my DIY sidemount rig--suggestions

[moose_grunt]

I've looked around the form at other people's sidemount rigs, and the commercial options, and tried to hack my own together. I'm brand new to SM, so a lot of this was guesswork. If anyone could give me suggestions/comments on this, I would be really grateful.

As it is, I see 2 problems:
1) the ends of the tanks are floating too high, and I dont really know how to fix that
2) the huge camel hump of air, right behind my head--air is getting trapped in the top of the wing by the webbing/bungee that is attached to the tank valves

As I said, I would really appreciate any help you guys can give! (and yes, I know i should find a mentor/teacher, and I will sometime in the future, but I am living in Japan, where technical diving is nonexistent--it's a 10 hour drive to find a shop that even knows what nitrox is.......so I would be very surprised if someone could teach me sidemount).

Thanks again!!!

[moose_grunt]

some more pictures

[phillip1]

I think the tanks are too high because the attachment points are too close together (too near your tailbone) try attaching the tanks lower, for example on the waist drings, if they ride too low there take the weights off the tanks and put them on the shoulder straps of the harness.
The camel; hump is because the wing you are using is pretty big and there is nothing to hold it down but if you sew some attachment point to the inside of the wing and bungee it to the harness like the DR Nomad I think it will help allot.
Download the Nomad user manual the old one not the EXP model and look at the "Gusset Wing Bungee" part and you will understand what I mean.
Even on the DR Nomad you get a bit of this camel hump anyway because the wing is a bit big.

[Jay]

Phillip hit the nail on the head.

That is an interesting rig.
Your waist strap appears a bit high where it crosses on the inside of your wing.
I would lower your tank attachment point in the rear and widen it like Phillip said, out to your hips at least.
I still use my Transpac 2 and my tank attachments are the "extended D-ring" style attached to the waist band, about where my hip bones are, and hang a few inches lower then my waist.

My bungee/strap on the back for the front attachment points is much higher, just a few inches below my dump valves. That would eliminate a lot of the "camel hump".
You may have to lower your wing slightly also.
The wing does look large and may not be ideal, but moving the straps and making some attachment points for the wing should make it work successfully.

Getting it just right is half the fun!!!
Good luck on your sidemount journey!!

[moose_grunt]

Thanks for the help guys! The wing is huge (75 lbs), but it's what I've got, so I figured I'd try to make it work without buying even more stuff! It was originally bungeed, so I can just put the bungee back in on the top part and see how that helps (that's a good tip!).

I wear the wing lower on my back, so the waist straps cross at the small of my back, a couple inches above the line around my hips. Is that still too high?

Finally, since I've got the waist straps on the INSIDE of the wing, do you guys have any tricks to attaching the ends of the bottles to the waist strap? Sew a D-ring onto a 2~3 inch loop of webbing, loop that around the waist strap, and hold it in place with weight keepers?

Thanks again!

[wendellnope]

Here's a suggestion. Take a look at www.wendellnope.com/scuba3.htm and you will see the result of more than a dozen attempts to get the exact positioning of the bungies and attachment points. Maybe you can save yourself some time by not having to re-i9nvent the wheel.

Wendell Nope.

[stairman]

Nice vids Wendell. I like the way the cameraman got in front of the divers in alot of the scenes instead of the usual following behind the whole way, great job! 2 things I saw in the Devil eye vid is where they threw the deco bottles in Little Devil, that wouldnt work out well with my luck, and securing them to the deco log in the ear. Maybe in the dead of winter that would be ok but when theres tubers Id be surprised if they were there when I got back. Thanks for sharing the vids.

[phillip1]

Thanks for the help guys! The wing is huge (75 lbs), but it's what I've got, so I figured I'd try to make it work without buying even more stuff! It was originally bungeed, so I can just put the bungee back in on the top part and see how that helps (that's a good tip!).

I wear the wing lower on my back, so the waist straps cross at the small of my back, a couple inches above the line around my hips. Is that still too high?

Finally, since I've got the waist straps on the INSIDE of the wing, do you guys have any tricks to attaching the ends of the bottles to the waist strap? Sew a D-ring onto a 2~3 inch loop of webbing, loop that around the waist strap, and hold it in place with weight keepers?

Thanks again!

The waist straps on both the Armadillo & Nomad are on the inside of the wing too, you can attach a dring on each side were the strap comes out and as close as possible to the wing, that is were I attach my tanks when they are half empty to avoid them from riding up too much, when full the tanks might hang a bit low but it could work if you pull in the neck bungees tight enough.