Is Side Mount the new DIR??? Building resentment towards us as a group...

[DevonDiver]

"It was obvious to me during the conversation that Side Mount had become the defacto current DIR."

To make a global conclusion, based on a single conversation, might be the flawed premise that many have alluded to in this thread...

 

[JohnnyC]

Well, all you need to do is look at a certain poster who happens to be a fan of the guy that invented a particular SM harness to see that there are zealots trying to make it a movement.

 

[toby43]

It's a question of need vs fashion/marketing. Needs would be caves or wrecks where sidemount is necessary (a small minority) or physical - back, knee problems, repaired hernia, can't reach valves etc. The safety factor inherent in manifolded twins vs independent twins is one I like. The **** factor comes when I see people more concerned about the kit they wear and the fashion dollies they acquire rather than the dive they're doing. I have dived with lots of sidemounted divers, including professionals, who have kit and trim problems during a dive which has detracted from it. And it does take them longer to get their kit on. Does that matter? yes - pitching boat at sea, hot day in a drysuit, I could go on...

 

[DevonDiver]

The **** factor comes when I see people more concerned about the kit they wear and the fashion dollies they acquire rather than the dive they're doing.

It's not a phenomenon specific to sidemount, or even to scuba diving. I believe what you describe is covered by the phrase "all the gear, but no idea".

 

[toby43]

It's not a phenomenon specific to sidemount, or even to scuba diving. I believe what you describe is covered by the phrase "all the gear, but no idea".

Exactly, I read about some bloke wearing a hard hat in open water, must have been expecting a meteorite.

 

[Colliam7]

And you would be wrong!

Maybe. But, maybe not. Perhaps, you should read it again as well. Or, maybe you and I are reading the same thing and coming away with entirely different perspectives. I read Pete's description not as a description of BM divers bashing SM, or showing disdain for SM. Rather, it was a different reaction altogether - 'OMG, here comes another SM diver zealot / fanatic / evangelist. Hope he doesn't start talking about SM.'

When I was an undergraduate student in Chapel Hill many years ago, the Hare Krishna community was particularly active on the main street of town. Many of us avoided them like the plague - NOT because we had anything against them, but because we didn't want to be prostletized by them - their exhuberance became an annoyance, if you were just trying to get to the bank. And, the same was true for more than a few adherents of DIR at one point (hence, the title of Pete's thread) - they became zealots, fanatics, to be avoided at all costs. Nothing wrong with DIR, just the irrational zealotry of a few of its devotees.

So, I read the OP not as some reaction to, or lamentation of, criticism of SM by BM divers, but as a call for some SM divers to perhaps dial down their strident advocacy, and their 'there is only one way to dive SM, and that is my way' approach, a notch. And, that attitude has been evident in a few select cases in this thread (and several of those posts were even deleted because of their tone and focus), and on the board. It has nothing to do with BM divers, but with SM divers being their own worst enemy.

But, if Pete shows up and clarifies what he intended in the OP, and says I am wrong, or you are wrong, or we are both wrong, so be it. It really doesn't matter. People are free to take away from the thread whatever message they choose to see, just as people are free to dive whatever configuration they choose to dive..

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

However, that wasn't what Netdoc was originally saying, anyway, from what I read.He was really addressing a level of irrational exhuberance within the sidemount community, and there have been quite a number of posts that support that premise, including some by at least a couple of SB members who are on, for the present, a temporary vacation from posting on SB. The question / issue was, 'Has SM become like DIR, within the SM community?' Have we helped create a band of zealots, and prostletizing evangelists? Pete was reflecting on a recent, personal experience he had with other sidemounters - not BM divers criticizing SM divers, but SM divers seeing the world through a somewhat narrow field of vision. If the thread has gone sideways, is it because there seems to be a misunderstanding, that he was trying to suggest that SM is being somehow 'bashed' by BM divers?

I chalk it up more to where he dives than to the platform he's diving with. Having spent time in north Florida, evangelism seems to be a popular pastime down there ... taking form on a variety of subjects. Sidemount and DIR just happen to be two of them.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Well, all you need to do is look at a certain poster who happens to be a fan of the guy that invented a particular SM harness to see that there are zealots trying to make it a movement.

There are zealots in pretty much every aspect of diving. You should've seen the time a split fin zealot lit into TSandM for wearing those old-fashioned Jet fins she used to use ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Colliam7]

Having spent time in north Florida, evangelism seems to be a popular pastime down there ...

Great comment. Thanks, Bob.

 

[Razorista]

-...You should've seen the time a split fin zealot lit into TSandM for wearing those old-fashioned Jet fins she used to use ...

The JetFin zealots hugely outnumber the splitfin zealots around here.
You should hear them: only fin for backkicks, without heavy fins you cannot dive a drysuit, they are falsely rumored to be indestructible and faster than other fins...

I do not really meet sidemount zealots however.
Only ever met those on the internet.
Here everybody (even people proven competent numerous times before) seems to be a single minded fanatic.

I recently proved with a simple video that the single bungee is as effective as the loop and double bungee methods favored by most at the moment.
The discussion did not give the impression anyone in it could be convinced by an unimportant thing like a proven fact.