Cody JW wrote:NZ, If the upside down orientation is such a good idea how come Lost Creek and ORI and others did not use it.
Because the Swaygo is a radically different design from the old LC and OR1 packs, and it's probably patented.
Different material, different concept.
Bottom line-I never had to worry about a "right'" way to close a Lost Creek and in 30 years no dumps. But all of a suddon you have to worry about a "right" way to close a SWAYGO.
The roll closure on the Swaygo is the same type used for hundreds of other dry bag designs. Ever use dry bags for canoeing, kayaking, rafting, camping, etc? Same closure. The only real difference is when you wear the Swaygo as a pack, the closure is at the bottom so the clip has the potential to be a single point of failure (dumping the contents out). Now Scott has changed the Swaygo closure from a plastic clip to a carabiner to help minimize this risk.
I just think it is funny that I had no "user error" on a LC. I still say design flaw. Or maybe not design flaw but more attention was paid to ergonomics than physics. Just hope you do not carry anything real important.
Long before Swaygos were invented, I caved with a large dry bag backpack for about year. With the roll closure at the top, it scraped along the ceiling on every crawl/stoop passage. It caught on everything, and was a pain in the butt to carry/drag around in a cave. Pretty soon there were multiple holes in the PVC, mostly at the roll closure. I repaired it several times with AquaSeal, but eventually had to retire the bag. When I first tried the upside-down Swaygo design, I thought it was a stroke of genius. You just have to get used to flipping it upside down to pack/unpack, and obviously make sure you secure it properly. It's not a complicated process.
Incidentally... I've had stuff fall out of my (overstuffed) LC pack a couple of times in a cave before, but I don't blame that on the pack. I've never had anything dump out of my Swaygo. It might happen one day, but if it does it will probably be my own silly fault. I do carry important stuff in the pack from time to time, and it's never been a problem. But now that we've had this discussion, there will probably be impending doom somewhere in the future of my Swaygo.
Bottom line for me - so far I've had no more problems with the closure on my Swaygo than I've had with the closures on my Lost Creek pack. No dumps, no issues with opening and closing, and the straps work great for me. Actually, I much prefer the simple webbing on the Swaygo to the straps on the LC. Those have horrible rusty metal clips, and slide adjusters which dig into the front of my shoulders. Every time I sling my camera case on, the webbing sling gets jammed into those damn LC clips and is a bear to detach again. I really need to come up with another shoulder strap/clip system for the LC. But I guess that's a whole other topic.