I have been sidemounting in caves for at least five years now, mostly with big, heavy steel tanks. But since my move here to Key Largo, I have not used my sidemount rig that much since I am going off of a boat. I just didn't trust the sling style I was using to support the valve end of the tank to hold if I splashed off the back. You can read a bit about my modifications to resolve this in the thread Choker Clip Solutions. Well, I tried them here at home first, but walking in off the shore at Canon Beach. I really liked them, but I never got the chance to go off of a boat... until Elena's birthday trip on the Rocio del Mar in the Sea of Cortez.
Packing... This was easy. I put all the stuff I thought I would need, including extra zip ties, and while I had bought BIGGER hose clamps, just in case, I still managed to leave them at home by mistake. Still, my Zeagle Frankenrig, two Hog regs (their newest, with the left hand feed second stage), two tank harnesses, fins, boots, lights, camera and wetsuit all fit into my little bag and weighted well under 50 pounds. Coolness. Oh yeah, I even put in two yoke adapters just in case they didn't have DIN.
Setting up... If you have ever done a liveaboard, you know that one of the first things you do is to stake out a bit of turf. I had relayed a message to our host, Dora, that I would be sidemounting and she had absolutely no idea what this would entail. She was used to having divers show up and putting two of her Al80s into a manifold and bands. I can tell she's not wild about the idea of having people messing with her tanks, and I assured her that all I needed was for the inserts to be taken out. The look of confusion on her face was funny, but this was my second time on her boat and she trusted me. They gave me stations 1 and 2. Cool, I get to spread out a bit.
I hung up my wet suit and then dug out the two harnesses (must remember to pack them last next time). That's when I realized that I forgot the bigger hose clamps. Crikey, these tank necks are BIG. I might have need the next bigger size! At least I put in the zip ties and with that, I put the harnesses on both tanks. Unfortunately, the zips would not hold on to the tanks' sloping necks, so I cinched them onto the base of the valve. It didn't affect how I assembled my regs on them, but I wasn't sure how the choker clips would work in practice. With everything set up and the crew trying to make heads and tails out of what I was doing, I retired to my cabin to get it squared away. Later that evening we given the big briefing and told how we would be diving out of the Zodiacs.
The first dive... Our first dive was off of a pinnacle called the Little Angel. I remembered it well from my last trip and listened intently to the briefing. Diving sidemount off of a zodiac would be a first for me, and I was mentally figuring out how to best do it. Mind you, I had slipped on my BC during the brief (no tanks) and was quite comfortable as Mayo (My-yo) told us what we would be seeing. The water was warm, so I wasn't going to use a wetsuit and I was excited! Team A had already splashed, and Mayo told us to get into the zodiac. I grabbed my fins and put them on the bench. I bent down to my left side tank and clipped into the choker. I reached back and clipped into the butt plate as well. Nice! Before I go on, I should mention that if you position the weight just right on the butterfly clips, they will lose the choker. This happened to me twice during the week including right here, but it's quite easy to avoid when you look for it. The process worked just as easily for the right side and I grabbed my fins and sauntered to the zodiac where I found it easy and balanced to step over the side. Once seated, I clipped my inflator, pulled my left side hose out a bit and but my double reg bungee around my neck. I then pulled out a bit of hose from the right side and put that second stage into the other side of my double reg bungee. I took a breath from each and watched the SPGs. Both the tanks were supported by the boat and I felt no stress as I waited for the others to get in. And waited. And waited. Geez, one of the biggest complaints about sidemounting is that it's supposed to take a lot longer. Not only was I the first one in the zodiac, but I had to wait a while before the others started to climb in. At the site, we back rolled into the water and I did it like a somersault, coming out of it pretty flat and in control. I took a breath on each reg and inspected everything for leaks. I noticed a very fine spray of bubbles from the right side tank neck. Nothing to worry about, but I'll tell the crew when I surface. I had put five pounds of weight on each tank and this was AWESOME. As I was waiting for the boat, I reached behind me and unclipped each of the bottom straps. This makes me able to easily float on my back on the surface. I also took the right side out of the bungee necklace and stowed the hose away. When the zodiac came, I unclipped the right side first and handed it to the captain. Before he had that tank stowed, I had the other side's hose stowed and unclipped it as well. I climbed the ladder and took my seat... still in my BC. I watched as the others came up to the zodiac, first handing their weights up and then their BC. It seemed that everything on their BC wanted to snag whatever it could on the hand hold rope that was on the side of that zodiac. Still, the first dive went extremely well. Would the others?
Overall... I'm not sure what I was worried about when it comes to diving off of a boat with sidemount while using a choker system. I was glad I brought a hat, as I was the first one on the zodiac almost every time and usually had a good long wait while the others got their act together. That Sea of Cortez sun is HOT!!! I took the time to recheck my gear and that was really nice. At the end of the week I asked my captain and Dora for their impressions about clients using sidemount and they were more than enthusiastic. By the end of the week, they were using the strap on the tank harness to lift the tanks into the zodiac and then from the zodiac to my station. I asked which was easier: backmounted or sidemounted doubles. There was no doubt with Jorge, that he preferred sidemount on the zodiac. He then said that two side mount tanks are even easier than even a single backmounted tank. I could see right away that he was right. Mind you, it would have been easy enough to change over to a single back mounted tank at any point during the week. Why would I want to do that? I got to go in a few holes where the others could not (mostly just for the fun of it). I even came up with tons of air after every dive and I always got my full hour in. I had redundancy, so I didn't mind leaving the group to check out something deep or them leaving me if they ran low on gas. It was simply fun. Mind you, I have seen a lot of people trying to force a diving system to work and frankly, I was suspicious about that mindset when it comes to sidemount. This wasn't a forced but rather a perfect fit. You can bet I'll be doing this more in the Keys. I think I want two sets of Al60s.
Packing... This was easy. I put all the stuff I thought I would need, including extra zip ties, and while I had bought BIGGER hose clamps, just in case, I still managed to leave them at home by mistake. Still, my Zeagle Frankenrig, two Hog regs (their newest, with the left hand feed second stage), two tank harnesses, fins, boots, lights, camera and wetsuit all fit into my little bag and weighted well under 50 pounds. Coolness. Oh yeah, I even put in two yoke adapters just in case they didn't have DIN.
Setting up... If you have ever done a liveaboard, you know that one of the first things you do is to stake out a bit of turf. I had relayed a message to our host, Dora, that I would be sidemounting and she had absolutely no idea what this would entail. She was used to having divers show up and putting two of her Al80s into a manifold and bands. I can tell she's not wild about the idea of having people messing with her tanks, and I assured her that all I needed was for the inserts to be taken out. The look of confusion on her face was funny, but this was my second time on her boat and she trusted me. They gave me stations 1 and 2. Cool, I get to spread out a bit.
I hung up my wet suit and then dug out the two harnesses (must remember to pack them last next time). That's when I realized that I forgot the bigger hose clamps. Crikey, these tank necks are BIG. I might have need the next bigger size! At least I put in the zip ties and with that, I put the harnesses on both tanks. Unfortunately, the zips would not hold on to the tanks' sloping necks, so I cinched them onto the base of the valve. It didn't affect how I assembled my regs on them, but I wasn't sure how the choker clips would work in practice. With everything set up and the crew trying to make heads and tails out of what I was doing, I retired to my cabin to get it squared away. Later that evening we given the big briefing and told how we would be diving out of the Zodiacs. The first dive... Our first dive was off of a pinnacle called the Little Angel. I remembered it well from my last trip and listened intently to the briefing. Diving sidemount off of a zodiac would be a first for me, and I was mentally figuring out how to best do it. Mind you, I had slipped on my BC during the brief (no tanks) and was quite comfortable as Mayo (My-yo) told us what we would be seeing. The water was warm, so I wasn't going to use a wetsuit and I was excited! Team A had already splashed, and Mayo told us to get into the zodiac. I grabbed my fins and put them on the bench. I bent down to my left side tank and clipped into the choker. I reached back and clipped into the butt plate as well. Nice! Before I go on, I should mention that if you position the weight just right on the butterfly clips, they will lose the choker. This happened to me twice during the week including right here, but it's quite easy to avoid when you look for it. The process worked just as easily for the right side and I grabbed my fins and sauntered to the zodiac where I found it easy and balanced to step over the side. Once seated, I clipped my inflator, pulled my left side hose out a bit and but my double reg bungee around my neck. I then pulled out a bit of hose from the right side and put that second stage into the other side of my double reg bungee. I took a breath from each and watched the SPGs. Both the tanks were supported by the boat and I felt no stress as I waited for the others to get in. And waited. And waited. Geez, one of the biggest complaints about sidemounting is that it's supposed to take a lot longer. Not only was I the first one in the zodiac, but I had to wait a while before the others started to climb in. At the site, we back rolled into the water and I did it like a somersault, coming out of it pretty flat and in control. I took a breath on each reg and inspected everything for leaks. I noticed a very fine spray of bubbles from the right side tank neck. Nothing to worry about, but I'll tell the crew when I surface. I had put five pounds of weight on each tank and this was AWESOME. As I was waiting for the boat, I reached behind me and unclipped each of the bottom straps. This makes me able to easily float on my back on the surface. I also took the right side out of the bungee necklace and stowed the hose away. When the zodiac came, I unclipped the right side first and handed it to the captain. Before he had that tank stowed, I had the other side's hose stowed and unclipped it as well. I climbed the ladder and took my seat... still in my BC. I watched as the others came up to the zodiac, first handing their weights up and then their BC. It seemed that everything on their BC wanted to snag whatever it could on the hand hold rope that was on the side of that zodiac. Still, the first dive went extremely well. Would the others?
Overall... I'm not sure what I was worried about when it comes to diving off of a boat with sidemount while using a choker system. I was glad I brought a hat, as I was the first one on the zodiac almost every time and usually had a good long wait while the others got their act together. That Sea of Cortez sun is HOT!!! I took the time to recheck my gear and that was really nice. At the end of the week I asked my captain and Dora for their impressions about clients using sidemount and they were more than enthusiastic. By the end of the week, they were using the strap on the tank harness to lift the tanks into the zodiac and then from the zodiac to my station. I asked which was easier: backmounted or sidemounted doubles. There was no doubt with Jorge, that he preferred sidemount on the zodiac. He then said that two side mount tanks are even easier than even a single backmounted tank. I could see right away that he was right. Mind you, it would have been easy enough to change over to a single back mounted tank at any point during the week. Why would I want to do that? I got to go in a few holes where the others could not (mostly just for the fun of it). I even came up with tons of air after every dive and I always got my full hour in. I had redundancy, so I didn't mind leaving the group to check out something deep or them leaving me if they ran low on gas. It was simply fun. Mind you, I have seen a lot of people trying to force a diving system to work and frankly, I was suspicious about that mindset when it comes to sidemount. This wasn't a forced but rather a perfect fit. You can bet I'll be doing this more in the Keys. I think I want two sets of Al60s.
