Article by the Peter Steinhoff, Sweden
© Peter Steinhoff 2002-2003 | www.dir-diver.com

Hardware needed:

• 2m (6.5 ft) of 5mm (3/16″) braided polyester line (same as caveline only thicker)
• 2 stainless steel boltsnaps (3″ long, 1″ eye)
• 1 feet of rubber fuel hose (8-10mm inner diameter) 5/16-3/8″
• 1 big stainless steel hose clamp
• 1 piece of racebike innertube.
• 2 pieces of car innertube. (not in the picture above)

1. Pull the line through the hose.Fold the polyester line so that one end is approx. 22-23cm (9″) longer. Attach a piece of cave line (60cm, 2ft) and use it to pull the thick line through the hose. Pull about 20cm (8″) of line through so you have enough room to attach the upper boltsnap.

2. Attaching the upper boltsnap.Attach the upper bolt snap inside an overhand knot. Make sure it’s even and nice looking. Place the knot so that the boltsnap is positioned above the break of the tank. If it’s too low the bottle will cause a lot of drag.

3. Make an overhand knot. Make an overhand knot just below the hose. Pull on it and make sure it’s nice and tight.

4. Attach the lower boltsnap.You want 75-100mm (3-4″) of slack on the lower boltsnap, so the bottle can ride in the slipstream. When you are swimming or if you want it closer you can wrap the boltsnap under the handle. BTW, the yellow color is for clarity only!You can attach the boltsnap so it’s either removable or permanent.

5. Make a fishermans knot to hold everything together.A fishermans knot is nothing more than two overhand knots. Make the first knot and place it as high as possible. Pull on it real hard. Then make the second knot and put it together with the first one.Try to make them “fit” together and be as tight as possible.When you are satisfied cut of the excess line and burn the ends with a lighter.

6. We are done! The stage handle is now complete but we still need to mount it on a bottle.

7. Put on the hoseclamp Slide on the small innertube and put it over the screw to the hose clamp. If you have unpainted dir-diver you may want to put something (maybe paint) under the hose clamp (or some protection over the clamp) to avoid dissimilar metal corrosion.

8.Wrapped or not? For swimming or when using only one bottle you might want to wrap the boltsnap under the handle to shorten it.

9. Ready!Finally, put on the car inner tube sections over the handle to makes it easier to grip if you use gloves. Otherwise you put it under.Well, doesn’t that look like a sexy bottle???And remember that the handle is for underwater use only! Always carry your dir-diver by the valve. If you don’t, the handle is going to get longer and become sloppy!Happy diving!!!