Tank Boots and D-Rings

[Cave Ranger]

On a recent trip to my beloved Suwannee County and while shooting the breeze with a local Cave Instructor I was told that the practice of having a D-Ring mounted on your Tanks and hanging your Safety Reel from it is not the recommended method anymore. I always thought that was a great place to keep a Reel because it is behind you and not dangling or dragging underneath. Even the training manuals have drawings and pictures of Cave Divers using the Tank mounted D-Ring. He recommended using a side/belt mounted D-Ring for that purpose. I'm still going to use the Tank mounted D-Ring because that is what I prefer.
Also it seems that the use of Tank boots is frowned upon up in Cave Country. Do they damage the Cave or are they unsafe in some way or is this again just a personal choice or pet peeve?
I'm realitively new to the sport of Cave Diving so I tend to take what more experienced divers tell me with a certain amount of seriousness and consideration.
I was wondering if anyone else had any thoughts or insight.

I wish all of you and your families a terrific Thanksgiving Holiday.

[DeWayne]

As to the D-rings, if it works for you use it. The tank boots are seen by some as an entanglement hazard (some still have a slot for the old j-valve handle) but the real issue is with steel cylinders. The tank boot if used needs to be removed for adequate cleaning and drying to avoid rust issues. If not you may soon find a line bad enough to fail a cylinder at inspection time, right around the rim of the boot. Most of us are too lazy to constantly take the boot off and on so we leave it off. Some come up with wild theories to cover the issue of just being lazy

[aw]

There's just as much controversy over this as everything else in cave diving, but here's something else to consider.

A question to ask yourself regarding tank boots - "Does having this add any value to my dive?" Sure, it may make putting your doubles on prior to the dive a little easier, but most people aren't going to stand up any cylinder(s) with compressed gas and leave it freestanding. I've seen what happens when they fall off. So if its value is only for pre and post dive, then there is no real value-addedness DURING the dive. And since the rig is an underwater rig and not an above water rig, then perhaps it doesn't need to be there. I think of it like this - if it offers no real value underwater, then I'm not going to spend the extra effort pushing whatever it is through the water. Granted, tank boots do not alter your drag to any significant degree, but in reality it is one more thing which displaces water. So if it doesn't benefit me in water, I'm not carrying it. Same goes for dust caps, valve caps, tank meshing, etc.

Regarding safety reels (and jump reels for that matter). An even cleaner-looking approach to storing safeties and jumps is to clip them off inside a drysuit or wetsuit pocket. Then they are completely out of the way. Another thought - by switching to spools, you reduce the massiveness of your safeties and jumps to only what you need for the dive (remember the value-addedness speech above). The smaller profile of spools takes up less room in the pockets too. Spools have replaced reels (except for primaries and exploration reels) just like trimix replaced deep air, cookies replaced clothespins, Dive planning software replaced Navy tables, and dive computers replaced tables (now backup tables are often custom cut by dive planning software).

But anyway. Those are my reasons for these issues, in addition to what Dewayne said above. Others will disagree.

[Jordan]

Yes, I must say you're right that others will disagree. I for one do not think spools have replaced reels - I much prefer a reel if I am running it for more than 30 feet. I can get the line back on the spool much quicker when reeling it in rather than fighting with a finger spool. For a jump like over to the Wonder Tunnel at Devil's, for example - IMHO, it's much nicer to have a reel.

[aw]

Aahh, come on Jordan. . . I've added about 10 ft of line to all my jump spools to get an even longer reach with them (i.e. for gaps like the offset sink at Telford) and don't have any problems pulling it back in. First time I used an off-the-shelf spool in Telford, I got to the offset sink, tied in my spool on the downstream end and proceeded to the upstream line. Before I could get there . . . SCREECCHHH . . . Something pulled me back. I looked down and I had no line left on my spool. After the dive, I added about 10 ft of line to all my spools to get maybe a 40 ft reach so that wouldn't happen again.

Heck, I've got a safety spool with the standard 150 ft of line and could pull it all back in.

I'm just messin with ya, Jordan.

[Jordan]

It doesn't have to do with how much line you can get on it - it's the amount of time and effort needed to get the line back on the spool. Reeling it up is much easier

Spools are great for cave divers that never quite got the knack of running a reel.

I tried spools twice and didn't like them. I'll just stick to jump/gap reels.

Russell

[Tegg]

Spools are great for cave divers that never quite got the knack of running a reel.

I tried spools twice and didn't like them. I'll just stick to jump/gap reels.

Russell

Huh, I say the same for those that don't use spools...

I use a reel as a primary and that's it. Spools for everything else. If anyone wants to race me with their reel, I'm game...

[aw]

Spools are great for cave divers that never quite got the knack of running a reel.

Nah, spools are for cave divers who have nothing more to prove since they set the primary reel at the start of the dive. Kind of like not shaving at first after you hit puberty just to prove to everyone else you hit it, then you start shaving on a regular basis.

I figured I'd get a rise out of a few folks with that one.

I must admit, however, I didn't come up with it myself. I have to thank my buddy Ron Bear for that pearl of wisdom.

Russell