woman sidemount question

[tdollarh]

i'm a female cave diver trying to tweak my sidemount rig. i'm currently diving a trans pac, trek wing, nomad style butt plate with DR 15" bungies and steel LP 85's. These are the issues I'm running into...
-when my bands are lower on the tank the tanks are shoved forward causing my guages to cross and makes access to my regs, inflator etc. difficult to get to.
-when I adjust my bands higher on the tank the above problems are improved however my tanks then tend to drag

My issue is that all my advise comes from big guys and I am a smaller gal, narrow chest, smaller torso.

Any suggestions ladies?

[czunderwater]

I am not that experienced with sidemount, but in the beginning I have had some of the same issues you are describing. I solved some using the LP85s, which you already are. The other modification I made is to mount the bungees Armadillo style rather then how they come out of the package on the Nomad. So instead of having the tanks choked to your chest by the bungee clipped to the Dring, you actually have the tanks in line with your chest line and away from the shoulder straps. And I kept the bands lower on the tanks to avoid dragging.
Two instructors I would hilghy recoommend you ask suggestions to are Jill Heinerth and Brian Kakuk.
Hope this helps a little.

[atedeschi]

try using a smaller bolt snap, on your sm tanks, you can also tighten up the cord you attach the boltsnap to the camband with. If that does not work you can move the rails in on the buttplate or you can use those extra large drings that diverite has for their rebreather and attach them to your crotch starp instead of the buttplate. hope this helps.

[Diverlee]

I am not that experienced with sidemount, but in the beginning I have had some of the same issues you are describing. I solved some using the LP85s, which you already are. The other modification I made is to mount the bungees Armadillo style rather then how they come out of the package on the Nomad. So instead of having the tanks choked to your chest by the bungee clipped to the Dring, you actually have the tanks in line with your chest line and away from the shoulder straps. And I kept the bands lower on the tanks to avoid dragging.
Two instructors I would hilghy recoommend you ask suggestions to are Jill Heinerth and Brian Kakuk.
Hope this helps a little.
I also use a bungie system like the Armadillo on my Nomad. Made it easy. I started with an Armadillo. Brian was my SM instructor and he was great.. I struggled for 2 yrs and finally took a class. Wish I had done it sooner.

[scblade27]

The other modification I made is to mount the bungees Armadillo style rather then how they come out of the package on the Nomad.

Do you have a picture of this? No matter what I seem to do with the Nomad the tanks still seem to hang too low. It's not too bad, but I would like to get as streamlined as possible. I have tightened up the bungees to the point where I have bruises under my arms, but the tanks are below the profile of my body. I think its a combination of the bungees forcing the tanks too far forward and the buttplate being too wide to keep the tanks up where they should be.

I saw the manual for the Armadillo, but I'm not sure how that translates to the TransPac

[Moonfuzzy]

I wish I could give decent advise for you here. I never got to a happy place with my sidemount rig. I either get the snow plow affect going (because my hips push the tanks out into a V shape) or I get bruising on my arms from the valves (if they are too far forward).

I have to admit I don't dive sidemount much, at this point mostly when on vacations where I don't have access to doubles.

[RN]

Try repositioning the SPGs so they are pointing down along side your tanks. You will have to pull them up to look at them, but they will be out of the way there. Also, get rig of the butt plate and put your butt d-ring higher up on the crotch strap. Clip the tanks to the d-ring. This will bring them in closer to your body.

[rrosepiler]

You might want to go to the 13" bungees rather then the 15". That might help pull the tanks back some. Also I dont remeber if you wrap but I use the newer method of clipping into the bungee with an XL bolt snap and keeps the bottles right down my side. If you go to Dive Rites website they have an example in the blog Archives that Lamar does. Good Luck.

[skip]

i'm a female cave diver trying to tweak my sidemount rig. i'm currently diving a trans pac, trek wing, nomad style butt plate with DR 15" bungies and steel LP 85's. These are the issues I'm running into...
-when my bands are lower on the tank the tanks are shoved forward causing my guages to cross and makes access to my regs, inflator etc. difficult to get to.
-when I adjust my bands higher on the tank the above problems are improved however my tanks then tend to drag

My issue is that all my advise comes from big guys and I am a smaller gal, narrow chest, smaller torso.

Any suggestions ladies?

I am not a woman, but I am small. I could not figure out these issues until recently. I can not dive long tanks, so dive 95's. I have not tried 85's although people tell me they are better. my faber 95's (LP) and my pst 119's are just fine. My 120's (3442psi) are too long as are the pst 130's.

I have the bands on the 95's near the bottom, maybe two inches from where the begin to round off. but it was not the tanks that were my problem (changing the band placement just moved them up or down in relation to my armpits and did not influence how low they hung).

to make them hang alongside my body, instead of down, I had to find a whole new place for the door handles. indeed, I wound up making my own harness from scratch to fit my "petite" body (petite in height maybe, but this beer gut is sure not petite!).

Anyway I wound up with no door handles, but waist d-rings set just a few inches off my spine on either side, hanging down, not sideways like the front waistband d-ring (where spg goes). If you find the right place and adjust the length of the tank band attachments, the tanks will not A-frame, but hang nicely in line with your torso and thighs. I tried Nomad, Armadillo, John Hancock, etc. but none worked off the shelf.

I used a hand sewing awl (available from West Marine) to sew the d-rings onto the waist band using 2-inch webbing. It's easy to do and easy to remove (single-edge razor blade to cut the seam) and resew to test different positions.

Women are typically smaller from armpit to waist than men (enhancing the long leggy look) and the commercial sidemount rigs do not account for this. I suspect the door handles on the butt plate (pad) could be moved up and inboard and thus duplicate what I'm saying here with sewn d-rings.

-skip

[hudson]

Relative newbie here as well, but I'll offer what I know:

Before going with the excellent advice above, try simply shortening the strings between your tank snapbolts and the bands. That might just do the trick.

Regarding the front-to-back band placement on the tank, you should not use this to streamline the tank, but simply to ensure the valves end up exactly under your armpits. I'm currently diving with SPGs pointing down the tank but after I've cleared my chest/waist area of accessories, front-pointing SPGs stopped being a problem and stay pretty level with my reg layout, so i think it'll work either way.

(Moving the bands may however effect your trim, so you may need to move them up and down a little to fix your trim)

I haven't tried the Armadillo style arrangement (anyone have pics?) but I find with the new clip-to-the-bungee method, the tanks actually hang lower. What happens is the clip (and the valve) slides down the bungee and ends up around my chest d-ring. What helps to keep the tank valves higher is to use the mid-level d-rings on the back of the transpac for the quicklinks, instead of the top ones.

If it comes to surgery/getting rid of the butt-plate, DSS makes a little piece that goes on the crotch strap and works a bit better than a D-ring if you don't find that comfortable.

Hope some of this helps.

[ed pavey]

Do you have a picture of this? No matter what I seem to do with the Nomad the tanks still seem to hang too low. It's not too bad, but I would like to get as streamlined as possible. I have tightened up the bungees to the point where I have bruises under my arms, but the tanks are below the profile of my body. I think its a combination of the bungees forcing the tanks too far forward and the buttplate being too wide to keep the tanks up where they should be.

I saw the manual for the Armadillo, but I'm not sure how that translates to the TransPac

Call Lamar

[Jerry]

Do you have a picture of this? No matter what I seem to do with the Nomad the tanks still seem to hang too low. It's not too bad, but I would like to get as streamlined as possible. I have tightened up the bungees to the point where I have bruises under my arms, but the tanks are below the profile of my body. I think its a combination of the bungees forcing the tanks too far forward and the buttplate being too wide to keep the tanks up where they should be.

I saw the manual for the Armadillo, but I'm not sure how that translates to the TransPac

Where are the cam bands on you cylinders? The cam band placement really controls how the tanks ride. Mine are between a third and half way up the tank. Weight of the tank below the attachment point will make the top end of the tank pivot up towards your arm pit.

Jerry

[scblade27]

I am using LP 85's and the cam bands are about 6 inches above the bottom of the tank. I have played with the placement of the cam bands a bit. When the cam bands are placed higher on the tank, it becomes much more difficult to manipulate the lower attachment because the snap gets locked into the top part of the door handle. I assume this is from the tension of the top bungee pulling the tank up toward the shoulder. Maybe lengthening the top bungee and moving the cam band up would help.

When the cam bands are lower, the tank can float on the rail more, but puts me in a heads down trim and the tanks still hang a bit too low. This tread has given several good suggestions on ways to improve the position of the tanks, I will be giving them a try.

[ed pavey]

Where are the cam bands on you cylinders? The cam band placement really controls how the tanks ride. Mine are between a third and half way up the tank. Weight of the tank below the attachment point will make the top end of the tank pivot up towards your arm pit.

Jerry

Ask Jerry also!!! LOL

[RHolmesJr]

Where are the cam bands on you cylinders? The cam band placement really controls how the tanks ride. Mine are between a third and half way up the tank. Weight of the tank below the attachment point will make the top end of the tank pivot up towards your arm pit.

Jerry

AHHAAh!!! You are the man. Thanks.

[scblade27]

AHHAAh!!! Your the man. Thanks.

Completely agree.

[Cleavitt]

<snip>...When the cam bands are placed higher on the tank, it becomes much more difficult to manipulate the lower attachment because the snap gets locked into the top part of the door handle.</snip>

The bolt snap locking on the end of the rail was annoying to me also. It can really make the tanks feel out of balance and the bottom of the tanks ride lower as well. To prevent this, I bought some rubber test tube stoppers and fit them over the ends of each rail. The stoppers are just large enough to prevent the bolt snap from turning the corner and getting "stuck" on either end of the rail. See pictures for details...

I used "#3 rubber test tube stoppers, 1-hole" from this site (http://www.hometrainingtools.com/product_categories/65/products/5625-rubber-stopper-3-1-hole). I just had to use a 1/4" drill bit to bore out the hole so the stoppers would fit on the rail.

They are $0.45 each from the site above, or you can buy an official "Nomad Buttplate Stopper Kit (tm)" from me for $99.95 + S&H. If you purchase from the site above you are just buying generic test tube stoppers. The kit I'm offering is an official Nomad aftermarket accessory. Choose wisely.

[newman_diver]

Got my wife in for her first Nomad dive today and the problem she is having is the butt plate is too big. I am thinking i'm going to have to custom make one.

[Slüdge]

the problem she is having is the butt plate is too big

Not touchin' that one!

[scblade27]

After much help from Jerry, I finally got the rig squared away this past week after several hours in my living room laying on the floor in the rig. Because I have a skinney butt, the rails actually layed toward the outside edge of my butt. This allowed the tanks to hang strait down off the rails, instead of to the side.

What I ended up doing was shortening the distance from the tank to the buttplate as much as possible. To do this i used 4mm accessory chord to attach the large snap to the cam band on the tank. The result of that is basically having the bottom of the snap snug to the tank. The cam bands are located between 1/2 and 2/3 down the tank. I also moved the rails in about an inch on the buttplate by heating up a drill bit with a lighter and drilling new holes. This seemed to do the trick and put the tanks right on my side where they should be. This also allowed the tanks to float on the rails better and I had no more problems with the clip getting locked on the top part of the rail.

Eventually I think I will need to add weights to the shoulder straps to keep proper trim. If I put the cam bands where they should be to support the weight of the tank (toward the middle) it really puts you in a feet down trim. So far I compensated my filling the boots of my drysuit with air, but a couple of pounds on the shoulders would probably work better.

[RebreatherPro.com]

Here is a link to a sidemount video (http://www.rebreatherpro.com/2009/01/side-mount-video.html), with woman demonstrating the streamlining, as Jerry has described. This is rebreather bailout-centric, but similar principle.