Quote: (Originally Posted by Padowan)
In my OC days, the best place I found to stow my reels etc, was on a "butt-ring", a 50mm D-Ring threaded at the top of the crotch strap at the back. In the water this was perfect, the reels would be out of the way, in the slipstream of the tanks etc, brilliant. On the boat it was a pain as the tanks would sit on and break the reels if I forgot, so I'd generally enter the water with the reel on a D-ring, then clip it off to the butt-ring once in the water or at the bottom. However with my Rebreather (YBOD), the shape of it is such, that I can't reach a butt-ring (my twinset was bootless, so there ws room to access this ring.)
It's a shame, as I really liked this positioning on my OC Rig. At the moment I'm also using the hip d-rings, but find the danglies all a bit unnecessary. The other option I will play with at sometime (and again this originated during the development of my OC rig) if to have a round ring, on a length of bungee threaded through a hole in the bottom corner of the backplate and tied off to a hole at the top of the backplate, using 4 strands of bungee (or one strand that goes up-down-up-down) I found that there was sufficient strength to hold the D-ring in place with the weight of a reel on, but when I wanted the reel, or to stow the reel, I could grab the ring, and pull about a foot of slack enabling easy access. When released it would spring back into position like a large scale retractor stowing the reel further back and more out of the way than on a hip-ring. Again this worked really well, but was surpassed by the butt-ring.
Might give someone some inspiration... (excuse the pun!!)
Sounds intriguing, but struggling to visualise the bungee option. Don't suppose you have a any pics Padowan?
JamieB