Sidemount and boat

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KNDiver

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What is your experience with sidemount on boat? I do not have other equipment, so that's what I use, but has not yet been on the boat trip. Any recommendations?
 
its not a problem as long as you have room to get kitted up- what is your concern?
 
If water and boat conditions allow it, it's blissfully simple to enter the water and have a member of boat crew pass tour cylinders down to you.

That approach is more problematic in strong current or on high-sided boats. So yoi may want to don cylinders on the boat and enter the water with everything in place.

You can do any water entry technique from a boat, but it's wise to add a solid connection at the top of the cylinders.

I use a 550 cord loop for this attachment, clipped to the shoulder D-ring via double-enders. I remove and stow the double-enders once I've entered. Some divers like permanently attached bolt snaps at the cylinder valve. I find they annoyed me, dangling around the whole dive or taking up real-estate on the D-rings.

Sometimes I'll enter with just one cylinder attached (left cylinder) and either hand-carry the 2nd cylinder or have that passed down.

On very shallow dives I'll just throw in the 2nd tank and collect it from the bottom... entering with the left cylinder attached and ready.

On some dives I'll attach cylinders to a line (tied with metal attachment loops) and lower them down to the water. I can enter the water, retrieve and don cylinders. After the dive, I'll remove and reattach the cylinder to the line. I board the boat and pull the cylinders up.

Sidemount offers amazing versatility - use your imagination to problem-solve the best implementation.
 
Something else to think about. Boats are typically designed for easy passage for a diver wearing a single or double cylinders mounted high on the back. Passage (for US Coast Guard, anyway) is a minimum of 26" wide, usually jump openings are 32" wide. A person in sidemount is significantly wider than that. The resulting potential damage from widemount cylinders swinging and chipping paint, fiberglass, and other divers may result in dirty looks from the crew.

Other boats like a day boat or RHIB make sidemount easy. Roll over the back or step off the side and get your cylinders handed down to you makes life exceptionally easy. It's always a good idea to call ahead and feel the operator out about sidemount. If you get pushback, find another operator. Really, you will both be happier.

Another thing to think about is your statement "I do not have other equipment, so that's what I use". Fair enough, but what if sidemount isn't the tool you need to do the job? To a man whose only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. And you can drive a screw with a hammer, but the results are unsatisfactory and the long term effects leave much to be desired.
 
I like sidemount and the benefit of having redundancy, but double backmount is too heavy. I also prefer to use the same setup, and not having to change my regulator from backmount to sidemount and buy another wing to make that possible J
 
I was "that guy" in cozumel diving sidemount120s. I wanted to get a feel for doing it from boats. With the drift diving I didnt want to wait for the cylinder to get passed to me so I did back roll entries with the rest of the group. What I would do is pull my tanks up on the rail with me and clop them in using ring bungies diverite style then I would either be first roll in or last since with all that weight I usually ended up surfacing on the other side of the boat after doing a full roll.

With an anchored boat I have gotten down on the swim step and lowered both tanks into the water and left them cliped onto a rope attached to one of the stern clips then get into my harness and jump into the water to retrieve my tanks. Just make sure that you have enough air in your wing to remain neutral or positive when you jump in otherwise you might have to swim up any lead you are using until you get into your tanks.

I usually passed up tanks like the rest of the divers however I did climb the ladder with one or both tanks several times.
 
I like sidemount and the benefit of having redundancy, but double backmount is too heavy. I also prefer to use the same setup, and not having to change my regulator from backmount to sidemount and buy another wing to make that possible J
No argument with you. You don't need to justify your preferred diving style, not to me, anyway. Safe diving and have fun. That's why we do this, after all.
 
I jump in the water with everything on, no problems, have done it with double AL-80, AL-63, with double Stage/Deco bottles and have done it with double 7L Carbon with one Deco bottle, have done it with dry-suit and swimming trunks, never had an issue.
 
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Im not sure if 2 tank sidemount is any harder on boats divers or gear than backount with a couple of stages attached.
 
Im not sure if 2 tank sidemount is any harder on boats divers or gear than backount with a couple of stages attached.

Comparing 2 tank SM to BM doubles with a couple of stages seems like apples and oranges, to me. 2 tanks versus 4? I mean, I'd say you're right. 2 tank SM doesn't seem like it is any harder on the boat or divers than BM doubles with 2 stages, but....

I did a week of NC boat diving with a buddy that was diving 2 tank SM. His entries didn't look TOO bad compared to BM doubles. Boat crew were always around him to keep swinging cylinders from bashing anything as he made his way to the exit. But, getting back on the boat and to his bench always seemed like a much bigger PITA than it was for me with BM doubles (and even an AL40 deco bottle). I'm very interested to try SM for shore diving or calm(-ish, at least) water boat diving. But, for places like NC, where it can be 5' seas getting in (from a pretty high sided boat, to boot) and maybe even worse getting out (trying to climb a ladder off the stern), I'll be sticking to BM for the foreseeable future.
 
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