Finally got my umbilical twist figured out after 3 dives in a row getting tangled

I saw a guy on the boat last Saturday using a swivel at the block and another at his chest harness and I realized having just one point of rotation is why I was fighting my lines every time I swam around a piling, so now I run two swivels and it cut my line management time in half - has anyone else tried that setup or do you do something different for working around tight structure?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_blair1d ago

I read somewhere that a lot of the cave diving guys run a swivel at their butt plate and another at the chest slider just so they can spin around rock formations without kinking their hoses. Seems like the same logic applies for working around pilings and structure. I've seen a few guys on the commercial dock use a little stainless ring between their harness and their hardhat too, just for that extra free rotation.

mason_flores211d ago

Have you thought about whether adding more swivels is just creating more failure points? I mean, maybe it's just me, but I've seen guys run one swivel and they still get tangled because they're not paying attention to how they move around structure. Adding a second swivel means you've got another thing that can jam up with sand or salt, and when that happens you're worse off than before. I've watched divers with simple setups just take a second to plan their route around a piling instead of spinning freely and it works fine for them. Plus, that extra hardware hanging off your harness can snag on nets or lines you didn't see.