...I am a firm believer that it is a safer configuration for cave diving than doubles. GUE disagrees and they have every right to disagree with that, but it will be interesting to see what happens when they do settle on a sidemount configuration
I actually have a lot of respect for GUE's current stance on sidemount diving.
It's a lot better than some of the other DIR 'off-shoot' agencies, who've tried to sledgehammer sidemount into a backmount consistent approach. Sidemount isn't backmount - it's a very different beast - and no amount of fancy gizmos, principle-bending and inconsistency-blinkering is going to change that.
Attempting to formulate a standard sidemount configuration whilst retaining principles consistent with backmount diving evolution, is like cutting a head of the Hydra.
When you modify one element to meet a given principle, you find that you've created glaring breaches of several other principles. Modify again to resolve those, and find you've broken more.
Chase your tail for long enough...and when you step back to admire the result you see that you've created abominations full of QR failure points, kit that costs 4x anything else on the market, you're using a metal backplate and you have long hoses curled up all over the place.....
My one concern with GUE's approach to sidemount is that of "not for use in open water". I think it's fair for them to designate sidemount as 'cave mission-specific' until such time that (if...) they every crystallize on a standard sidemount rig/approach/system.
That said... if you need to use sidemount on cave mission-specific dives, then you are talking about some pretty advanced caves... tight restrictions and passages. If you've done ALL of your diving in a standardized single/double backmount configuration, then sidemount is relatively alien. Your equipment familiarity is minuscule compared to your experience in a cohesive backmount approach.
You need to amass experience in sidemount long before you use it on advanced overhead dives. That, in itself, presents a strong argument for encouraging divers to use sidemount as often as possible to gain an advanced level of familiarity and comfort in their rig. Hundreds, if not thousands, of hours.
So... you dive sidemount in open-water, because that's a benign testing ground. It's where you can accumulate the many hours of familiarity needed to learn the ropes..... to go from 'novice' to 'expert' in SIDEMOUNT diving.
Anyone that thinks decades of backmount cave expertise translates instantaneously into comparable expertise using sidemount after a relatively small handful of dives is suffering massive complacency - bordering on the delusional.
There many reasons why tight standardization is a beneficial approach to equipment configuration. Not least of those reasons is that the diver themselves enjoys the same intimate familiarity; regardless of whether they dive single or double backmount, cave, wreck or open-water, tropical, temperate or cold water....
Potentially decades of diving in a wide spectrum of conditions and environments - where every single dive contributes to and reinforces the same muscle memory, instinctive responses and equipment familiarity.
Cross-over to sidemount and.....
no matter how much you've tried to bastardize a rig to fit with that backmount standardization.... you lose those decades of intimate rig familiarity. That should not be under-estimated.
I think a few divers.... often the ones with the highest reputation and status.... are giving in to ego and doing their best to hammer a square (sidemount) peg into a round (backmount) hole. Deny the fundamental differences and just keep hammering away.
The reason being.... to acknowledge that their authority, expertise and accumulated skillfulness in backmount diminishes substantially when they don a sidemount rig.
Sure, you can preserve sidemount for
only complex cave dives. How will the incident report read when the community debate the amount (hours/dives) of
actual sidemount experience the victim had when they screw up?
"
The victim encountered a _______ problem in very complex cave passage, responded inappropriately and failed to ___________. Despite over 3 decades of technical cave experience, the deceased only had XX dives experience using the sidemount equipment he died in..."
