I did my first dive in sidemount today. It was really great! The weight of two heavy steel tanks offset by the bladder on my back almost forced good trim. It was a sidemount "class" dive which really consisted mostly of instruction on how to rig everything up. A little time was spent on techniques like breathing the tanks down evenly. I didn't get down the half disconnect maneuver for passing restrictions. That's fine though, because I won't need to get through any restrictions until I complete cave classes next fall/winter. Plenty of time to get it in my pool.
Rigging everything up including BC long before dive time was also very nice. When it's time to dive, you just clip on the tanks and gitter done. I prefer that over having the tank attached to the BC and strapping everything on at once.
I am glad I decided to do it. 216cuft without even getting a cave fill! It's also quite a bit more comfortable than backmount singles in my opinion. Now I just need to make sure I book boats that are okay with side-mount and long dive times! Obviously NDL's are now my limiting factor.
Rigging everything up including BC long before dive time was also very nice. When it's time to dive, you just clip on the tanks and gitter done. I prefer that over having the tank attached to the BC and strapping everything on at once.
I am glad I decided to do it. 216cuft without even getting a cave fill! It's also quite a bit more comfortable than backmount singles in my opinion. Now I just need to make sure I book boats that are okay with side-mount and long dive times! Obviously NDL's are now my limiting factor.
