SlugLife
Contributor
I thought this might be a fun thread, where I share observations, lessons, and situations I'm facing as a newbie sidemount diver. It's likely I'll embarrass myself and invite plenty of critique by creating this thread (be nice), but it's better to take & share learning opportunities than hide in silent shame. I'll add new posts to this thread as I encounter new things, and have more dives. If newbies annoy you, or you hate long threads, this is probably not the thread for you.
For context, I'm following SideMounting.com which I highly recommend in addition to an in-person class! I made my way through a little over half of his sidemount videos before entering the water. I'm also using a sidemount harness & wing. I also do not have an in-person instructor at this time, there's a good chance I'll pursue that at some point (it would require travel). I am accepting the additional challenges and responsibilities of that.
Disclaimer: I wouldn't recommend self-teaching or online-only side-mount to most people. You'll probably need an autodidact (self-teaching) personality, not easily frustrated, and plenty of time. An in-person instructor will save anyone significant amounts of time & frustration, and make the process much safer. With that out of the way...
[Part 1]
Having heard stories about annoyingly slow sidemount divers, I did my best to not obstruct dive-site entrances and exits. Unfortunately, my options were limited at the dive-site I chose, because there were only a few stairs into the water & the shore was steep & rocky. I did end up blocking one diver for about 3 minutes as I fumbled with gear, and apologized, but he was super-chill about it and encouraged me to be safe and not rush.
Speaking of which, a rocky and steep entrance (with stairs) was a very poor choice, given my inexperience. To be fair, I'm not sure where I can find a beach-like dive-entrance nearby, but I will be exploring a few other sites. Doning Tanks was far more challenging and slower than expected, complicated by the environment. That causes me to realize I need to practice doning on land, with the videos available as reference. Sidemounting.com does demonstrate practice on land using a table to support the tanks in a couple videos & does recommend your initial doning & doffing be done in shallow standing-height waters.
As another minor lesson, my first dive I had a dive-helmet with a camera equipped, that I really wanted to try out. I was quickly reminded of something I already "know" but allowed myself to "forget" which is when trying something unfamiliar, keep it simple, and don't add additional unfamiliar equipment or skills, and ditched the helmet after that dive.
When actually diving, it was mostly great! The dive was very much safety-first. I practiced regulator switching at the surface, face-down in the water for about 15 minutes. Next, I descended to about 15-20ft, and practiced buoyancy and tank-trim, ensuring I could easily inflate and deflate. I felt confident enough to do a full dive, but kept things simple and safe and hung around the dive-platform. The only two problems I experienced was I had too much weight (which I expected) and weight was too low on my harness, resulting in naturally-vertical trim. None of that was a big deal, but could only be fixed by doffing my harness, so it had to wait.
When I went for my second dive, there were a lot of active dive groups, and I ended up waiting about 30 minutes for an opening. Then I noticed my BCD wasn't holding air. Short story was my DIY extended pull cord over the shoulder had somehow shortened itself (due to water?) so I had to exit completely to where my save-a-dive kit was and fix. I had a DSMB and lift bag on me, and it was a shore-entrance, so not really a safety hazard even if the problem started in the water. By the time I fixed that, waited for more dive groups, and got in the water, I was watching a lovely sunset. After fumbling with doning again, it was nearly dark, so I just practiced a few skills on the surface before doffing. I have training and plenty of experience in dark & low-visibility diving, but with an abundance of caution wanted to avoid complicating things unnecessarily.
There was also some fumbling with the regulators. I had some slight difficulty finding the regulators quickly/consistently. They were a little too close together, and my hoses were routed incorrectly on the 2nd "dive" (the sunset one). Not a big deal, I need to adjust my regulator-necklace setup & practice donning. That was one of those things where I just had to get in the water, to discover what I needed to fix or work on.
Fumbling aside, a few things I did right:
For context, I'm following SideMounting.com which I highly recommend in addition to an in-person class! I made my way through a little over half of his sidemount videos before entering the water. I'm also using a sidemount harness & wing. I also do not have an in-person instructor at this time, there's a good chance I'll pursue that at some point (it would require travel). I am accepting the additional challenges and responsibilities of that.
Disclaimer: I wouldn't recommend self-teaching or online-only side-mount to most people. You'll probably need an autodidact (self-teaching) personality, not easily frustrated, and plenty of time. An in-person instructor will save anyone significant amounts of time & frustration, and make the process much safer. With that out of the way...
[Part 1]
Having heard stories about annoyingly slow sidemount divers, I did my best to not obstruct dive-site entrances and exits. Unfortunately, my options were limited at the dive-site I chose, because there were only a few stairs into the water & the shore was steep & rocky. I did end up blocking one diver for about 3 minutes as I fumbled with gear, and apologized, but he was super-chill about it and encouraged me to be safe and not rush.
Speaking of which, a rocky and steep entrance (with stairs) was a very poor choice, given my inexperience. To be fair, I'm not sure where I can find a beach-like dive-entrance nearby, but I will be exploring a few other sites. Doning Tanks was far more challenging and slower than expected, complicated by the environment. That causes me to realize I need to practice doning on land, with the videos available as reference. Sidemounting.com does demonstrate practice on land using a table to support the tanks in a couple videos & does recommend your initial doning & doffing be done in shallow standing-height waters.
As another minor lesson, my first dive I had a dive-helmet with a camera equipped, that I really wanted to try out. I was quickly reminded of something I already "know" but allowed myself to "forget" which is when trying something unfamiliar, keep it simple, and don't add additional unfamiliar equipment or skills, and ditched the helmet after that dive.
When actually diving, it was mostly great! The dive was very much safety-first. I practiced regulator switching at the surface, face-down in the water for about 15 minutes. Next, I descended to about 15-20ft, and practiced buoyancy and tank-trim, ensuring I could easily inflate and deflate. I felt confident enough to do a full dive, but kept things simple and safe and hung around the dive-platform. The only two problems I experienced was I had too much weight (which I expected) and weight was too low on my harness, resulting in naturally-vertical trim. None of that was a big deal, but could only be fixed by doffing my harness, so it had to wait.
When I went for my second dive, there were a lot of active dive groups, and I ended up waiting about 30 minutes for an opening. Then I noticed my BCD wasn't holding air. Short story was my DIY extended pull cord over the shoulder had somehow shortened itself (due to water?) so I had to exit completely to where my save-a-dive kit was and fix. I had a DSMB and lift bag on me, and it was a shore-entrance, so not really a safety hazard even if the problem started in the water. By the time I fixed that, waited for more dive groups, and got in the water, I was watching a lovely sunset. After fumbling with doning again, it was nearly dark, so I just practiced a few skills on the surface before doffing. I have training and plenty of experience in dark & low-visibility diving, but with an abundance of caution wanted to avoid complicating things unnecessarily.
There was also some fumbling with the regulators. I had some slight difficulty finding the regulators quickly/consistently. They were a little too close together, and my hoses were routed incorrectly on the 2nd "dive" (the sunset one). Not a big deal, I need to adjust my regulator-necklace setup & practice donning. That was one of those things where I just had to get in the water, to discover what I needed to fix or work on.
Fumbling aside, a few things I did right:
- Paid for and used what training I could access.
- Equipment was good for the most part.
- Abundance of caution & staying safe.
- Adequate save-a-dive kit.
- I had a lot of time, and wasn't rushing anywhere.
- I learned several things & got a good idea what I need to work on next.
