Air Cell Jacket-style buoyancy compensators can be modified by taking the hard plate out and adding the bottle attachments to the waist belt. Wings need to be combined with a harness to provide a platform for the gear. Backup Equipment Wearing cylinders on the side interferes with the most logical places to store lights, reels and other accessories, and reduces access to pockets for dive tables. Divers often clip off these items anywhere they can. If worn on the harness on the chest area, access is limited and difficult.
Reels wind up clipped off behind the cylinders on the waist area.
Hoses and Valves Regulators should be as streamlined as possible with short hoses. Because the hoses are on the chest area, this becomes a very busy area and air management is more complicated. Selecting a regulator that allows three hoses to come off one side makes it easy to manage hoses and reduces task loading. One major concern that should be addressed is the continuity of changing from using a side-mounted arrangement, to doubles, to singles and any combination of these rigs. This must be approached individually, with the diver learning three different rigs.