MEG general setup information sharing

scubamartin

Hi every one,

Although I’ve been reading this forum for a while, this is my first post.

My name is Martin. I’ve been diving for 6-7 years and it’s now time for me to stop making bubbles . Two of my friends and me are scheduled to start Meg training in early spring 2007.

We live in Montréal and, other than the occasional cave trip to Yucatan and the months of July and August, most of our dives take place in cold water (between 30 and 40 degC, a lot of times) in the St-Lawrence River, the Great Lakes and a few nearby quarries. We dive using 3-laminate dry suits.

So I’m wondering if those of you who “enjoy” similar diving conditions can share their knowledge in term of setup with us, newbies.

Here are a few questions:

• Do you use back plates and webbing? 6 pounds BP or other?
• Are some of you using Transpak harness? How does it perform compare to a BP?
• Steel or Aluminum cylinders?
• Do you isolate the canister with neoprene?
• What BC do you use? How much lift?
• Did some of you try the Side Mount setup discussed in this forum? Your thoughts?
• Do you have to add weights? How much? Where? Weight belts or integrated weights?
• In very cold water, what safety factor do you use for the duration of the Sofnolime?
• What source do you use to fill your dry suit?
• Dive tables or/and VR-3? Which tables?
• Do you find the VR-3 too conservative compared to Tables? As a side note, we did a shallow Trimix dive today, 170 feets/35 minutes. The VR-3 (In VPM mode) took us out of the water 34 minutes later than V-Planner table. We think the difference is enormous. Did some of you experience the same behavior with the VR-3 in CC-VPM mode? IN CCR-Buhlman mode?

Thanks a lot for your answers!

wedivebc

I dive in similar conditions (if you consider the sunny west coast similar )

* I use a 6lb SS backplate with continuous webbing. Tried the transpac but there was too many D-rings and too much clutter.

* I use both 13 alu for single dive day and 19steel for multi dive days

* 45lb diverite wing

*haven't tried sidemount but I'm tempted

*unit trims nicely with steel tanks I use 10lb less than with a single al80 OC rig. no need for high up weights like I had with the inspo

* I find the scubber lasts just fine in cold water because the cannister is preheated buy your exhaled breath

* I use my leanest non-helium bailout for suit inflation

* HS explorer and tables for more serious dives v-planner but I am looking at Guy Wittigs free GF program discussed on this board

* never used the VR3

Hope that helps.

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Cheers,

Dave....

Man is the only animal burdened with the knowledge he will eventually die

nmanfield

I'm certainly not the best person to answer this question having done a princely 2 dives on my Meg! But this is what I have found out so far (having done the dives in a 3mm Trilaminate and having done my cave diving course with Mike Netto in Mexico who dives a Meg. I'm alos very interested to see what people have to say:

·Do you use back plates and webbing? 6 pounds BP or other? - Low profile bone backplate from Oxyxhecq though it is too short for me and doesn't have hole in the right place for a sidemount kit. Will be buying the backplate from Golem gear which looks far better
·Are some of you using Transpak harness? How does it perform compare to a BP? - I bought a Transpac harness. I know Gadget (Simon uses one) but I think for Drysuit diving you really need a plate
·Steel or Aluminum cylinders? - Steel Heiser 3 litre dumpies for me. Used Inspo ones as well.
·Do you isolate the canister with neoprene? - Not yet, though funnily I have ordered a canister 'cozy' really more to protect the can than to insulate - Again i'd be interested is seeing what other people's thoughts on it are out there.
·What BC do you use? How much lift? - Dive rite rec wing - over 50lbs of lift as I often do deep dives with bailout in a wetsuit - you need this much lift as a minimum IMHO. I know people are going for wings with a lot of lift at the bottom - but the problem with the Meg is that you have a danger of resting your can on the bottom of the aircell and damaging it. There is a new halycyon Rebreather wing out but it looks HUGE at the bottom and may be tricky in accessing the valves.
·Did some of you try the Side Mount setup discussed in this forum? Your thoughts? - I've got both Diverite and Golem gear set ups. I saw Mike Netto from Protec in Playa del Carmen and Mike Gadd use these systems - they are very neat and streamlined
·Do you have to add weights? How much? Where? Weight belts or integrated weights? - Surpisingly little weight - I have not dives 'dry' for 5 years and in 6 degrees water was diving with 4kg and finding that I could have shifted a few pounds still. I know Dave Cooper dives with two ankle weights attached to his backplate and that does him fine (though he does dive with two very heavy CD HIDs
·In very cold water, what safety factor do you use for the duration of the Sofnolime? - Not really in a position to comment on this
·What source do you use to fill your dry suit? - Richest mix offboard
·Dive tables or/and VR-3? Which tables? - VR3 and Decoplanner tables written in a waterproof notebook
·Do you find the VR-3 too conservative compared to Tables? As a side note, we did a shallow Trimix dive today, 170 feets/35 minutes. The VR-3 (In VPM mode) took us out of the water 34 minutes later than V-Planner table. We think the difference is enormous. Did some of you experience the same behavior with the VR-3 in CC-VPM mode? IN CCR-Buhlman mode? - Can you be too conservative? Just my opinion I know but I'm not from the school of getting out of the water as quickly as possible on shallow or medium dives. I have my Vr3 on a medium level of safety and never had a problem so far (touch wood). Let's be honest though, you can never tell when your going to get an unearned hit can you ?

I'll probably get hammered for what I've said but I would appreciate it as I'm very new on the Meg and I'd rather have these assumptions knocked down straight away rather than learning the hard way. I'd be really keen to hear what other people say and see how many Meg divers out there use their offboard plugged into their ADV and the onboard into the MGB. Also be keen to see how people route their hoses on the neoprene lungs (pictures would be great!)

ATB

Nick

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