"Sidemounting With Benefits" - Lessons from a newbie Sidemount Diver

[SlugLife]

Sidemounting with Benefits?

Am I the only perv on here?

Umm, yea. It's totally coincidental phrasing.

 

[DogDiver]

Helmet……with lights and camera. For open water diving. You need to rethink your whole sidemount thought process. Wow.

 

[The Chairman]

I often wear a helmet while on side mount. Lights and camera too.

 

[Diving Dubai]

I had some difficulty sliding the waist d-rings

From a practical point of view, there's really no need for infinitely positionable sliding rings. How many times do you move the tanks during the dive? I found sliders were far move effort than they were worth

I settled on fixed rings, front centre and back (plus the butt plate) and thats job done. Since I rarely double dip cylinders, I'll generally only move from the rear to centre ring.

 

[AJ]

I often wear a helmet while on side mount. Lights and camera too.

I don't wear a helmet yet, but I can understand why. Keeps the hands uncluttered which is really nice in Sidemount.

 

[SlugLife]

Helmet……with lights and camera. For open water diving. You need to rethink your whole sidemount thought process. Wow.

Well, I tried backmounting two helmets, and that didn't work so well. With SM, you can easily wrap the loop-bungies around the go-pro mounts, to keep the helmets nice and snug under your armpits.

I often wear a helmet while on side mount. Lights and camera too.

The hands-free aspect is pretty nice. I've made a few improvements to my helmet, which have helped in terms of comfort.

From a practical point of view, there's really no need for infinitely positionable sliding rings. How many times do you move the tanks during the dive? I found sliders were far move effort than they were worth

I settled on fixed rings, front centre and back (plus the butt plate) and thats job done. Since I rarely double dip cylinders, I'll generally only move from the rear to centre ring.

Mindblown! Don't mind me, I'm off to make some changes...

There's no need to have micro-adjustments in d-ring position. Usually, I either don't need to move the ring, or I need to move it by more than a few inches. I'll start with (1) front/center - likely unused (2) side-front (3) side-rear and (4) rear/butt. That's only one more set of rings than I already have.

During my last sidemount dive, I found I had to use the rear-drop-rings anyway, because my sliders couldn't go back far enough.

 

[The Chairman]

I don't wear a helmet yet, but I can understand why. Keeps the hands uncluttered which is really nice in Sidemount.

I also dive caves a lot.

 

[DogDiver]

I also dive caves a lot.

Ya ever try using helmet lights for team signaling. You either burn your teammates retinals out and give yourself whiplash doing it. Lol.

 

[The Chairman]

Ya ever try using helmet lights for team signaling. You either burn your teammates retinals out and give yourself whiplash doing it. Lol.

Yes, I have, have you? You should learn or figure out the process before you condemn it.

I use Dive Rite's clip-on system for my torches. There are two on either side of my helmet for my back-ups and three more, just in case. While the main is normally on my hand, I can un-clip and re-clip it on my helmet if I have to use my hands for whatever reason. If/when I have a burning torch on my head, I never ever point straight at my buddy, if I have one, but will actually move my eyes to the right or left. If it's a quick check, like an OK, I'll move my head in a circle or side to side and we can continue. If we're gonna have a discussion, I'll park the light back on my hand and continue that way. From one clip to the other is only about 5 seconds or so, it's really not that hard. So far, no one has complained about being blinded.

If you ever use their clip system, make sure the rear mount is static, and don't forget to add a second attachment, like a bolt snap.

 

[SlugLife]

@DogDiver, this is a sidemounting thread about my sidemounting journey. If you want to debate the pros and cons of dive-helmets, please take that to another thread because I'm really not interested, and it's off-topic.