Double wing in sidmount

[LakeCountyDiver]

The double as in 2 bladders. I am looking for thoughts on how others ride there rig. My single bladder rig is set up with the inflator coming up from the bottom with a pull dump on the top.

If you run a double bladder wing in SM how do you have your set up? Why do you like it that way?

I have the SMS 100

[DA Aquamaster]

I have a dual bladder nomad.

The backup inflator is on the right side and runs down along the wing with the inflator between the plate for the waist strap and the wing. I leave it there and leave it disconnected as it is cleaner and won't result in accidentally or partially inflating the redundant wing.

I have it as there are some larger caves that I would not want to have to climb out of diving wet, but generally there'd be no issue with ending up on the bottom until I sort out a wing failure and in smaller passage it's a non issue.

If I were diving offshore, wet, in blue water, I might configure it differently.

Hose wise, both inflator hoses are long enough to reach waiter inflator (and the drysuit inflator when I am diving dry). It's a bit of a stretch to reach the inflator on the other side, but it just has to reach, it does not have to be elegant.

[Greenwood_60]

I dive a dual rec wing in SM. My backup inflator is routed down behind my shoulder, up under my armpit and bolt snapped to my shoulder d-ring. It streches just far enough to orally inflate without disconnecting it from the d-ring. Orally inflating for an entire dive is actually easier than it seems.

[whodunit68]

I dive wet and almost as DA Aquamaster does. I leave the right side hose under the band on the tank and the hose in "normal" configuration underneath the bungees. It is there if needed but left disconnected as I don't want an accidental inflation incident. I also use the SMS 100.
I have not used any sidemount in open water. In fact, I don't remember the last time diving open water (other than a few simple recreational single-tank dives here in Brasil) so I won't help much there.

[LakeCountyDiver]

3 replys in what I thought would have had much more. Is a dual inflation wing more of a novelty then a necessity????? Do most sidemounters ditch the dual wing?

[a64pilot]

I think most of us dive dry

[jcook]

I think most of us dive dry

Yep.

[FW]

If you are in really hard core sidemount, as opposed to just diving big cave in sidemount configuration, you have no real need for a dual bladder. If you have a failure, you can just crawl out. If you are diving sidemount in a wetsuit in someplace like Dipolder, or Eagle's Nest, then redundant flotation is very necessary.

[DA Aquamaster]

Like any dual bladder system, it is really targeted only at a diver who prefers to dive wet.

I agree with what Forrest is saying, but the wording could be better. I assume by "hard core" you mean cave where it starts with belly to back tight and stays that way, and in that case, bouyancy control isn't a dive safety issue, and you'll dump the wing anyway to help you squeeze through. And obviously, you are stating the need for redundant buoancy in caves you could not crawl out of.

However there is a lot of middle ground between your definition of "hard core" sidemount diving, and just diving large cave with a sidemount configuration. There are areas where a diver may want to or need to dive in sidemount for a portion of the dive and where he or she also has to swim through a lot of cave that he or she would not want to crawl out of, would not be able to crawl out of, or would really tear up the floor crawling out of.

An example is the spring tunnel just downstream from Kitty. It is not what I'd call "hard core" sidemount, although there are tunnels where sand has filled in and made it very tight. In some of the larger areas, you might be able to get through it in backmount, but you'd beat it up and that would not be very responsible. And once you get past the chimney and through the short passage where it opens up, it is clearly back mountable again, but you are in a very pristine looking area with heavy silt, where a loss of bouyancy would really tear up the floor in addition to leaving you in zero viz, for the entire exit, along old and slack line through some very fragile placements.

It's places like that where I think a dual bladder nomad is almost ideal, as I still prefer to dive wet rather than diving dry.

Similarly, in Mexico, there were also places with halcolines, vertical relief and bottom composition where I would not have wanted to crawl out of as it would be very difficult, result in no viz, and/or do an incredible amount of damage. Given the shallow average depths, on one particular, 3 tank dive, we still found ourselves over 4500' from a verified exit. Even diving a very conservative gas plan, no amount of reasonable reserve would have been enough to crawl out over nearly a mile of cave.

How you get the redundancy is a mixed bag with pros and cons each way. The bulk of a dry suit is a bit of a disadvantage in really snug caves, and to an extent so is the extra bulk of a dual bladder wing, or more accurately, the greater bulk of the sidemount systems that might have one - such as a nomad.

[alanf]

I now use a BAT wing. The redundant bladders inflator and dump are significantly minimized, that is, a very thin manual inflation tube and a slot dump that you have to stick your finger in. It's cool but expensive! I like many others have shortened the backup wings inflator tube so there is really no question about routing. Even though this post was about an SMS 100, for others considering a redundant bladder and reading this, it's worth knowing about.