X-Ray Magazine L Issue 66

tech talk With 23 years of hindsight... Set Theory — A Look at Rigging Options

—The following article is reprinted but got people thinking. Though waist straps using short tethers. from the pioneering American jour- some of the ideas were rejected, Pouches mounted on the waist- nal for technical diving, aquaCORPS, the concept is valid and has been band are used for carrying smaller V4, MIX, January-February 1992. implemented in various ways by items such as a line cutter, slates and members of the community. tables, and line markers. The back Edited by Michael Menduno Equipment is never rigged exter- up second stage regulator is secured Photos courtesy of Lamar Hires, nally on the sides of tanks, and noth- by a piece of surgical tubing that is Bob Janowski, Michael Menduno, ing, in particular the long hose, lies worn around the neck. Tom Morris and Joel Silverstein above the manifold crossover bar. Rigging completed, there is no All split rings are removed so as not substitute for technique. In order Though double (twinset) to create a line trap, and so is any- to protect the cave, diving in small tanks and stage bottles are thing that can foul or break delicate fragile places requires the finesse cave formations; many are more and the brainwork of a techni- generally a requirement than 13,000 years old and can never cal climber. Like their free hanging for most technical diving recover. counter-parts, divers relay on a series operations, diving sets vary The Submersible Pressure Gauge of ‘moves’ rather than brute force. significantly depending on (SPG) is secured to the inside of the And the edge is never more than a wrist as are other instruments. Reels breath and prayer away. the specific application and and back-up lights are rigged to diving environment. Here’s D-rings at the shoulders and as close — E.J. ‘Lalo’ Fiorelli a look at some of the more to the back plate as possible on the Soquel, California common methods of set rigging as practiced today in the “doubles community.” Diving in little places Modern equipment is designed to make diving in an overhead environment as safe as possible. Redundancy is the key to conduct- ing these operations. The question becomes, “How do I rig this?” A few years ago, the Hogarthian Concept—“dive as simple and clean as possible”—was introduced to the underground. Hogarthians had a number of specific ideas, which cre- ated a furor in the cave community, JOEL SILVERSTEIN

Captain Billy Deans—a wreck and technical diver and one of the early pioneers to use trimix for deep diving T. MORRIS

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T. MORRIS Lamar Hires of Dive Rite pioneered sidemount diving in caves. Today, recreational divers have adopted this style of diving and sidemount in open water.

Squeezing by armpit using bungee material (a the dive. The regulator and SPG Originally developed for the tight bicycle inner tube is preferred) so hoses no longer lay across the low visibility sump diving that is that the cylinders are forced to back and instead are clipped LIGHTWEIGHT common in Europe, sidemounts lay parallel to the diver’s body. across the chest area. The man- allowed spelunkers to more easily Adjustments are usually needed agement of these is critical for transport single cylinders through at first to insure a snug comfort- proper monitoring of gas supplies a dry cave to the dive site. able fit. and switching regulators during In North Florida, the use of side- When diving with sidemounts, the dive. CHAMPION mount techniques has allowed gas supplies must be balanced Back-up and emergency (only 2kg) exploration into small silty areas for adequate reserves throughout equipment must be streamlined that were once thought impass- able and has opened up entire new cave systems that were sim- ply inaccessible with back mounted doubles. Sidemounts reduce the strain of carrying heavy doubles up steep inclines, lowering cylinders down into a hole, and making those long walks through the woods to the dive site. Cave systems known to be silty can now be penetrat- ed without heavy silting. Sidemount configuration means D9 BREATHABLE • 4-Layer Breathable Ultra light shell • Flexible TIZIP Master Seal Front zipper • Fabric socks • wearing the cylinders on the hips Quick-Dry • Latex seals • Warm cuffs • SI TECH valves • Telescope Torso • Seam free crotch • instead of the back. The cylinders Fabric socks • Integrated suspenders • Pre-bent knees • Knee reinforcement • Zipper cover are fastened in the middle with a snap to a harness at the waist. www.waterproof.eu The necks are clipped off at the

T. MORRIS

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COURTESY OF M. MENDUNO Jim King (above) about to go in—quads (four cylinders) were often used in conjunction with diver-carried stage bottles where self-sufficiency was the key; Lamar Hires (right) ca 1990, Blue Springs, Tennessee.

T. MORRIS Divers used to bungee in their sidemount cylinders using bike inner tubes. Today, divers use metal clips to secure their sidemount cylinders because these are a more secure method of attachment. and tucked away to achieve the style of set rigging suitable for the methods and mix technology, Quads desired profile—no thicker than cold dark waters of the north and all that is changing. Today, a For long deep exposures, two cylinders that lay along the the available technology. Still well-outfitted high tech wreck particularly those associated diver’s hips. seen on the boats that work the diver carries a pair of cold-filled with expedition-level pushes, Clearly, sidemount diving is Doria, Texas Tower, the Virginia Genesis 120s (14.5 liter) with DIN carrying sufficient gas vol- not for everyone because of the and the San Diego, a typical east crossover manifold and valve pro- umes to do the job becomes potential hazards that exist; low coast wreck diving set consists of tectors, shoulder mounted stage a major operational consid- visibility, line traps and squeezes a pair of double 80s or 95s (10.5 bottles, or ‘wing tanks’, contain- eration. Fortunately, most of that seem to get smaller and or 11.5 liter) or secured to a large ing decompression gas (EAN and these dives are conducted in smaller are only a few of the capacity BCD jacket with a mani- or oxygen)—do you really want to cavernous passageways or obstacles to be overcome. fold system, or commonly two bet your tissues on that cylinder open water where restricted A diver must be totally com- independent regulators, which clipped off to the anchor line? space is not the issue. fortable in all these conditions are rotated throughout the dive. Harness, bag and back plate sys- According quads (four cyl- before considering sidemount as A 40cf (5.5 liter) pony mounted tem, argon inflation system and of inders) are often used in con- an alternative. Suitably equipped, between the doubles serves as a course an upreel. junction with diver-carried divers who are, can usually find a bailout, along with a handmade The result? Wreck divers are stage bottles in order to carry way to squeeze by. upreel (hemp rope wrapped staying down longer, getting sufficient bottom gas, and around a forearm-length alu- more of that first class china, and that required for decompres- — Lamar Hires minum spindle). For the most part, most importantly are doing it sion, where self-sufficiency is Dive Rite, Lake City, Florida stage bottles, typically air, are safer. After all, when you come the key. DPVs are generally something divers leave tied off to right down to it, the most valu- a requirement to overcome the anchor line at 10ft (3m), and able artifact that you’ll ever bring hydrodynamic drag. BOB JANOWSKI China cult oxygen for decompression is still home is yourself. A typical quad set-up Previously isolated from the under- used sparingly, if at all. consists of doubles, often 104s decompression gas; an enriched In addition, divers typically carry ground and fellow wreckers to Now with the advent of larger — Billy Deans (18 liter) with crossover manifold air nitrox and a bottle of oxygen, an 80cf (10.5 liter) bail-out bot- the south, the east coast wreck tanks, harness and manifold sys- Key West Diver, Florida containing bottom mix, mounted each with an independent regu- tle of bottom mix, and a second diving community evolved its own tems, improved decompression to a pair of side tanks containing lator. cylinder of deep nitrox mix (some-

80 X-RAY MAG : 66 : 2015 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO Does this face look familar? It’s a young tech talk Richard Pyle wearing a Cis-Lunar MK2. This unit is the ancestor to Poseidon’s current POSEIDON MKVI and SE7EN. Pyle was part of the development SE7EN team on both these the next Generation rebreathers. rebreather

become a rebreather diver. times air) for decompression—six often in excess of four to Get started by cylinders in all—making the diver six hours—are stiff. relatively self-sufficient. High per- Of course, once clickinG here! formance regulators, such as the closed circuit (C2) tech- Poseidon, are the standard, as nology hits the street, well as double buoyancy com- quads and six plus tank pensator bags. Gas and quad dives will become a relic equipment management are of the past. With a virtu- critical, and takes practice to get ally unlimited gas sup- down. ply in a 50 lbs. (22.7kg) How much gas? An explorer pack, gas won’t be the with a good quad set and stage issue. But then that’s Get closer to bottles can carry just over 600cf technology for you. M. MENDUNO marine life (16,900 liters) of gas. An awful lot until you consider that gas — Michael Menduno closed circuit rebreather will no bubbles consumption in the 300-500ft (90- change the way we think about lonGer dives 150m) range being broached by Futures market diving, blazing a trail for others to leading explorers, will drain an If Dr Bill Stone has his way, we follow. Offering a 13- to 18-hour 80cf (10.5 liter) cylinder in a little may all be taking another breath. heliox gas supply, near optimal over five minutes, and the gas Rated to 300m (meters!!), Cis- decompression, and a fail-safe requirements for decompression— Lunar’s MK-2R fully-redundant systems architecture that would send any self-respecting tekkie into orbit—literally, the MK-2R, now in beta test, is scheduled to make its début sometime in 1992 The tougher issue is whether Cis-Lunar’s initial production run of six units will saturate the market. Considering that IBM first estimated the worldwide market for computers to be only four systems, Stone and his colleagues may not have to worry for long. All they have to do is hang in there. But then that’s exactly what Stone has in mind. Micro- bells anyone? 

A youthful Kevin Gurr acts as dive

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