sidemount, the new "DIR"

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...During a conversation at the last Benchmark with one of the manufacturers, I mentioned that a lot of the tech gear manufacturers were suddenly selling sidemount stuff. I didn't see the market at the time, but everyone was selling it anyway.

(paraphrasing here) Well, duh, he said. It's the only thing that's selling. The rest of the tech market is pretty stagnant.


Chicken or the egg?


All the best, James
 
Nah, I don't think it's stagnant. I still see people coming into the two tech shops I teach out of and backmount is selling almost as much or as much as the sidemount stuff.

I dive backmount, sidemount and CCR. I've got easily 2000+ backmount doubles dives. I have 30-40 ccr dives. I have but one sidemount dive. Yup just one. At this stage of the game, I firmly believe that each tool has a lot of merit, depending on the dive. Am I more comfortable in doubles? Of course. But it won't always be that way. I'm quickly getting more comfortable in the CCR, and I'd guess that sidemount will come pretty naturally too. I don't think it's a giant leap to think that you can easily be proficient in all three configurations very quickly. But I'll let you know if I feel the same way next year.
 
I dont dive SM but i will, if for no other reason than to experience and decide for my self if it is for me. The SM craze is no doubt in the the same phase as NITROX once was or the the 7' hose. After a while many will say this is not for me. Others will say that they dont care whether some say that if you cant carry your full gear you shouldnt be in the pool. I can say from experience that if it is easier to handoff 2 tanks to the boat and climb a ladder out 100# lighter, THERE IS AN ADVANTAGE, Whether that advantage is significant enough for a preticular diver is another matter. With new configurations there will be new protocals to best use them. Matters such as this is best decided in hind sight but is gained like anything else, learned with caution till profieciency is such that a fair evaluation can be made. For every advantage there is a draw back. I for one will not write it off till it is wrong for me.
 
Is sidemount the new "DIR"? It will be when:
- You can't start a thread in the SB sidemount forum without having it derailed into proofs of Godwin's Law.
- In response, a new forum is created, "Sidemount Practitioners."
- Eventually, despite all the hating, backmount and CCR people adopt key pieces of sidemount gear configuration, without understanding the Zen which underlies it--sidemount is about freedom and kalhua-rum concoctions on distant beaches, not about any particular piece of gear.
- No longer sensing a need for the special forum (which saw little traffic anyhow), SB merges the two sidemount forums.
- And finally, the cycle is complete when we see a thread, "Is X the new sidemount?"

:-)
 
gsk3:
Is sidemount the new "DIR"? It will be when:
- You can't start a thread in the SB sidemount forum without having it derailed into proofs of Godwin's Law.
- In response, a new forum is created, "Sidemount Practitioners."
- Eventually, despite all the hating, backmount and CCR people adopt key pieces of sidemount gear configuration, without understanding the Zen which underlies it--sidemount is about freedom and kalhua-rum concoctions on distant beaches, not about any particular piece of gear.
- No longer sensing a need for the special forum (which saw little traffic anyhow), SB merges the two sidemount forums.
- And finally, the cycle is complete when we see a thread, "Is X the new sidemount?"

:-)
Click to expand...
What?
 
He's making fun of the DIR thing that DIR isn't about the gear, it's about standardized protocols and diving as a team.
 
Well, I hope the Zen of sidemount includes Negra Modela, otherwise I'll have to put my Stealth up for sale!
 
The old DIR is the PVR and stages/deco bottles that are color coded.

Yup. That was a thing for a while.
 
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