Tech Tip: Cylinder Stage Straps

Cylinder straps (aka stage straps) provide an efficient means of using bolt snaps to attach the cylinder to your harness hard points (D-rings or sidemount rails). In some designs the strap may also be used to help carry the cylinder. The strap itself is a piece of round cord or flat webbing that creates secure attachment points for two stainless steel bolt snaps. The strap encircles the cylinder's neck and is secured at the cylinder's base by a stainless steel hose clamp. A fabric sheath on the clamp is used to prevent the clamp from causing damage to the cylinder or abrasion against the diver. Elastic hose retainers are used to dress the regulator hose neatly against the cylinder.

Metal to metal stage rigging, brass alloy, and boat style snaps are no longer considered best practice among experienced divers. Even the best snaps can jam, but brass snaps are prone to jamming if not carefully maintained. The boat snap (aka "suicide clip") is very effective as a line trap, and notoriously ineffective as a reliable attachment device.

It's also proven to be a bad idea to clip yourself to bottles that have the clips permanently attached to the tank using metal-to-metal rings or clamps. Should a jam or entanglement occur, a diver might find it impossible to free themselves from the bottle.

Straps and stainless steel marine-grade snaps that can be cut free in case of entanglement are now the accepted form of stage bottle rigging.

Lonsdale Bommies

Bommie Dive | Boat access

Depth: 12 m (39 ft) to 18 m (59 ft)

Approximately one kilometre from the Point Lonsdale Light and clear of the shipping channel, just outside Port Phillip Heads in Bass Strait is an amazing area of bommies or underwater rock formations. The strong current flow in this area has created a nutrient-rich environment and subsequently prolific marine growth and the associated marine life. But it is the amazing rock formations that make this dive site special. A favourite spot for catching crays.

Diving Lonsdale Bommies on Redboats | © Colin Grant

Bass Strait Warning: Always keep an eye on sea conditions throughout any shore or boat dive in Bass Strait on Victoria's coastline. Please read the warnings on the web page diving-in-bass-strait before diving or snorkelling this site.

Crayfish Dive Site | © Ian Scholey

Divers have the opportunity to catch Southern Rock Lobster (aka Crayfish) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Once you get back to the dive boat, or shore, make sure you clip the tail and tag your Crayfish as per Fisheries requirements. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See article-catching-crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-cray-dives for a list of other crayfish dive sites near Melbourne. For tips on cooking your Crays, please see article-cooking-crayfish.

Finding the Lonsdale Bommies

Over the years we've been provided with different GPS marks for the Lonsdale Bommies. The GPS marks we know of in circulation for the Lonsdale Bommies are:

GPS (verified)
Latitude: 38° 17.983′ S (38.299717° S / 38° 17′ 58.98″ S)
Longitude: 144° 36.730′ E (144.612167° E / 144° 36′ 43.8″ E)
Geoff Rodda:
Latitude: 38° 16.937′ S (38.282283333333° S / 38° 16′ 56.22″ S)
Longitude: 144° 38.792′ E (144.64653333333° E / 144° 38′ 47.52″ E)
3,571 m, bearing 57°, ENE

Wathaurong (Wadda-Warrung) country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Wathaurong (Wadda-Warrung) people of the Kulin Nation. This truly ancient Country includes the coastline of Port Phillip, from the Werribee River in the north-east, the Bellarine Peninsula, and down to Cape Otway in the south-west. We wish to acknowledge the Wathaurong as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Bunjil the Creator Spirit of this beautiful land, who travels as an eagle, and Waarn, who protects the waterways and travels as a crow, and thank them for continuing to watch over this Country today and beyond.

Lonsdale Bommies Location Map

Latitude: 38° 17.983′ S (38.299717° S / 38° 17′ 58.98″ S)
Longitude: 144° 36.730′ E (144.612167° E / 144° 36′ 43.8″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2012-07-22 09:00:00 GMT, Last updated: 2022-04-06 18:19:48 GMT
Source: GPS (verified)
Nearest Neighbour: Twin Bommies, 142 m, bearing 283°, WNW
Depth: 12 to 18 m.
Dive only on: Ebb.

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DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.

The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.