Hi everybody, and welcome to Scuba Diver Magazine. I'm Mark, and I've been teaching people how
to scuba dive for well over 10 years now. So you'll probably recognize me from the Simply
Scuba channel and even my own channel, Safe Diving.
For this video series, I'm going to be going back to the basics of scuba diving so that
if you're just starting out or even if you're just feeling a little bit rusty, you can dive
back in, fresh in the knowledge in the scuba diving basics. If you enjoy this video and
find it useful, then don't forget to like and share it online so that your diving friends
can see it as well, and brush up on their skills. If you have any comments, questions,
queries, or even corrections at any part of the video, then let us know down in the comments
below and we, or even our community, will help you out. So let's get into it.
Okay. So there are a few ways of attaching your tank to your BCD. But most divers will
use something like this, and this is a cam band. So cam bands will be made from a two
inch webbing strap, just like this, and either a metal or a plastic buckle that's usually
fitted to the back of your BCD. The buckle should look something like this, which claps
down the strap onto your tank nice and tight so it doesn't slip.
So the first thing that you need to know about cam bands is that, just like me, they work
best when they're wet. So you see when the fibers of the belt are nice and dry, there's
a lot of friction between these fibers. So the belt's actually quite tight. As soon as
they get wet, the fibers are a little bit lubricated, so they can loosen up a little
bit and they can move. It's only going to be a little bit, but it can be enough to make
the band a smidge longer so the tank can actually slip a bit as soon as you hit the water.
So the first thing that you need to do is splash some water on the cam band so it's
nice and wet for the best fit, because this isn't straightforward as your standard belt
buckle around your trousers. But luckily they're all basically the same. So if you've been
handed a rental BCD or you've undone your cam band whilst you're cleaning it and can't
figure out how to re-thread it, here's how. Okay, so threading your cam band. Yes, it
can feel a bit complicated, but actually you only really have to do two things. And the
first thing I'm going to say is there's always a little trick to it. So the first thing,
I'm going to do it with a metal buckle, because it's a bit easier to see, but most of the
cam bands out there will actually tell you how to thread them. So this one, for example,
you can see it has numbers on it, and the numbers are telling you how to thread it,
which slot to put it through first. Others, they might have a little diagram just on the
side. So if you've been given a rental BCD or your cam band has come undone for whatever
reason and you can't quite figure it out, just take a moment to look at the buckle and
there might actually be a diagram of how to do it. But it is very, very easy.
The first thing is, is that you need to identify the three different slots. You're going to
have two nice and close to one another, and then one on the end. You can basically ignore
the one on the end because you don't do that until you're actually fitting it to a tank,
it's these two that are nice and close together. These are the ones that you're going to be
focusing on. So this one, I've taken it off a BCD, just
so you can see. And the method is exactly the same for the plastic buckle. And all it
is is straighten out the two-inch webbing strap, because you don't want any twists and
turns. And then when you're approaching it. So first of all, you go underneath the buckle
and then you're going to come up through them middle slot. So give yourself a bit of slack
and then poke it up through the middle slot. And then you're going to go back on yourself
and you're going to go back through the second slot. And then once you've done that, you're
pretty much there. So at this point you can adjust it to the size of your tank. So this
one is going to be a huge tank. So what we're going to do is we're going to shorten this
strap. I'm actually going to fit this to my actual BCD and then show you how to tighten
the strap, get it the right size for your scuba tank, and then how to clamp it down
properly. So now that your cam band is actually threaded
correctly, let's attach your tank nice and tight to the back of your BCD.
Okay, so now I've fitted the cam band onto my BCD. You'll notice that I have two cam
bands. If you get the option to have two cam bands, then I definitely recommend it. It's
just a bit of redundancy. But it also helps so that it keeps your tank nice and straight
so it doesn't kind of shimmy and wobble around on your back. It feels really nice and secure.
So a lot of BCDs, they'll only have one cam band, which is perfectly fine, but if they
don't have the option for a second cam band, they'll often have a leash. So that up around
the top section of the BCD. And that's just a little strap that goes around the tank valve
itself. I'd always recommend that. So when you first put your BCD on, that's the first
thing that I do. That just acts as a redundant backup for your main cam band. And it also
helps with that wobble, it stops your tank from shimmying around. But if your cam band
should fail for whatever reason, it's always wrapped around the tank valve. So it can't
go too far. So if you're fitting your cam band to your
BCD, I like to put the buckle as close to the back plate as possible. If you have it
all the way around on the other side, you just end up with a lot of flapping around
with the edge, or the end, of your cam bands. So if you can put it as close to the back
plate as possible, it just means you have less slack moving around. I don't actually
have Velcro attached onto my cam bands, but a lot of cam bands do. And that just means
that you can stick it down so it doesn't start flapping around. But I'll talk about that
later. So I'm going to grab a tank. I'm just going to slot it through these two, and then
we're going to sort of tighten it up properly. So when you're fitting your cylinder onto
your BCD, a lot of the times, first of all, it will be upright. It's quite hard for me
to film upright so I'm doing it on a desk, so you can see. But you want the tank valve,
this section of it to be in line with the top of your BCD. You can fiddle around with
this at your leisure and find the perfect height. You don't want it too high because
then if you do a giant stride entry, or if you look up during any part of the dive, it's
just going to clonk on the back of your head. You don't want it too low because then your
hoses are going to be a bit shrouded. So yeah, find that perfect sweet spot for you. I just
find it's kind of there when it's on my BCD. So then we need to tighten our cam bands.
So when they're in this state and you've only threaded it through slots one and two, this
is how you adjust for size. So remember to wet it first, and then what we're going to
do is with one hand, just hold onto the cam band itself, around your tank. Your other
hand is grabbing hold of the long loose section and you're just pulling them. So it's really
nice and tight. And then once you get it as tight as you can, you might need a friend
to help you out. Lift up on the buckle and that pinches it so that strap can't pull through.
But trying to lift that and leave that over is quite hard. So that's what our third slot
is for. You use the remainder of this webbing, pull that through the final slot, that's why
it's right on the end. Make sure it's nice and tight, and then use all of that as a big
lever to clamp it down. And that's the noise that you're listening
for. You want a real clunk when you do it. If it just goes "uh-huh" it's not tight enough,
and that's a technical term, you want it really nice and tight so your tank doesn't slip around.
You still have all this excess material. So if you have Velcro, Velcro it down. If you
don't, just try and tuck it away as best you can, just so that nothing can grab hold of
it and undo it for whatever reason. Now I'm going to do again with the top cam
band. So holding onto the top section, pull that strap as tight as you can, and then lifting
up on that buckle, and that's going to pinch that strap so it doesn't move around. Thread
the remainder of your cam band through there, and then tighten it up, keep it really nice
and tight, and then use that as a lever to wrench it up and over, and then tuck away
any excess. So now your tank should be really nice and secure. It's not going to move around
anywhere, but I like to double check. So I take the whole thing off of the bench and
then holding onto the shoulder straps or something, just give it a little shake and see if the
tank shimmies. If it moves a little bit, might mean that you might need to tighten up those
straps again. If it doesn't, you're probably good to go.
Taking them off is just as easy. So grab hold of that excess, give that a good yank, and
that'll undo it. And then all I typically do is unthread the first strap, that's as
far as you need to go. And then I jus lift the bottom section of the buckle, so it can
feed a little bit of the strap. Just so it loosens it up. Just makes it a bit easier
for the next dive, to thread the next tank into it. And then all you have to do is just
tighten it a little bit and then clamp it down so you're ready for the next time.
So that's how you fit a cam band to your tank properly, with a standard cam band. Now you
can also find some other styles of cam bands, like these, from some manufacturers, such
as Scubapro cinch cam band, or even Aqualung griplock, which use a simpler two-part system
that you don't have to thread quite so complicated. You just need to adjust a bit of Velcro to
your tank size and then clamp it down. Atomic also have a new unique approach to solving
this problem. And that's a little bit more like a snowboard binding. It's a one-way ratchet
strap and then a clamp that keeps it nice and tight. So these are a bit faster to fit,
but they work in an every so slightly different way, but you'll only really see these on the
sort of higher end BCDs. But yeah, now you've brushed up on one of
your scuba diving basic skills. Why don't you check out one of our other basic skills
videos? And of course don't forget to like and subscribe to the Scuba Diving Magazine
channel and ring that notification bell so that you're notified the instant we release
a new video. Okay. So now you're a bit savvier with your
scuba diving basics. Don't forget to subscribe to the Scuba Diver Magazine channel to stay
up to date with the latest scuba diving news and advice. And don't forget to put your comments
down below in the comments. Thank you for watching. And of course, safe diving.