is Sidemount diving more safe?

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

by the way- do you tend to go lower than 50bar / 1000psi with SM like twinset?
ask for a friend...

Exiting with less than 1/3 gas remaining would be a poor choice. Read about deaths in a cave and the majority are attributed to navigation errors and/or gas management errors, or worse even - complacency.

 

[Stunni]

yep - point. but open water?

 

[Bald Wookie]

yep - point. but open water?

I plan my turn around point based on general gas planning rules to ensure I have enough gas to either surface or swim back at the worst case scenario (deepest point, farthest point, with someone on the long hose), but I adjust those numbers on the fly after the turnaround to extend my dive if I decide to.

Can do a similar thing with two dive on one set - run the first dive as planned, chip into the gas reserve as the dive goes along on the second.

Rule of thirds is fine, but proper gas planning is better IMHO. Dives can be severely limited by rules of thirds

 

[Blackcrusader]

Exiting with less than 1/3 gas remaining would be a poor choice. Read about deaths in a cave and the majority are attributed to navigation errors and/or gas management errors, or worse even - complacency.

I see people who are not cave diving but doing deco dives using twins or sidemount. After they clear deco they can dawdle around at shallow depths. Certainly don't need to exit the water if you have cleared deco and want to spend another 30 mins diving.

 

[John Bantin]

Strangely, I was pilloried back in the 1980s for recommending independent twin tanks with redundant regulators. It seems that wearing them as side-mounts is OK but putting them on your back was not!

 

[Blackcrusader]

Strangely, I was pilloried back in the 1980s for recommending independent twin tanks with redundant regulators. It seems that wearing them as side-mounts is OK but putting them on your back was not!

I didn't even wear twins just brought some AL80's along.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Strangely, I was pilloried back in the 1980s for recommending independent twin tanks with redundant regulators. It seems that wearing them as side-mounts is OK but putting them on your back was not!