Crock
Contributor
What are the drawbacks of sidemount diving?
What are the drawbacks of sidemount diving?
- Thread starter Crock
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Panga Man
Contributor
Thats a pretty vague question, Why dont you tell us what kind of diving you are planning on doing Sidemount. Then we can tell you the pros and cons of using sidemount in each application.
Sidemount is great tool in my opinion, However in some applications there are better tools than Sidemount.
eg.
Cave diving, Great tool for small passages. I Still like my doubles though for just about all the caves in NFL.
Boat diving, Kind of a PIA because of the room it takes to get everything together. also some boats dont like it because when you come up the ladder you are either to wide because the bottles on the side or you take to much time unclipping and handing bottles up.
Shore Diving, easier than hauling doubles in sand. but not very practical because shore dive are usually shallow. Better off using a larger single tank or a small set of doubles imo.
Rebreathers, Love Sidemount for Bailout bottles. Very Streamlined
Dont get me wrong, I like Sidemount but I am seeing it used in locations that dont warrant the need for it. It has a high cool factor right now so i guess thats why the big rush to sidemount.
Now that being said if you have back problems or knee problems Sidemount is a great way to still dive doubles without all the weight on your back and knees while getting around on land.
Sidemount is great tool in my opinion, However in some applications there are better tools than Sidemount.
eg.
Cave diving, Great tool for small passages. I Still like my doubles though for just about all the caves in NFL.
Boat diving, Kind of a PIA because of the room it takes to get everything together. also some boats dont like it because when you come up the ladder you are either to wide because the bottles on the side or you take to much time unclipping and handing bottles up.
Shore Diving, easier than hauling doubles in sand. but not very practical because shore dive are usually shallow. Better off using a larger single tank or a small set of doubles imo.
Rebreathers, Love Sidemount for Bailout bottles. Very Streamlined
Dont get me wrong, I like Sidemount but I am seeing it used in locations that dont warrant the need for it. It has a high cool factor right now so i guess thats why the big rush to sidemount.
Now that being said if you have back problems or knee problems Sidemount is a great way to still dive doubles without all the weight on your back and knees while getting around on land.
LOT's of futzing to get it set up the way you like it. Swapping bungies, hoeses, clips, d-rings, etc. Plus a dive or two to figure out if your most recent changes have a positive or negative effect.
I thought I was going to be all stoaked about having ambidextrious regs (DR Jetstreams), but have since decided they are too big and not balanced in the mouth. Now I just want some 2nd stages that I can run with the hose coming out the left or right side.
And I've changed my tank bungiess out several times... still don't like 'em.
I thought I was going to be all stoaked about having ambidextrious regs (DR Jetstreams), but have since decided they are too big and not balanced in the mouth. Now I just want some 2nd stages that I can run with the hose coming out the left or right side.
And I've changed my tank bungiess out several times... still don't like 'em.
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It's also a great approach for many destinations where the dives would warrant doubles, but they're not readily available.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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Crock
Contributor
Well your answer is pretty good.
What i mean is side mount diving single or double. The hype is that it is more comfortable and easier to move around in and out of the water. I was thinking of turning it into an everyday thing. On a boat dive, first dive go down to the wreck then second dive just swim around in 60ft with the rest of the group. I was thinking of using it in every application.
your thoughts on this.
What i mean is side mount diving single or double. The hype is that it is more comfortable and easier to move around in and out of the water. I was thinking of turning it into an everyday thing. On a boat dive, first dive go down to the wreck then second dive just swim around in 60ft with the rest of the group. I was thinking of using it in every application.
your thoughts on this.
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Crock
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good point.
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Only real setback I see with it is like what was mentioned regarding boats. It is an almighty PITA to dive sidemount on a boat that isn't used to seeing divers in this configuration. That being said, if you have a chill boat that will support it, it works out great. I am still trying to get used to clipping the suckers off while standing or floating on the surface. I've kind of called it quits on my buttplate, and clip them to hip D-rings until I'm on descent, then I'll swing them back and get everything situated when I'm descending or at the bottom. This is mainly diving cold water with gloves though, so everything feels funny in gloves fighting gravity.
Other potential problems
Rigs are different to get used to, and may or may not require more weight-inability to use a hard backplate
The inflators are run funny. You either have a REALLY long inflator hose going up and over, or you switch them and use a wicked short one, not really all that big of a deal.
Regulator routing is funny, and for some people the switching back and forth bit is odd for them. I didn't have any issues switching over, and do it second nature not. I cross my regs behind my neck, which some people don't like.
Biggest one is really the getting in and out of the water on boats though, it's really a pain on some boats, so I throw doubles on for that. I don't have to truck them on my back very far and my knees aren't bad enough to where I can't climb up a ladder with 130's yet.
Bob has the best point for all around SM diving for me. I can grab a pair of any tanks and throw em on and have full redundancy which is huge, or just a long bottom time.
I dive Sidemount almost exclusively. I'll put tanks on my back with students in OWT, and if I'm kicking around a lot on the surface. That is all done with my Nomad though.
Other potential problems
Rigs are different to get used to, and may or may not require more weight-inability to use a hard backplate
The inflators are run funny. You either have a REALLY long inflator hose going up and over, or you switch them and use a wicked short one, not really all that big of a deal.
Regulator routing is funny, and for some people the switching back and forth bit is odd for them. I didn't have any issues switching over, and do it second nature not. I cross my regs behind my neck, which some people don't like.
Biggest one is really the getting in and out of the water on boats though, it's really a pain on some boats, so I throw doubles on for that. I don't have to truck them on my back very far and my knees aren't bad enough to where I can't climb up a ladder with 130's yet.
Bob has the best point for all around SM diving for me. I can grab a pair of any tanks and throw em on and have full redundancy which is huge, or just a long bottom time.
I dive Sidemount almost exclusively. I'll put tanks on my back with students in OWT, and if I'm kicking around a lot on the surface. That is all done with my Nomad though.
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If you have right angles for the Jetstreams they work well, or if you can get them on a swivel first stage. I put them on a HOG D1 with an external OPV and they worked real well for me. I use XTX's though because they're easier to deal with come service time
If you have a pair of ring bungees and chokers, I'd gladly take em off your hands
lamont
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are people using sidemount yet for deep 240+ foot dives (particularly in cold, dark water)?
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I have a few friends that have hit almost 300 in theirs. They like it because they use bottles with similar buoyancy to their main bottles for deco and they can get rid of their primary bottles once they hit the anchor line. It's in 40's ish water not sure how "dark". Only issues they said they have is making sure they get identical mixes in their tanks, so they'll leave a transfill whip on them overnight. They do something weird with the filling too. One of em has a weird whip that he build for sidemount mix filling where there is a splitter coming out of the compressor so he can fill them simultaneously.
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