Stage Bottle Rigging: How a DIR Stage Bottle Should Hang

Watch a diver with a badly rigged bottle.

The valve flops down. The bottom swings out. Every few kicks, a hand goes down to shove it back where it belongs. They're not diving. They're managing a bottle.

It's not a skill problem. It's a rigging problem.

What does a well-rigged bottle look like?

It disappears.

The bottle rides along your left side, close to your body and roughly parallel to you when you're horizontal. The valve stays up. The bottom doesn't swing. The regulator is where your hand expects it. You forget it's there until you need it.

That's the whole goal of rigging. Not a particular knot. A bottle you never have to think about.

How is a DIR stage bottle rigged?

Simply. UTD's approach uses an aluminum cylinder, a line run down the bottle and held by a clamp, and a bolt snap at each end. The top snap clips to your left chest D-ring. The bottom snap clips to your left hip D-ring.

Where the parts sit is what decides how the bottle hangs. And that depends on your harness, your suit and your body. So it isn't set with a tape measure. It's set in the water, with you wearing the rig.

That's why we fit bottles with students in class rather than hand out a cut list.

What does UTD rule out?

A few things, for good reasons.

• Steel stage and deco cylinders. UTD doesn't allow them in its certification courses. Aluminum sits close to neutral and hangs well.
• Metal-to-metal connections. They wear and they rattle loose.
• Double-ended clips. They snag a line or clip themselves to something you didn't intend.
• Brass bolt snaps.
• Using the rigging as a handle. Carry the bottle by the valve or the cylinder, so the rigging stays where it was set.

Is rigging a one-time job?

Let's be honest. Most divers rig a bottle once and never look at it again.

The comfortable belief: it hung fine last year.

The truth: line stretches. Knots settle. Clamps creep. A bottle that hung perfectly last season can hang badly today, and you won't notice until you're fighting it at depth.

Look at it every time you clip it on. Does it still sit flat when you're horizontal?

Learn it with a bottle on your side

Rigging, bottle handling, gas switching and passing bottles between divers are part of the Stage and/or Deco Bottle Extension. For why bottles are marked the way they are, read Deco Bottle Marking. When you're carrying more than one, read Carrying Multiple Stage Bottles.

So, how does your bottle hang right now? Have you ever actually looked?