There is often a misunderstanding about priorities in the discussions.... don't let people talk you into the it is superior, and oooohh sssosooo easy. ...
It is hard to reach perfection without good training and a lot of experience, quite probably most people would need infinite experience without ever being able to reach perfection.
Survival, however, is perfectly simple and easy in a sidemount config.
Good buoyancy control (or at least adequate) is more or less 'build in'.
Current is not something to fear, but use to your advantage.
Speed and maneuverability will be the best the diver can manage without electric propulsion, even with inadequate fins or without.
Even the hardest entry and exit becomes 'survivable' for anyone: injured, disabled, distracted or healthy.
Overweighting much is rare in sidemount, rarer already with rudimentary training, nearly unthinkable with a good trainer or only a couple of dives experience.
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Diving with another sidemount diver I just do not think about danger of small errors and take excessive caution anymore.
Even if his config looks like a landslide in slow motion, his wing like a butterfly, or there is something else I don't like myself.
My own config looked horrible long enough and often enough still does when I get distracted and accumulate mistakes setting up.
I had divers in perfect config with good training make critical newbie errors and been 'saved' from some of my own mistakes by divers in horrible config, even as horrible and backward as mounting gas on your back.
With a sidemounter I can guess a lot watching him set up his equipment.
Seeing his level of control from the surface to bubble check depth is enough to know his abilities (which will be adequate most of the time).
The only thing left to think of is psychology when you enter difficult environment.
I never interfere when something looks like a problem, I just watch and wait.
Sometimes that might prove a mistake, but most of the time he will get himself sorted out without too much help.
There is not much that can go wrong and most of the time you can learn a lot yourself by watching someone else learning a lesson.
The 'drills' in particular are 'common sense' most of the time. In contrast to backmount you do not have to learn doing anything 'blindly' or complicated.
Anyone can easily master them, if shown correctly a few times and anyone can depend confidently on being able to repeat it in almost any conceivable situation.
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