Learning side mount with out instructor?

[Bigeclipse]

I recently decided I may give side mount a try. Unfortunately in my area there are little to no side mount divers and I do not have the time or means to travel to do a class. That being said, I have self taught myself a LOT with regards to scuba (outside of the actual courses I have taken such as intro to tech TDI and deep diver PADI certs). I always dive with a buddy when trying new things and it is always in very shallow waters. For example, switching when I switched from a BCD to a BP/W setup, then going to a long hose setup, to diving dry, then back mounted doubles, and finally rebuilding my own regulators ...etc. I understand the overall setup for side mount but I also hear it makes a world of difference having an instructor who knows side mount well. I am wondering if there are some of you who are self taught side mount divers. How was the learning process? Lessons learned? Did you ever feel unsafe? Again, I will be doing this with a buddy who has a lot of experience when it comes to diving...just not side mount diving and I will be doing it in a very calm lake in very shallow waters. I never rush things and would practice a lot in shallow waters (20ft or less) before every considering deeper waters. Anything else to think about?

 

[a878bob]

The road is long when done by yourself, you don't know what you don't know. And it's can be a painful process. With a lot of trial and error.

But I think a way to shorten the learning is to have your dive buddy film you in the water and you film your setup. Find a good sm diver to share those videos with who can help get you tuned up. It happens in other sports, why not diving.

Even facetime would be helpful for getting setup. Hmmm, I like this idea, I might try teaching like this.

 

[tbone1004]

those of us that have been sidemount diving for more than probably 6 years are almost all self taught since it predates any sort of formal sidemount training outside of cave country and also predates most of the commercial rigs out there.
What makes instructors valuable is accelerating the timeline. Theoretically they have already figured it out, and as such can help you do it. Now since it has become a fad and agencies like PADI have no actual proof required of an instructors abilities to be able to cert sidemount divers, there are a TON of pretty useless sidemount instructors out there. Again, if you are outside of cave country, odds are not in your favor for a quality sidemount instructor.

What is better than @a878bob 's suggestion of a gopro is to make/buy a small/cheap mirror and take it in the water with you. If you can get to an area with some sort of training platform vs. a soft bottom, it helps so you can make adjustments to your tank rigging instantly and without getting out of the water. Just bring a screwdriver in with you and you can adjust all sorts of stuff outside of the bungees on your rig. Your buddy can help with that as well but with the resources online and on this board, you can get pretty damned close on the first try. Those of us that have been at it a while can get a rig that is brand new/unseen to us about 95% sorted before ever putting it on and we tend to be pretty generous with helping out for instruction. Tons of articles written by @Doppler and @DevonDiver on their respective websites, videos on youtube, etc.
An instructor can get you sorted in a 6-8 hour day. It will probably take you 20-30 hours to sort it out for yourself to the same level

 

[northernone]

Agreeing with above:

It can be done. It will take way longer with greater effort and the end result less fine tuned. Unsafe, unlikely as you described it.

Reinventing the wheel is our best option sometimes.... But never the ideal one.

Can you at least do a SM try dive, so you have an idea what to aim for with properly adjusted gear? A good instructor can tune it in 80% in a few minutes from experience... Might take us a month... Took me years...

Cameron

 

[АлександрД]

I came to sidemount by selfeducated way.
It was as a joke and just kidding in the beginning, and then it goes to real MY PERSONAL style of sidemount.
It was just interesting to me to made my own equipment, that comfortable TO ME.
I did it Minimal diving harness

So, when I had tested it, same time I had learning sidemount skills, also I had consulting with one my fellow instructor, who also had designing his own equipment (but more in rebreathers - Valery Mukhin ), and also had consulting him in some other points, and we help eachother.

Later, for the future, just in case of most captious LDSs, I passed just exam from this instructor. He try to check everything, not only SM in this day, but I`d passed. So - as result - nice card I have:

Nice numbers, right?
It is not a fake, it is real.

It is very good support, when you have buddy with camera, and during your equipment and skills trainings he will register it, and late you will analyze and doing ajustments for next dive. And so on...

 

[Caveeagle]

One reason sidemount is harder to self teach is that there is much less standardization vs other configurations. Assuming your single tank groove is not a total sh1t-show, you can move into a hogarthian BM doubles set up pretty smoothly, and your in water skills and drills are pretty consistent.

Sidemount is exponentially more complicated. BC/harness are not standard, regulator hose routing is more critical. Bungee styles are different. Position of valves and regs is all over the map. You will even fine people who have been SM diving for years, who are still tweaking and making changes. ...You just don't see that with typical BM divers.

I even paid ~$50 for a sidemount book, that turned out to be pretty useless from an instructional POV. Interesting information on history and context, but severely lacking for anyone looking for useful set up or skills information.

I found this recently.... very good write up on various styles of bungee mounting.
Sidemount Bungee Styles | Dive Rite

Good advice (above) on being careful who you pick as a SM instructor. Diving a lot in NFL "cave country", I have even seen out of town SM instructors who looked like total rookies in the water.

Do a little searching here on SB.. there is a poster here that shared his video/photo journal on set up and trial dives. I thought it was very informative on how to set up and work through tweaking gear.

 

[Bierstadt]

Subbed. I would love to read a book focused on setup and skills for sidemount.

 

[leadduck]

Sidemount Guide: Equipment – Configuration – Skills eBook: Alexander Hartmann: Amazon.de: Kindle-Shop

I have only the German printed version, it's good (I found it better than the my sidemount class material). I assume the English Kindle version is a complete translation (but I don't know).

 

[Stoo]

Find a friend who dives SM and ask them to help you fine-tune. Diving is diving. Trim and stuff is just tweaking.

 

[Patoux01]

Very much feasible, but so is banging your head against walls.

That said, if you can think a bit and have no issue spending 10-15 dives (AFTER having done a lot of reading) on tuning everything, yes it can be done. A good instructor just turns those 15 dives and hours of reading in 3 days of training , which is a lot nicer.