Is Side Mount the new DIR??? Building resentment towards us as a group...
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I did a number of dives in sidemount that didn't really call for the configuration. When you first take up sidemount, you've got to practice somewhere... I did both OW boat and shore dives. Once I had reached a good comfort level (somewhere around 20-30 dives in sidemount) I switched to only sidemounting when I needed doubles.
I am interested in your experience with regard to the space and time issues. I am not disagreeing with or challenging the statement. Rather, you may be observing something that SM divers are doing, are possibly unaware of, and which could be altered to improve space utilization.
In particular, are you referring to SM divers strapping on 2 cylinders, when everyone else is doing a single cylinder BM (recreational) dive? Or, is there something about the configuration of your boat that makes SM particularly cumbersome for you / other divers?
I was on a boat recently in St. Thomas, which was certainly 'space challenged'. We had to hand our unstowed gear aboard before leaving the dock, and we didn't depart until all rigs were assembled and tested - there just wasn't any extra space. I actually liked the idea that we weren't going to have to assemble gear enroute to the site, or after tying in. I was diving BM singles, which necessarily required changing the BCD over between dives. This was done by the mate, presumably because space was so limited, but it wasn't done well, and several people still had to adjust their rig at the start of the second dive. I was thinking during the experience that I would have been much better off monkey diving. That way, all I would have had to do (or the mate would have had to do) between dives was change my reg from one cylinder to the other.
As for the taking extra time, do you have a sense that this is a reflection of 'newness' to the configuration? I can also see people taking a bit of extra time if they haven't rigged their cylinders before they get to the site. But, if they set their cylinders up before leaving the dock, put the regs on and tested them, etc., it seems to me that the diver should require no more time, and possibly less at the site, when diving SM. Depending on the travel time to the site, I can usually get into my suit early on, and wear my BCD en route. When we get there, I simply pick up my cylinder, clip it on and jump in. I make any minor adjustments once in the water.
But, you may be seeing something different, and it would be really helpful to understand your perspective and experience.
It would be a tremendous help to many sidemount boat divers if a boat owner could explain this someday, with pictures of the potential problem areas for sidemount equipment on his deck. 
Boat owners are among those most often criticizing sidemount, sidemount boat divers I know never understand or can explain.
let me explain, please:
I personally know several different 'boat deck environments' and similar to many sidemount divers I use sidemount because I believe it to be more comfortable for me in all of the situations I know and have personal experience with or already had prior to using sidemount.
I have only made a few hundred dives from boats myself, but as a landlocked lake diver this is as experienced as I could get in the few years since discovering sidemount.
Divers photograph their boat decks often however, so I think most people have seen examples of a lot of ways to build a dive deck and will agree that there are not a lot of basic differences.
1. Typical safari boat or one-day-trip boat:
The larger specialized diving boats used in most oceans are comparable from what I know.
Indian Ocean, Red Sea, etc...
Smaller ones often use the same tank mountings and arrangements and have fewer seats or have larger diving decks compared to boat size.
Large open spaces, wide steps and decks, comfortable mounting for tanks on benches, equipment stowed below those (or something comparable).
Deployable ladders and often RIBs towed behind, on the deck or on cranes.
Some even have diver elevators and underwater equipment mountings, viewports, etc...
I do not see any way sidemount could be a problem there and using it's advantages the sidemount diver will be first off the deck and one of the fastest (probably last, however) to get back on board.
Most do not need or accept help on the ladders or with their fins and tanks.
Boat owners, crews and captains should love them
2. RIBs:
Yes, they are a pain in sidemount, but aren't they in backmount too?
Smaller ones can carry a lot more sidemount tanks than jackets and tanks.
Big speedboats do not have that problem but a row of stages is still easier to secure than wildly mixed rec equipment.
3. small boats not made of rubber:
Yes, sidemount divers will bang and bong around in an aluminum boat like church-bells.
Buuut: see below: 4.
4. Boats and ships not constructed for diving at all:
Those of course are a problem.
They probably have taken years to develop procedures to get backmount divers into the water uninjured.
What I do not understand about all of this (3 and 4):
Sidemount could be a great way for those crews to improve the overall experience for everybody.
Most boats like that have at least some experience getting freedivers and snorkelers into the water.
They also often know how to handle stages since tec style equipment is used 'everywhere' nowadays.
You just have to get those tanks into the water.
An experienced sailor should have an easy day solving that problem for his boat.
Drop a line and the sidemounters after it, throw them in and deliver their tanks by speedboat in labeled pairs with a small disposable 'buoyancy helper' attached (joking, but I like to imagine that, would look impressive).
More realistically: have them all go in single tank and then drop lines with the second tank for them to collect.
On shallow sandy spots, drop the second tanks down a line to the bottom to collect from the sand around the anchor.
Develop ways to pull an overweighted 6foot 300lbs and only semi-competent diver out of the water with his sidemount harness and weights on him with minimum effort (he will be a very grateful customer).
(examples only)
As many have mentioned, sidemount and backmount divers both use two tanks for the two typical daily dives and do not take more space, less, more likely.
Offering more dives normally is solved by onboard refilling.
It should generally be more comfortable for crews to fill a row of sidemount tanks than a row of tanks with the occasional jacket still hanging on then or a BP/W bolted to them.
It's hard for any normal sidemount user I talked to (those of them with decent boat experience) to imagine where the problems could even begin.
I personally had to overcome prejudices and fears mostly, all proved to be unwarranted.
Had some severe difficulties adjusting with always slightly different situations with no time to really think about problems between dives.
RIB diving seemed an unsolvable problem to me, I had started to think it would always be 'hard'.
A very tiny adjustment in procedure I should have seen after the first try reversed that for me, now RIBs are fun again.
I still have to solve climbing in with 20 pounds of lead still on my back and stiff fingers unable to hold my weight even without.
Finding help developing a solution for that personal fitness problem proved to be impossible for me in till now.
I am not sure if I will find out someday myself or if I get a useful hint any where first.
Boat owners are among those most often criticizing sidemount, sidemount boat divers I know never understand or can explain.
let me explain, please:
I personally know several different 'boat deck environments' and similar to many sidemount divers I use sidemount because I believe it to be more comfortable for me in all of the situations I know and have personal experience with or already had prior to using sidemount.
I have only made a few hundred dives from boats myself, but as a landlocked lake diver this is as experienced as I could get in the few years since discovering sidemount.
Divers photograph their boat decks often however, so I think most people have seen examples of a lot of ways to build a dive deck and will agree that there are not a lot of basic differences.
1. Typical safari boat or one-day-trip boat:
The larger specialized diving boats used in most oceans are comparable from what I know.
Indian Ocean, Red Sea, etc...
Smaller ones often use the same tank mountings and arrangements and have fewer seats or have larger diving decks compared to boat size.
Large open spaces, wide steps and decks, comfortable mounting for tanks on benches, equipment stowed below those (or something comparable).
Deployable ladders and often RIBs towed behind, on the deck or on cranes.
Some even have diver elevators and underwater equipment mountings, viewports, etc...
I do not see any way sidemount could be a problem there and using it's advantages the sidemount diver will be first off the deck and one of the fastest (probably last, however) to get back on board.
Most do not need or accept help on the ladders or with their fins and tanks.
Boat owners, crews and captains should love them
2. RIBs:
Yes, they are a pain in sidemount, but aren't they in backmount too?
Smaller ones can carry a lot more sidemount tanks than jackets and tanks.
Big speedboats do not have that problem but a row of stages is still easier to secure than wildly mixed rec equipment.
3. small boats not made of rubber:
Yes, sidemount divers will bang and bong around in an aluminum boat like church-bells.
Buuut: see below: 4.
4. Boats and ships not constructed for diving at all:
Those of course are a problem.
They probably have taken years to develop procedures to get backmount divers into the water uninjured.
What I do not understand about all of this (3 and 4):
Sidemount could be a great way for those crews to improve the overall experience for everybody.
Most boats like that have at least some experience getting freedivers and snorkelers into the water.
They also often know how to handle stages since tec style equipment is used 'everywhere' nowadays.
You just have to get those tanks into the water.
An experienced sailor should have an easy day solving that problem for his boat.
Drop a line and the sidemounters after it, throw them in and deliver their tanks by speedboat in labeled pairs with a small disposable 'buoyancy helper' attached (joking, but I like to imagine that, would look impressive).
More realistically: have them all go in single tank and then drop lines with the second tank for them to collect.
On shallow sandy spots, drop the second tanks down a line to the bottom to collect from the sand around the anchor.
Develop ways to pull an overweighted 6foot 300lbs and only semi-competent diver out of the water with his sidemount harness and weights on him with minimum effort (he will be a very grateful customer).
(examples only)
As many have mentioned, sidemount and backmount divers both use two tanks for the two typical daily dives and do not take more space, less, more likely.
Offering more dives normally is solved by onboard refilling.
It should generally be more comfortable for crews to fill a row of sidemount tanks than a row of tanks with the occasional jacket still hanging on then or a BP/W bolted to them.
It's hard for any normal sidemount user I talked to (those of them with decent boat experience) to imagine where the problems could even begin.
I personally had to overcome prejudices and fears mostly, all proved to be unwarranted.
Had some severe difficulties adjusting with always slightly different situations with no time to really think about problems between dives.
RIB diving seemed an unsolvable problem to me, I had started to think it would always be 'hard'.
A very tiny adjustment in procedure I should have seen after the first try reversed that for me, now RIBs are fun again.
I still have to solve climbing in with 20 pounds of lead still on my back and stiff fingers unable to hold my weight even without.
Finding help developing a solution for that personal fitness problem proved to be impossible for me in till now.
I am not sure if I will find out someday myself or if I get a useful hint any where first.
clownfishsydney
Contributor
My boat is a private 6 metre catamaran. I only take friends out diving and we only do single dives. In general, the divers who come with me probably average at least 1,000 dives each, so I am not talking about novice divers.
For normal shallow dives (less than 35 metres), I take a total of 6 on the boat. When we do deep dives, I take only 5 to compensate for the extra weight of the additional tanks (5 tanks and deco gas tanks weigh more than one person). In addition, if a person brings 2 tanks for side mount, then we still have to find space to put their wing which, of course, is not attached to the tank/s. It also leads to an unbalanced boat which we need to correct by moving lead weight or people around.
For normal dives, there is no need to use more than one appropriately sized tank. Therefore, there is no need to use side mount for these dives. I have no objection to someone wanting to do some test dives on shallow sites to get used to the gear, but not every dive.
Even the most experienced side mount diver takes considerably more time to gear up than a person with a single tank. In our hot climate, this can cause problems with overheating while waiting for someone to get ready when You expect they will take only a short time more that yourself. In most cases they also need some assistance (over what a person donning a single tank needs).
As stated, I have no problems with people using side mounts (or doubles for that matter) for a dive that needs that set up. If we were doing double dives, I would not object to someone using side mount or twins for so long as they brought no other thanks. However, we do not do double dives (since we are so close to the ocean we have no need to get the most out of our diving day).
For normal shallow dives (less than 35 metres), I take a total of 6 on the boat. When we do deep dives, I take only 5 to compensate for the extra weight of the additional tanks (5 tanks and deco gas tanks weigh more than one person). In addition, if a person brings 2 tanks for side mount, then we still have to find space to put their wing which, of course, is not attached to the tank/s. It also leads to an unbalanced boat which we need to correct by moving lead weight or people around.
For normal dives, there is no need to use more than one appropriately sized tank. Therefore, there is no need to use side mount for these dives. I have no objection to someone wanting to do some test dives on shallow sites to get used to the gear, but not every dive.
Even the most experienced side mount diver takes considerably more time to gear up than a person with a single tank. In our hot climate, this can cause problems with overheating while waiting for someone to get ready when You expect they will take only a short time more that yourself. In most cases they also need some assistance (over what a person donning a single tank needs).
As stated, I have no problems with people using side mounts (or doubles for that matter) for a dive that needs that set up. If we were doing double dives, I would not object to someone using side mount or twins for so long as they brought no other thanks. However, we do not do double dives (since we are so close to the ocean we have no need to get the most out of our diving day).
Hey Mike, I totally respect "your boat, your rules" and that's fine. But, I Can honestly say you've yet to be exposed to an experienced Sidemounter. Just a couple points, I wear my wing, no need to find a place for it as its on my back. The 2 systems I dive, takes seconds to connect, literally the time I'm waiting for Backmounted to get to the bouy, I've connected and waiting patiently. I can do 1 or 2 tanks easily. I can move faster than a BM diver while holding 2 tanks jumping in the water, connecting them and still waiting. Granted, a less experienced SM would be slower, so would a less experienced BM. Again, 1 tank per dive in sidemount, 1 or 2 carried, doesn't matter. Any well trained Sidemounter needs no assistance, none, tanks can be turned on in the water unlike a BM, tanks or tank is carried by the diver.
I think you aren't experienced with sidemounters as it seems your dive buddies are all BM's, and that's fine, no need for you to start chartering dives for sidemounters. But, I just want people to know the reality and not conjecture.
clownfishsydney
Contributor
The side mount divers have probably an average of over 500 dives using side mount and 1,000 all up, so I would dispute your thoughts. Not sure what you mean by "I'm waiting for Backmounted to get to the bouy". What buoy?
In case you mean you start gearing up as so as the boat anchors/grabs buoy, well, on boats in our club, everyone has to assist. A bit hard to put out and/or pull up an anchor with a back plate/wing on. It would also be in the way doing other things. Private boats work differently to charter boats and are also set up differently and have less room than most charter boats.
Again, I have used my boat for probably 1,500 dives in Sydney, so I know what works best on it and also on many of my friends' boats.
Guessing Jay meant he is as quick as bm. I'm new and I'm not slow by comparison...
As far the harness goes, no backplate, full range of motion, secure yet perfectly comfortable, flat wing, n/p.
Single tank, set up when bm'ers do in rack. No jacket or BP/w strapped to it.
Even I can clip on a tank, connect inflator and sort regs by the time everyone else does the wiggle into their rigs...
Not sure what "in the way doing other things." means...
As I said, I'm new, but if you're organized,
SM is just as fast and takes no more room.
This is not to argue with anyone's personal opinions or experience. That's how we all differ. Just adding my perspective.
Cheers, Kevin
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