What's with sidemount?

[MXGratefulDiver]

The crew of Peace are great bunch. They always tease me a bit about all the gear, doubles, argon, deco bottles, scooters, canister lights, etc. Like many professional dive boat crew they either free dive or use the absolute bare minimum of scuba gear and I think I do amuse them.

... and a welder ... don't forget about the welder ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[blackvans1234]

helps me accomplish things I can't otherwise accomplish if I didn't have it.

Kinda like toilet paper

 

[Lobzilla]

My hope is that the SM craze fills some of the silly chasm between rec and tec diving. There is nothing wrong with watching pretty fish while exercising responsible gas planning and having some redundancy in the life support equipment.

 

[Bombay High]

Bob, how do you add more than 2 bottles in side mount ?
With back mounted doubles you sling your deco bottles, what would be the solution for side mount ? I'm imagining the sling space would be occupied by the side mount "back gas"

 

[coldwatercanada]

you can do one on the back and then two on your sides or else the guys around here attach a small deco bottle to each sidemount tank. So they go in with 3 80s and then two i guess 40 somethings? I've just started my side/tec so I dont know much about it yet

 

[beautybelow]

My spin on what Frank was pondering is what happens if every rec diver comes on a trip and wants to dive side mount just because that is the way they prefer. We had a side mount instructor a couple of weeks ago who dove them all week and it wasn't an issue at all getting in or out of the water and if the boat was a little rocky he handled himself fine. Of course he was an instructor.
But what if 22 recreational side mount divers showed up and wanted to all dive side mount. That means we need double the amount of tanks and twice the space on the diving tender for these tanks. 44 tanks to fill instead of 22. It just wouldn't work.
It, to me, just doesn't seem like the right tool for recreational live aboard diving.

 

[Tigerman]

No it don't unless you're filling tanks between dives, but most boats I've seen carry 2 tanks per diver to begin with. If you dive sidemounted doubles you still just need 2 tanks for the same divetime..

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Wookie are you or do you ask to see a certification for side mount, I do not see it to be a full boat of SMD unless a group. If it is the cool thing then the new cool SMD could be more of a danger then its worth, plus the fact now eating more time getting in and out of the water. I would demand a certain amount of experience for mix diving cause your BM divers are there to dive, not be observing someone stumbling around trying to figure it out.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My spin on what Frank was pondering is what happens if every rec diver comes on a trip and wants to dive side mount just because that is the way they prefer. We had a side mount instructor a couple of weeks ago who dove them all week and it wasn't an issue at all getting in or out of the water and if the boat was a little rocky he handled himself fine. Of course he was an instructor.
But what if 22 recreational side mount divers showed up and wanted to all dive side mount. That means we need double the amount of tanks and twice the space on the diving tender for these tanks. 44 tanks to fill instead of 22. It just wouldn't work.
It, to me, just doesn't seem like the right tool for recreational live aboard diving.

I doubt you'll ever see that. For the most part, folks who choose to dive sidemount would be those who are already inclined to want to dive doubles ... and that's a very small percentage of divers.

Sidemount is NOT a panacea ... it's more preparation effort than back-mount, and requires some degree of "gas planning" while diving ... and that's going to eliminate the attraction for the vast majority of recreational divers.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Tortuga68]

Bob, how do you add more than 2 bottles in side mount ?

Last time I asked that question (in the SM forum) I got told "any way you [a backmount diver] can" and then called a troll when I asked for clarification

Good times