One of the most common issues with sidemount is hose management. All of the hoses that are normally routed behind the head with backmount are now in your face and the cylinders are now under your arms. This past weekend I bumped into some former students, and active sidemount divers at Little River in Branford. One student was commenting about the challenge of hose routing off of the left cylinder. I had the same issue, but found a solution with the Right Angle Adapter. This little product that I brought back from Australia is the solution for around-the-neck hose routing applications.

When sidemounting use the Right Angle Adapter on the left bottle and route the hose around the neck with a standard 28-inch regulator hose. We used to go with a longer, custom length hose (either 36-inch or a standard 40-inch low pressure hose), but the hose would often lift over the head during the dive. The Right Angle Adapter allows me to use the shorter, 28-inch regulator hose and eliminates the hose lift from behind the head. I put the regulator with the Right Angle Adapter on a necklace and it stays in place. Use it on the right cylinder as well for good hose management to keep the hose tucked in tight to the body.

I also use the Right Angle Adapter for single tank, ocean diving on a 40-inch primary hose routed under the right arm. This with a Rite Source gives me maximum streamlining for single tank ocean diving. No extra hoses to get in the way when going for the lobster or the king crab that I just went diving in Norway for.

It’s just a small product, but like a lot of things, it can make a big difference to your dive.

Lamar

(http://www.diverite.com/catalog/regulators/accessories/rg1350)

The NiTek X is not vaporware. As with any R&D project we have delays. Phase One design and programming went very smooth and initially we were right on schedule. However, in Phase Two we’ve had challenges with vendors changing parts or delivering parts out of spec, which delayed us getting an alpha unit to test dive. What is interesting about the NiTek X is that this project is our original design, created to our specifications. Obviously, an original R&D project is a huge undertaking as there are no templates to follow.

We now have the alpha unit in hand to dive and will be doing daily dive tests before proceeding to Phase Three, which is production of ten beta units for field testing. I will keep you posted on the timeline of the ten beta units. It should be very soon.

In the meantime, check back here for regular reports on our alpha test.

Lamar