Hey all,
Glad to have recently joined the SM community! So, after getting my trusted twins (and all other equipment *sigh*) stolen, I made a semi-informed decision to switch from backmount to sidemount. I got a pretty good deal on a barely used set of steel 10L/232bar tanks, Apeks WSX harness and a set of Mares 25XR DR regs (more on these later).
Now mind you, i'm a DM and have a tec45 cert with about 700 dives, but have not (atleast yet) taken a sidemount course, which I'm sure would solve a lot of the small kinks and questions. So far, I'm quite happy with all the adjustments and feel absolutely great in water, and outside of a few minor details getting looked into feel like I wouldn't necessarily gain much more than some advice that any seasoned sidemounteer can provide. Am I just flat out in the wrong here?
The question is: Switching tanks to "front position" (unclip, bring to front) feels downright impossible. I've seen videos of this being done with barely any effect on boyancy. When I do the same, the negative tanks obviously will bring my center of gravity forward and I will tip over. Pretty much the same happens if I for example want to tuck my longhose and unclip for that or whatever other reason. Just a feature of steel tanks or what am I missing here?
I have independent loop bungees that have a boltsnaps on them (clipped to chest d-rings) mostly just to keep them in place for easier reach with drygloves and suit. Tanks are oriented so that valves point outwards and regs towards me. Loops go over around the valve post and loop around the "extended post" to provide torque and twist tanks close to my sides. Now steels are heavy, so the sliding d-rings are pretty close to my buttplate. I'd like to have the tanks to be just slightly more "valve handles up", now they tend to slightly droop below horizontal. Which way should I look to adjust my boltsnap on tank band? Wish it was a bit easier over here to just get to test this stuff in water...
So, it turns out even though I was buying a "full SM ready kit", the Mares 25XR is NOT the best option for SM as it has no "5th port", but all LP hoses point down and HP ports are slightly slanted (?) to opposing sides for I really don't know what reason. I managed to get myself 90-degree LP adaptors on both inflator hoses and they seem to work surprisingly well. Any thoughts on this? Didn't really have much of an issue without them either, just a bit longer hoses for suit and BC but the adaptors sure clean away a bit of clutter.
Also, any tricks to get that loop bungee around the valvepost in drygloves? I always manage to get my glove thumb stuck between the loop and the post and then getting it snap back off.
God I miss Thailand...
Sorry for a bit of a ramble, just trying to make some sense out of this myself!
Glad to have recently joined the SM community! So, after getting my trusted twins (and all other equipment *sigh*) stolen, I made a semi-informed decision to switch from backmount to sidemount. I got a pretty good deal on a barely used set of steel 10L/232bar tanks, Apeks WSX harness and a set of Mares 25XR DR regs (more on these later).
Now mind you, i'm a DM and have a tec45 cert with about 700 dives, but have not (atleast yet) taken a sidemount course, which I'm sure would solve a lot of the small kinks and questions. So far, I'm quite happy with all the adjustments and feel absolutely great in water, and outside of a few minor details getting looked into feel like I wouldn't necessarily gain much more than some advice that any seasoned sidemounteer can provide. Am I just flat out in the wrong here?
The question is: Switching tanks to "front position" (unclip, bring to front) feels downright impossible. I've seen videos of this being done with barely any effect on boyancy. When I do the same, the negative tanks obviously will bring my center of gravity forward and I will tip over. Pretty much the same happens if I for example want to tuck my longhose and unclip for that or whatever other reason. Just a feature of steel tanks or what am I missing here?
I have independent loop bungees that have a boltsnaps on them (clipped to chest d-rings) mostly just to keep them in place for easier reach with drygloves and suit. Tanks are oriented so that valves point outwards and regs towards me. Loops go over around the valve post and loop around the "extended post" to provide torque and twist tanks close to my sides. Now steels are heavy, so the sliding d-rings are pretty close to my buttplate. I'd like to have the tanks to be just slightly more "valve handles up", now they tend to slightly droop below horizontal. Which way should I look to adjust my boltsnap on tank band? Wish it was a bit easier over here to just get to test this stuff in water...

So, it turns out even though I was buying a "full SM ready kit", the Mares 25XR is NOT the best option for SM as it has no "5th port", but all LP hoses point down and HP ports are slightly slanted (?) to opposing sides for I really don't know what reason. I managed to get myself 90-degree LP adaptors on both inflator hoses and they seem to work surprisingly well. Any thoughts on this? Didn't really have much of an issue without them either, just a bit longer hoses for suit and BC but the adaptors sure clean away a bit of clutter.
Also, any tricks to get that loop bungee around the valvepost in drygloves? I always manage to get my glove thumb stuck between the loop and the post and then getting it snap back off.

Sorry for a bit of a ramble, just trying to make some sense out of this myself!
