Side mount Options: Razor, Apeks, Xdeep

[Dive-aholic]

If you are diving warm water with aluminum tanks then the advice you have been given is reasonable. If, on the other hand, you are diving in a drysuit with steel tanks then the Hollis SMS 75 would be my first choice.

Here is the kind of profile you will get with a 75



True, this is a full wing, but that's a good 5 inches. And that 5 inches is lifting the butt plate which in turn is putting the cylinders out of trim. The top of the wing is very minimal so the gas is forced to the bottom like that. Just something to consider.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Greetings, everyone!

So far I'm a Master Scuba Diver through PADI with Nitrox, Deep, Wreck, Night and Buoyancy specialties besides Rescue but I want to take more serious diving training.

I got in contact with a 5 cave diving instructors in Mexico and they all told me flat out to NOT buy Halcyon, Hollis, or DiveRite side mount rigs because they are too bulky. Amazingly, all 5 said the same thing: choose between Apeks, Razor or XDeep.

The only difference between the 3 rigs mentioned is that the Razor has 2 bladders that function independently from each other.

Can anyone give me some insight into this? I'm in the process of selling my recreational stuff and getting a side mount rig.

Cheers!

If you are truly planning on doing most of your dives using steel cylinders then I recommend you talk to divers who dive steel cylinders. The guys in Mexico are diving mainly with AL80s. I've taught lots of students in various rigs and cylinders. The students in the Razors and Stealths, when using steel cylinders, had high profiles because of the amount of air they had to have in the wing to offset the weight of the additional air in the steels. For heavier steel cylinders you're better off with a horseshoe or donut shaped wing that spreads the lift around more and keeps a lower profile. That being said, as I already posted, the donut shaped wings that are positioned below the butt plate will prove problematic in keeping the cylinders trimmed out throughout the dive. This may not be a big issue to you. You can always trim the cylinders at the midway point so they will only be a couple inches out of trim whether up or down. My suggestion is to try out some different sidemount rigs before you spend the money on something you may end up not liking.

 

[DevonDiver]

I'd suggest the XDeep Stealth Tec.... has the buoyancy for steels, but the streamlining/low bulk of a warm-water rig. It should soon be available with dual-bladder. I am told the redundant version is just waiting for CE approval (an indeterminably slow process).

Otherwise, get a Stealth 2.0 and simply pop an MSR bladder under the zip. Then it's just like a Razor

See XDeep Stealth 2.0 Modifications : Redundant Buoyancy

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

Ah! Sidemount! It's notorious for being the configuration in which you ask 10 divers about it and will get 11 different opinions. The recommendations from cave instructors in Mexico doesn't surprise me as they primarily dive in Al80's and usually have to truck to the dive sites...so a more minimalist rig is the rule in those neck of the woods. If you were to ask in Florida chances are you'll get a totally different set of answers. I will say this though, many sidemount divers own more than one rig. I personally own a Nomad XT and a Nomad LTZ. Both serve their purposes and are great tools for the specific job at hand.

Basically what works like a charm in the warm caves in Mexico will not work as well on cold wrecks or even mild Florida and vice versa.

BTW....thanks for the pic of the SMS75 Rob! It definitely puts things in perspective.

 

[Ozwald]

I dive cold water, drysuit, heavy undergarments with steels. The Xdeep Tech works fine.