Why does sidemount diving takes so long?

[BeijaFlor]

... However, as @BeijaFlor mentions, there is a time and place for configuration work. I'd simply suggest that immediately pre-dive on a busy recreational charter boat was neither the time, nor the place.

I notice that tbone1004 didn't mention where he and victorzamorza were working out that configuration work. Since they were preparing for cave work, it could have been anyplace along the shore of any number of lakes and/or quarries in their neck of the woods, especially since it's summertime. I did my first "major adjustment" dive with my Transpac in a swimming pool where a friend of mine was running a basic scuba course; I'm sure it was an eye-opener for his students ... but it was snowy January outside, and I dive in the tropics.

In short... fiddlers will fiddle.

It doesn't matter if they're back-mount, sidemount or CCR.... some divers enjoy refining and experimenting with their kit.

What does matter is if their tinkering amounts to inconsiderate behavior on a dive boat.

Andy, you said something on another thread here about a divide between "serious" and "casual" sidemount divers, e.g. those who "enjoy refining and experimenting with their kit" as compared to "those who want an off-the-shelf rig that will do well enough." I will say honestly that my first open-ocean dives with my converted Transpac, while not strictly-speaking a "disaster," revealed some major issues with my rig -- and I had to hustle to get them fixed before the next day's diving. Fortunately, I succeeded in doing so that evening, and the rig works pretty well now.

But I can see that a sidemount-specific rig would do me better ... especially since I travel, and a lighter, more packable rig would be well worthwhile! (And tomorrow morning, I'm planning to try out one of my two top choices, the Hollis Katana ... my other choice was the DiveRite Nomad LTZ, but I've heard and seen enough on this board to figure the Katana may be my best choice. And I can do the major adjustments in the dive-shop's training pool.)

Most of my diving is from small boats.... speedboats or local Filipino 'banka' boats. It's usually far easier to enter the water without tanks. That said, I always use 550 cord chokers on my cylinder necks. If/when I need a hard-point attachment, I temporarily connect via double-enders that I always carry. Sometimes that's for water entry/exit with cylinders in place. The rest of the time it's merely a contingency for bungee failure in-water.

I do also have a personal protocol for water entry/exit in inclement surface conditions from small boats. I will enter with only the left-primary rigged. Other cylinders are lowered to me - they're all connected on a technical leash (as you'd use to trail depleted cylinders on a trimix dive.) I clip off the leash to my rear D-ring.... descend from the surface using only the left-primary. At around 5m (bubble check/s-drill depth), I'd remove the other cylinders from the leash and don them properly. Time on the surface is measured in seconds.

Another tip from you, that I'm going to have to try ... I fixed up stage-straps and everything for my 'rental' tanks, for use with the Nomad 'ring-bungee' setup I put on my Transpac. Changing to the Katana means I'm going to be changing from ring attachments to looping the bungee around the tank-valve, or wherever it fits best.

Maybe I need to schedule a "remedial" clinic with you, next time I'm in Subic Bay. (Probably next March.)

 

[victorzamora]

I notice that tbone1004 didn't mention where he and victorzamorza were working out that configuration work. Since they were preparing for cave work, it could have been anyplace along the shore of any number of lakes and/or quarries in their neck of the woods, especially since it's summertime.

Thanks, this is exactly the scenario we were in. It was a gear setup day. We went to 125ft max depth, had no deco, and spent the majority of our day in the shallows (35ft). It was an entire day to play with gear config, setup, and refinement. It was a shore dive, well out of the way of everyone else. During that hour it took us to get in the water, we went from bare tanks to fully rigged tanks (which required some discussion as to targets) and we discussed our dive plan. I also had to crawl into my drysuit, which was distinctly unpleasant in the heat.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: Sidemount divers don't have to be slow. I'm slow and methodical when I can be. Why rush if you're not in someone's way? On a rec boat in Mexico, on my honeymoon, I geared up, noticed a leak, geared down, fixed the o-ring, and geared back up.....and was not the last diver in the water.

 

[BeijaFlor]

Sounds like a great day, Victor, and certainly time well and enjoyably spent.

Diving with new or unfamiliar gear demands extra time, care and "fiddling" to get things worked out and to get used to it. It makes good sense to do this fit-and-fiddle work in a place and a time where nobody's waiting on you, there's no urgency, and you can devote your time and thought to getting it right. Even better with a buddy to work with, maybe bouncing ideas off each other, getting everything right and tweaking it to even-better.

I spent a couple of hours in Blu Water Scuba's diving pool this morning, doing much the same thing, trying out a new Hollis Katana BCD; it took a fair amount of adjusting to get it to fit in the first place, and I was slow and methodical about setting up with this admittedly-unfamiliar rig. (I've been using my old DiveRite Transpac, with Nomad ring-bungees, since after I took the course with Andy Jennings in Pattaya, Thailand. So how do we loop this loop bungee, anyways -- well, that works, okay.) After my "test drive," maybe half an hour in the pool doing all the stupid sidemount tricks that came to my mind, I bought the rig - and went back to the pool to tweak it better and practice some more, with less lead ballast and lighter tanks. (Ended up neutral with 1000# on each side, absolutely empty wing, and 6 lbs of lead. I'm naturally pretty "floaty," so I was quite pleased! But that diamond wing doesn't trap ANY air.)

And this saves me a trip to DiveRite's Demo Day at Millbrook Quarry, trying the Nomad LTZ....