Sidemount Diving, Cozumel Trip, Do You?

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i always like to encourage people to try new ways of doing things. i think i remember a thread about trying this. perhaps it was yours. and if this works for you i think thats great. but can you pls breifly explain what your rational for doing this is ? i am genuinely interested.

for me, i have been in conditions where a single bm plus a 19cf pony (or larger) worked great. i wish the shops we use in coz had this as an option. i think coz would be a good place to do this.

i enjoy sm with a single tank, but if i was going to sm two tanks, i think i would keep things simple by using the same size tanks. i am trying to find the advantage to having two dismilar tanks.

Side-mounting 2 different sizes (ex: 80cu & 40cu).

Speaking of which, I should post an update to that thread.

The advantage of doing a 19cu pony (versus only 1 tank) is almost entirely for redundancy & emergencies. I do a lot of solo-diving. The other advantage is mostly weight managing tanks above the water, which is mostly an issue for me when diving off my friends boat and getting setup to dive quickly.

As a quick note, today I bungeed the pony, whereas I didn't last time. I definitely prefer bungeed, even for a pony.


How bad is the roll with SM one tank, say a 100cf steel...and an Xdeep Stealth.....I imagine I will be rolling a decent amount, not super relaxed.

Not that bad with an AL80. If I'm moving, even a relaxed swim, I don't notice it. Hovering, It's a slow lean to the left about 45-degrees, but it's not that extreme. I've had worse roll on a backplate setup with weights on the cambands.

Steels? I don't know.

Personally, I see no problem with putting a weight on the pony, but I haven't done it yet. I'm not an expert, but I think the issue with weights on tanks is mostly around your own buoyancy when your tank is not equipped, if for example you had to doff the tank for a restriction, to fix hose routing, or some emergency. If it's just for trim, I think it's fine.
 
OK, say one does want to travel someplace with AL80s and they want to SM...what are the bare essentials that one would need to bring with them to a typ. Cozumel dive charter?

-cam bands with bolt snaps?
Just one or the pair?
-Xdeep stealth tec
-SM regs [with an octo?]

It seems almost at this point it could be easy to add an AL80 and a cam band and bring the regs unchanged [from SM]...and now were are SM.....but....the only blocker is managing SM AL80s on boat dives.

I did rig up some "travel" cam bands, plastic but for lightweightI used a sharpie to dull the shiny metal bits :)

Bonus points: what SP reg is this??

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More pics and a pic of my neighbor's hot tub who is out of town :D
 

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I'd bring both SM harnesses, since they're compact, even if you plan on single-side-mount.

The camband version is a little faster than a hose-clamp, but either is probably fine.

I don't recognize that reg & I think I recognize a good number of SP 1st stages. My initial guess is it's not SP, or a really old SP. @halocline might know.
 
Going to Cozumel first itme in Aug, next month. I very, very rarely dive warm water.

(edited out)

So, for those who have sidemount dove [anywhere but maybe know cold water gear] and been to Cozumel...or if you just want to comment some pearls of wisdom...what would you do? :)

I would never dive sidemount in Cozumel. I suspect some people do these days, but I would absolutely just use a single tank like everyone else on the boat, mounted on a BC on your back. It will be MUCH more comfortable and practical both for the boat exit/entrances and for the diving itself.

I've been to Cozumel at least 20 times, and I dive sidemount in the caves on the Mexican mainland. It's very easy to do both on the same trip. Here's how I do it:

In addition to the cave stuff, I bring a compact BC (I use a freedom plate and oxycheq 18lb wing, but anything small and simple will do fine), a 5ft hose, a 20" BC inflator hose, and a 24" HP hose, and a small adjustable wrench and a 4mm allen wrench. When I want to switch from SM to single tank backmount, I just take the left 1st stage, replace the 6" LP inflator hose with the 5ft regulator hose, put the 2nd stage from my right tank on it. I leave the short hose regulator (24", bungee necklace) in place. Add the 20" LP inflator hose to one of the LP ports, remove the SPG, put the 24" HP hose in it's place, and put the SPG on it. The whole process takes well under 5 minutes, and the only extra stuff to bring is 3 hoses. Two could work if you were willing to use the 7ft hose on a single tank. I don't like to do that and so I use the 5ft hose. Others might prefer a 40" hose, using the right angle adapter that's on the other 2nd stage.

Point is, it's just switching a few hoses around. This is a small price to pay for much easier and enjoyable diving. There is zero reason to dive with 2 tanks on the Cozumel reefs; the small boats are poorly equipped, and the dives are single tank dives. If you're ultra paranoid about your ability to manage gas and/or deal with instabuddies, you can sling a small pony; a 13cft or 19cft would work fine. I occasionally see people doing that on the boats, but I wouldn't bother. I'm a safe diver and a good dive buddy, so I'm fine diving with a single tank like 99% of the people who have been doing these dives safely every day for decades do.

There are two other small issues; DIN vs yoke tanks and appropriate fins. Most of the dive ops these days on Cozumel use tanks with convertible valves, so you can simply remove the DIN plug and use your DIN regs. For the occasion that's not possible, you can use a DIN-yoke adapter. I have never had to. Regarding fins, my favorite fins for Coz are full foot avantis that are small, lightweight, and neutral. Back when I was using jets in backmount twins for cave, I would try to bring the other fins as well, but now I'm using eddy fins in sidemount, and they are close to neutral so they work fine for me in single tank.

These days many people are fascinated with sidemount and so maybe that inspires them to try to use it for diving where it just doesn't make sense.
 
Fantastic feedback, @rick00001967!!! I am in your debt for that :D

Yeah, I will go the nice and easy BM setup, just not too deep or far from the guides. I like to dive a bit more comfy than trying to break any records anyway :)

I see someone else beat me to it! That's great, I guess I didn't need to make that long rant and you'll have a better time for it.:)
 
if you are used to cold water diving, you probably won't want anything other than a skin....but cold is different for everybody. I generally dive a full 3 mil in Coz now but I used to just dive a skin.
Lol I'm such a wimp when it comes to water temps. Heated vest under my dry suit, 5 mil in Coz. Add a hood if I do 4 or 5 dives in a day.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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