Single Tank Sidemount

[DaleC]

I suspect he was a BM diver tagging along with some dedicated SM divers. To me it looked like he was having as much fun as his friends. Imagine his surprise when he gets told he's doing it wrong.

 

[Kevrumbo]

The system is composed of a Alpha/Delta PRO Hybrid (side-mount or back-mount) trim device that has upto 38 lbs / 17kg of lift, a z-side-mount harness and works well for cold or warm diving environments.

Past 9m, you lose buoyancy from a 5 to 7mm neoprene wetsuit, hence the "taco effect" of the hybrid wing with the added gas to compensate for the buoyancy loss.

That's actually great looking viz for temperate SoCal mainland beach homewaters --the Kelp Forest of La Jolla Shores, San Diego Calif (with a water temperature of 12 to 15deg C !). . .

 

[Karl_H]

Waaaa?!?!? Waaaaa?!?!? What is THAT???

View attachment 165443

That is the problem with the larger UTD wings, the smaller Z-trim works pretty well if you can manage to work with the limited lift, sadly the larger Z-Plus and Alpha/Delta wings have the lift in the wrong place (around the shoulders) and come with the 'instant restriction for the rest of the team' novelty feature shown in the video clip above - you can easily fit your whole arm through this gap.

The later UTD models attempted to solve this with loops for the bungee on the rear layer of the wing to hold down the bladder, not really a ideal solution though, especially for such an expensive bladder.

The Z-system manifold actually has some benefits when used for single tank sidemount as it gives better hose routing and the single point of failure is likely to be less critical. that said, I'd agree with Andy that two tank sidemount (same tanks for two dives) is a much better solution in most cases; if a two tank solution is used then I'm firmly against the ridiculous concept of the z-manifold system.

I don't really see a huge advantage in single tank sidemount, the extra effort reconfiguring regulators is more than the extra effort of bringing another tank with me in almost all cases. Where I'm doing enough sigle tank dives to justify switching the regs, then I'd probably just be using backmount anyway.

 

[corvettejoe]

I dive a homemade rig I made with no BC. Works perfect for most AL80's My buddy and I call it our monkey diving harness.
I copied mine after my buddy's and another buddy liked ours so much he made one himself. It's quite nice to dive without all the extra gear on.

I bring along a cam-band with a tank clip pre-tied to it, and another clip with a bungie on it for a neck clip. I can walk in/out of the water, up/down ladder with it clipped on. Then when I'm in the water, I unclip the neck clip, and slip it into my bungee.

I can then simply move the camband and neck clip to a fresh tank for multiple dives.
The nice thing is, the whole thing wads up into a little ball for easy travel. Aside from your fins, you can carry all your gear in a small bag.

My ONLY caveat is that if you're diving deeper, you should carry some kind of backup inflation..such as a lift bag or something. I keep mine clipped of to my butt d-ring along with my SMB, spools, camera, etc. I also have a crotch/scooter ring too and scooter quite often in it when shore diving.

The trick on the tank is to find ones that are neutral (starting) to slightly light (empty) and weight yourself accordingly for the empty tank weight.
I have some AL80's that are too heavy, and some that are JUST right. Being that you are using rentals...this may be an issue. But that said, when I went to Mexico, I just used rentals and my monkey diving harness and had no issues with either tank.

My buddy dives sidemount doubles (AL80's) in his harness, using a camelback water pouch for his only inflation.

 

[Rainer]

I've never sidemounted (any number of cylinders), but I have monkey dived with a single AL80 several times. It's basically just slinging an AL80 using a backplate. I've done it dry and wet, with a wing and without. Just used a stage reg with a second 2nd stage added to allow gas sharing (the backup is bungeed under the chin). It's perfectly comfortable and stable, and fine for shallow diving.

[vimeo]7287949[/vimeo]

 

[DevonDiver]

I've never sidemounted (any number of cylinders), but I have monkey dived with a single AL80 several times. It's basically just slinging an AL80 using a backplate. I've done it dry and wet, with a wing and without. Just used a stage reg with a second 2nd stage added to allow gas sharing (the backup is bungeed under the chin). It's perfectly comfortable and stable, and fine for shallow diving.

No need for a back-plate. Trim pillow, weight belt, 2x D-ring and a length of bungee..

[vimeo]61874968[/vimeo]

 

[Rainer]

I'm sure there are a million ways to improve upon the setup I was using. That said, given how infrequently I monkey dive, it's hard to beat the ease and non-cost of simply being able to re-purpose gear already lying around.

No need for a back-plate. Trim pillow, weight belt, 2x D-ring and a length of bungee..

 

[MScorpa]

No need for a back-plate. Trim pillow, weight belt, 2x D-ring and a length of bungee..

That's an interesting rig Andy. Doesn't get much more minimalistic than that! I think you're onto something. I may just break out the trim pillow and start goofing around. Does the bungee around your neck bother you?

 

[DevonDiver]

Does the bungee around your neck bother you?

Not at all... that was a really sweet dive. Wonderful sense of freedom. Then again, I'm an ex-rugby playing grunt.. so maybe I'm immune. I felt no real pressure from the bungee though.

 

[a878bob]

I haven't been in my singles SM rig in a few months and this thread had me jonesing to get it back out. What a joy! I thought why can't all my diving be this easy! I would be a happy to dive like this forever. Well, maybe not forever, since I get bored easily, but it is pretty perfect. And I could add the 2nd cylinder in a jiff , it would be just as easy, to satisfy the redundancy naysayers. It's a tool. Not for deep or deco stuff. But warm blue water, it's the right tool for me.