. Allow 3 per cylinder for primaries, 2 per cylinder for deco tanks. This is a cheap and long-lasting alternative to commercially manufactured hose retainers.

Deco and stage cylinders also require a 440 parachute cord ‘choker’ with a medium sized (3.75”/9.5cm) 316 stainless steel boltsnap to fit around each cylinder neck.

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Fins Technical and overhead environment diving demands fins that primarily provide control and maneuverability. They should offer sufficient thrust/propulsion to overcome water resistance and propel a fully equipped sidemount / technical diver in the water and deal with moderate-strong current if necessary.

The main characteristic of technical/overhead environment fins is precision control. This is generally provided through a rigid, short design. Highly flexible and/or split fin designs provide efficient forward thrust, but offer too little stiffness for fine-control maneuvers; like the helicopter turn and back- kick. Whist these propulsion techniques can be learned over time in any type of fins, choosing an inappropriate fin will significantly hinder your progress, performance and degree of improvement during the limited time-scale of the training course.

Fins should be equipped with spring or bungee heel straps to reduce chance of failure, reduce task-loading when donning/doffing the fins and reduce the opportunity for entanglement on lines.

Fins should offer suitable buoyancy characteristics such as to promote effective trim in the water. In back-mount diving; heavy, negatively buoyant rubber ‘jet fins’ are a predominant and popular choice. However, in sidemount fin buoyancy is much more important, as significantly negatively buoyant fins can play havoc on attaining good horizontal trim. For that reason, many experienced sidemount divers have moved away from jet fins, towards more neutral fins.

Recommended Options:

 Force Fins Pro  UTD N (Neutral)  Hollis F2

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Technical Dive Computer For technical diving classes, the student has the option to use bottom-timers (x2) with pre-calculated tables or dive computer (x2 or x1 as back-up to bottom timer/tables). For recreational-level classes any modern dive computer will be suitable.

Buhlmann ZHL-B/C with Gradient Factors or VPM-B are suitable algorithms that allow functionality for the user to adjust and tailor the algorithm calculated dive profile. They are also included on many laptop/mobile-based dive planning applications – allowing the student to pre-calculate dive profiles with precision expectation of their computer’s behavior on the dive.

If using a recreational dive computer as a bottom-timer, do ensure that the computer has a fully functioning ‘bottom timer’ mode. Not all computers have this and ‘freedive mode’ is too limited for technical diving use. The computer must provide you with depth, time and ascent speed for the duration of the dive; but not calculate an NDL or deco.

The following computers are proven effective for technical diving use; assuming they are appropriately loaded with technical diving software (whether ‘off-the-shelf’ or paid upgrade etc).

Suggestions:

 Shearwater Petrel & Predator  XDeep Black  Liquivision X1 & Xeo  Heinrich Weikamp OSTC 2/3

Uwatec bottom timers remain a ‘classic’ and popular choice for those not wishing to invest in a fully functional technical computer. Many recreational dive computers also have a ‘Gauge Mode’, but not all. ‘Free-Diving’ mode is not suitable for use a bottom-timer. For other computers / manufacturers, please contact me to discuss suitability.

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Where possible, mount the computer on bungees for wearing on the forearm. For technical diving, I prefer to wear one computer on each arm. This provides an ensured view of critical information even when I am constricted moving cylinders through restrictions inside wrecks etc. Some agencies prefer to mount both devices on the right arm; as they can be illuminated by the primary light (held in the left hand) and viewed when using a DPV scooter.

Mask Masks are generally a matter of personal choice with fit and comfort. As a general principle, masks for advanced level diving are low-volume; which eases the process of mask clearing. Some masks offer a greater field-of- vision, which is a bonus to situational awareness and equipment control (downwards slanting lenses allow you to see more of your torso).

Fit your mask with a velcro and neoprene mask strap. These are unlikely to ever fail; and make mask removal and replacement much easier.

Recommended Options:

 Hollis M1  Cressi Big Eyes (and derivatives)  Mares X-Vision (and derivatives)

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Wetsuit Full exposure protection is strongly recommended for technical and wreck diving. A full wetsuit protects against cuts and abrasions when diving on/in rusted wrecks. Technical and sidemount dives can much longer in duration than recreational dives; meaning the diver inevitably gets colder, especially when static during lengthy decompression. Training dives of 90 minutes are not uncommon on my courses. Deeper technical dives might also pass beyond several levels of thermocline, where significantly lower temperature may be experienced at bottom depth.

The water temperature in Subic varies from 26 Celsius (winter) to 31 Celsius (summer). Use this to determine your requirements and err on the side of caution when selecting a suitable degree of warmth. Getting cold on dives is a predisposing factor for DCS, so ‘toughing it out’ is not acceptable.

Most divers are comfortable in a 3mm full suit, but if prone to getting cold, do consider getting a 5mm full suit (or thicker). Another option is to supplement your existing wetsuit with a neoprene hooded under-vest or Sharkshin / 4th Element Thermocline type upper-torso under-garment.

Overhead environment diving can be arduous on your exposure protection; causing abrasion damage. A neoprene wetsuit is more hard-wearing than the fabric-type exposure suits (Sharksin, 4th Element Thermocline etc), which are likely to get ragged after a few dives inside the wrecks.

Gloves I strongly recommend wearing gloves to protect the hands during overhead and technical diving. The best gloves that I have found are ‘3M Comfort Grip, offering high dexterity, excellent protection and a good grip on polished metal. These are available in most large hardware stores and cost approx $5 a pair.

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Primary Reels Your primary reel should be a ‘side-handle’ design. These are less prone to entanglement and easier to use. They also permit the use of hand-mounted (soft or hard Goodman handle) torches whilst deploying and retrieving the line.

In my experience, top-handle reels are much more likely to become un- recoverably tangled. The reason for this is the wide tolerance between the side of the reel and the handle. This issue has caused students to fail training dives before.

The primary reel should contain a minimum of 400 Feet (120 meters) of, at least, #24 thickness braided line.

Suggestions:

 Light Monkey 400’ +  Tecline 400  Halcyon Pathfinder 400’ +  DIR Zone 120m or 200m reel  Hollis Jr Seeker Reel 400’  Agir-Brokk 130m reel

*Locally made side- handle reels, of good quality, are usually in stock in Subic.

Cost 3500php.

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Finger Spools Finger spools for penetration and deploying DSMBs should have a capacity 30m/100ft. For safety or jump reels, they should have 20m or greater.

Spools vary in quality and price; cheap and economical are different terms. They are available from primary branded scuba manufacturers and generic/unbranded. I encourage you to find economical spools because they are, quintessentially, a disposable item; especially in overhead environment diving.

When selecting a finger spool, consider and test the following factors;

 Quality of the line. Some spools contain low quality nylon line, which kinks and twists during winding. The line should be flexible and tough. There are also some spools on the market that use very thin or flat line; this is acceptable for cave environments, but may be insufficient for use inside rusty wrecks. The minimum line thickness should be #24.

 Over-loaded line. The line should not completely fill the spool, as this makes winding in/out problematic. Select a spool that has generously sized ‘lips’ in relation to the volume of line that it contains. Otherwise, you will only have to remove some of the line to prevent the overloading (and thus, reduce the ‘range’ of your spool).

 Size / Location of Clip Holes. Holes are added to the sides of finger spools so that you can clip your bolt-snap to them. Some spools have under-sized holes, or they are too far from the lip of the reel. This will cause you to struggle when removing / replacing the bolt-snap. It can also make the bolt-snap more prone to disengaging and causing the spool to drop off. If possible, test the spool with a bolt-snap to confirm that the holes are suitably placed and sized.

 Bolt-Snap Material. Choose spools that are sold with marine-grade 316 stainless steel bolt-snaps. Brass snaps get ‘snaggy’ after a while and you might have to replace them.

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Lights You do not necessarily require lights for open-water diving, but increased depth or low-visibility on technical dives can make carrying lights a prudent option. For overhead environment diving, lights are mandatory. At recreational level, you will need 2x lights (back-up lights are sufficient). At technical level, you will require 3x lights; a primary light and two back-up lights.

The primary light must be fitted to a ‘Goodman’ handle (soft or hard), so that you retain use of the hand during the dive. Goodman handles are sometimes supplied with torches or as optional extras. Or you can make your own basic version out of webbing and bungee (see my blog for instructions).

Technical Primary Light The primary light must have sufficient brightness and duration to last double the duration of the planned dive/s. It should have a tight, focused beam (<10 degree) for the purpose of clear signaling. Wider-angle lights may be suitable for recreational night diving, or as video lights, but hinder light signaling for penetration and technical diving.

Wreck environments are typically smaller and more turbid than cave environments, so the huge capacity canister lights popular with cave divers are sometimes overkill for wrecks. Very powerful lights can actually cause complications as there is too much backscatter inside the wreck.

Photograph of a student showing a home-made soft goodman handle to mount back-up light. It was used on a recreational wreck course.

Materials are approx 6-8” of surplus nylon webbing & 12” of 3mm bungee.

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An increasing number of canister torches are now available specifically for sidemount diving. These have a 90-degree connector between the cord and the battery.

Recommendations:

 Light Monkey LED 12w Canister Light  Light Monkey LED 9w Canister Light  Dive Rite LX25 Canister Light  Dive Rite RX17 Canister Light  HOG Morph 1000 Core-Spot Canister Light  Light For Me NW7 Canister Light  Light For Me 4Tec Canister Light  Halcyon Focus Canister Light  Finnsub Finn Light Long 750 Black Ring Canister Light  Finnsub Finn Light Long 1400 Smart Canister Light

Your primary light does not need to be a canister light. Improvements in LED and battery technology is now producing a latest generation of handheld lights that can function as primary lights for all but the most ‘expeditionary’ of cave explorations.

Handheld Primaries

 IST 1000 Lumen LED Canister Light  Halcyon Flare Handheld Primary  Halcyon EOS Mini LED Handheld Primary  Light For Me 4XPG Handheld Primary

Some technical back-up lights are also now approaching a level of performance where they may be adequate for easy to moderate technical wreck penetrations.

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Technical Back-Up Light There should be two back-up lights for technical overhead environment dives. Traditionally, back-up torches always used replaceable batteries for reliability; but modern rechargeable batteries are now becoming more acceptable. The burn-time of the back-up torch should be twice the planned dive length.

Back-up lights may be acceptable as primary lights for recreational overhead environment dives; or even for some limited range technical wreck penetrations. Some high-quality back-up torches have more than sufficient illumination for technical wreck penetrations; but may be limited in burn- time.

I have seen many generic/Chinese-made type back-up torches available to buy. Some were of acceptable quality. However, some of these torches also proved unacceptable in reliability or burn-time. If you wish to use a generic type torch, please do adequately test and confirm it in advance of training.

Back-up lights are stored on the harness chest straps (for back-mount) or on a helmet, or in the ‘bum-bag’ for Sidemount. Overhead environment courses have performance standards for deploying back-up lights within a time limit.

Recommendations:

 HOG Morph Back-Up  DRIS Impact Stubby  Light Monkey Levellan 3W LED  DRIS Mini G 600  Light Monkey Rat Light Jr 2W  Dive Rite BX-1 LED  Hollis LED 6  SeaLife Sea Dragon Mini 600  UTD Viz 15  I-Torch LED Tek  Underwater Kinetics SL3  Halcyon HP Scout LED  UK Mini Q40 eLED Plus

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Equipment Stowage Currently, the optimal method for stowing ancillary and emergency equipment on Sidemount is to use a ‘butt pocket’. Some systems, such as the Razor and Aquamundo, are delivered with these pockets. Other brands may offer pockets as an optional extra. The pockets clip to the rear-waist D-rings by way of two double-ender bolt-snaps.

Thigh pockets can be problematic with Sidemount, as they can cause the tanks to ‘A-frame’ away from the lower torso. The location of the cylinders, especially if extra deco/stage cylinders are carried, also makes it very hard to access thigh pockets.

Dive Ancillaries DSMB. Deployment of a Delayed Surface Marker Buoy features on most of my courses. My recommendation is for a oral/LPI inflate buoy. The size/volume of the buoy is dictated by the conditions/locations where you will use it. A longer buoy is necessary in strong currents (further distance potentially travelled from boat) and high waves (buoy must be taller than waves). Inside Subic Bay, we have little current or waves; so a small 3ft DSMB is acceptable. Offshore dives might require a bigger buoy.

I remove any plastic clips, Velcro etc from the DSMB and replace it with a loop of 3mm bungee to keep it secure and rolled up. I fit a small/medium bolt-snap onto the bungee. The DSMB is stowed on my rear butt D-ring, along with a large capacity (30m) finger spool.

Spare DSMB. The primary DSMB should be orange colored. The back-up DSMB should be yellow. This corresponds with European tech diving protocols for signaling emergencies whilst still submerged. Consider a longer, larger volume DSMB as your spare. Spare DSMB is stowed inside my storage pocket.

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Cutting Devices. For technical and overhead classes, divers must carry at least 2 cutting devices. These should be accessible by either hand and quickly deployable. My recommended solution is to put an Eezycut Trilobite line- cutter on each forearm (mounted on computer/compass bungees). I will carry a third task-specific cutting device, if necessary, in my storage pouch; a set of shears if metal wiring poses an entanglement hazard inside wrecks, or a heavy-duty, serrated knife if I need to deal with thick rope.

Wet Notes. These are the optimal method for carrying and communicating detailed information during the dive. They are stowed in your butt pouch until needed. These store your back-up dive plans (if not using 2x computers) and can record detailed notes. You can also tear out pages to leave messages on guidelines etc.

Wrist Slate. These are nice way to carry your dive plan (and contingency plans) where they are easy to read and keep your hands free on ascent. Remove the pencil. Choose a slate with simple ‘bungee’ for opening/closing, not the ones that use ‘o-rings’ (which break). Plans can be written onto the slate using a Sharpie permanent marker onto white or yellow duct tape. Peel off the tape after the dive. For extra security, cover the written plan in a layer of transparent tape.

Bolt-Snaps. Carry two large 316 stainless steel bolt-snaps in your storage pocket. These can be used with cylinder chokers for water entries with the cylinders in place; or for emergency connection of upper or lower cylinder attachments.

Line Arrows. For Intermediate – Advanced overhead environment courses, carry 8+ line arrows. They should be stored on a 4” length of (3/16”/0.5cm) medical latex tube attached to a small bolt-snap. When not in use, these are stowed inside the storage pouch. If available, also equip with 2x circular cookies and/or 2x Referencing Exit Markers (REM). Also carry a handful of plastic clothes pegs, for attaching notes etc onto guidelines.

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Spare Mask. For overhead environment or technical dives, equip with a low- volume back-up mask. This should also be fitted with a velco-neoprene strap. The mask should be frameless and fold flat in storage. It should be stowed in the equipment pouch.

Suggestions:

 Atomic 2 Frameless  OMS Frameless  Dive Rite ES155 Frameless  Scubapro Frameless

Zip-Ties. Carry at least 8x long zip-ties in your storage pouch.

Tank Chokers. Chokers are used to provide a robust attachment point (via double-end bolt snaps) for the top of the cylinder. This is used for water entries when wearing the cylinders; or as a quick-fix if your cylinder bungee fails. Chokers are simply a knotted length of 440 cord, with sufficient circumference to fit around the neck of the cylinder (put in place over the valves).

Hex Tool or Small Screwdriver. I recommend keeping a 316 stainless steel Hex Multi Tool, or a small 2” flat-head screwdriver in your equipment pouch, so that you can make adjustments to your cylinder bands whilst in-water (and as a spare for the screwdriver in your dry bag for swapping tanks etc on the boat). Attatch to a loop of 440 cord so you can clip it on. The ‘Bestdivers’ Hex Mutli-Tool has 13, 14, 15 & 17mm wrench fittings and 4, 5, 6 & 8mm allen key fittings.

316 Stainless Hex Multi Tool.

Useful for in-water adjustments to the cylinder bands, or to remove/replace hoses on the boat etc

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Spares and Repairs It’s important that you can keep your gear working or make adjustments/modifications before and after diving. I recommend bringing the following as part of your tool kit.

 Duct Tape. 1x roll of white or yellow.  Zip Ties. 1x packet of assorted sizes.  6mm Bungee Cord. 6m length.  3mm Bungee Cord. 2m length.  440 Parachute Cord. 2m length.  Leatherman tool. Or similar.  Metric Allen Key Set or Tool.  Lighter. To heat seal webbing/bungee etc.

GGoooodd lluucckk,, ssaaffee ddiivviinngg ……..aanndd sseeee yyoouu ssoooonn!!

AAnnddyy

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