Sidemount Question
- Thread starter Selachimorpha
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SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
I use angled valves and point them straight out, so I can see them without having to sweep them up with my hands. The angled tank valves keep them from dragging into the bottom.
In the beginning I had my spgs pointed down,and found it was a pain to pull up the spg to read it (bending the neck down that much dumped water down the neck of the drysuit),and felt like it was an undue amount of flexing/unflexing of the hose. I have both my spgs point upward,and angled in toward the center of my chest,such that both spgs touch each other. I don't have to bend down far to look at the guage,I shine the HID light on my chest area which allows the spg to glow for easier reading,I am not stressing the spg hose,and when the hoses have pressure the spgs sit very tight against my chest so they aren't an entanglement hazard.
I haven't been able to get my regs to sit that tight against my chest. When I had them angled in, they would scrape the bottom in tight passages. Along the tanks they don't burrow into the silt. I haven't had problems with water in my suit or stressing my hoses.
I am surprised,even with heavy brass spgs they stay tight against my body. Do you have your first stages point up toward you,or away from you? What first stages do you use? One thing is I use carrbiners as a preference for hooking in my tank at my side versus a butt plate,so when the tank goes down in pressure,the bottom can't float upward,causing the neck to angle downward. I also prefer a small profile lighter first stages of the Sherwood variety. But,as they always say,you can 10 sidemounters in a room,and get 11 opinions.
I currently have my 1st stages away from me. I've been wanting to try them toward me since reading about that option. I use AL Legends.
Mark Michaud SELAUSAR
Contributor
Here is a recent pic of how mine is set up. My suicide clip is dead center of the valve opening so it turns the tanks perfect for me. You will see the q/d as I am still playing with a manifold. But, it has not become an issue for entanglement and Mat and I have been in some tight stuff lately. Normally the q/d is pointed back toward my body but I made a last minute adjustment before the dive and they were pointed out. I do have 9" spg hoses (they were sent by mistake and I just used them). I am going to get 6" hoses soon. I was letting my spg's go down the tanks, but even with plastic they were dragging in low places. I do need to turn my regs a bit to make my spg's point a bit higher. I am pretty happy with how mine is at this point. If I want the valve knobs to be up I can just switch sides with the bottles since they are rigged the same. I have one long hose (rides between my body and tank) and one short hose that comes up and under my chest strap. Both are clipped to a bungie band around my neck that also holds clothes pins. Hope this can help a bit with another perspective.
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Having the 1st stages facing you will tuck the spgs nice and tight against your body.
1/3 of an LP 108 at 3600 psi is 49 cu ft of gas - a swing weight of about 3 lbs. 1/6th of an LP 108 is obviously half as much, or 25 cu ft and about a pound and a half.
In comparison 1/3rd of an AL 80 is 25.6 cu ft - basically the same weight and swing weight as 1/6th of an AL 80. So regardless of tank size weight etc, I'm willing to be to my next paycheck that breathing 25 cu ft of gas from an LP 108 results in the same net change in buoyancy as breathing 25 cu ft of gas from an AL 80.
If anything, it makes more sense to use 1/6ths on an LP 108 than it does on an AL 80, given the 3 lb versus 1.5 lb swing weights.
Oddly enough, many divers beat people with both ends of the task loading bat depending on how it suits them at the moment...but it never makes sense to add task loading when it is not absolutely neccesary and being able to handle extra task loading when it is not required does not make it smart as it brings with it additional risk if things go south.
Consider something other than diving for a moment. For example, I can fly successful instrument approaches with a partial panel and I did so once on a really bad winter night with substantial ice on the wings where a missed approach was not an option. Obviously being able to do something is different than preferring to do something that way. All things being equal, I'd prefer to fly an instrument approach with the whole panel working - particularly with a load of ice on the plane as when things are already tough, I have no desire to make them tougher.
The same thing applies to cave diving. Handling the (minimal) additional task loading is not a problem, but why do it when there is basically no need? There is always the risk that something else will go wrong during the dive creating additonal task loading or distraction. Why voluntarily put more on your plate when you can avoid it?
If the sidemount rig is well balanced then this really isn't an issue. I can place a full al80 as a stage,and rig it so it sits atop my left sidemount bottle,and not touch it during the whole dive since it is a safety,and stay in perfect balance. There are many ways of fixing problems in sidemounting which are analagous to taking pain medicine (It hides the problem but doesn't fix it) For example,new sidemounters will commonly be foot heavy and fix the problem by adding air to the feet. In the context of the previous statement,then rolling to the side can cause a shift of air in the cell which will level you out if there is an imbalance.
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