Hi Grateful,
You have put a lot of time in answering to my comment, so I owe you an answer.
First of all, I don't make a big deal of people diving another way, where did you see that?
Secondly, I am a dive educator and not a hard core cave explorer, although I am a cave diver.
I teach people to dive to the best I can, that is my job..
UTD offers me a fantastic teaching system to teach people how to dive, in the sidemount case it comes with a z-system.
I know there are great instructors out there, but great instructors don't come from the 1000's of IDC a year, they come through experience, these guys
have made their own courses.
Almost everyone seems to agree on the fact that UTD divers usually are well prepared, and that's exactly what I am trying to do.
Number 1 in diver accidents is and always will be HUMAN ERROR and not a BCD or your newest hippest regulator. I am after reducing that human error percentage in this case with the z-sytem and the playbook.
If tomorrow someone shows up with a manual, a way to safely teach sidemount in details ALSO to non-cavers, I would be the first one to have a look at that! (and I mean by that ; a course and manual with for example ; A freeflow drill is not just "sipping air from a freeflowing regulator" and an S-drill is NOt.."Donate air to a diver signalling OOA" )
These guys in Mexico are awesome, great divers and inspirational...the truth is that most sidemountdivers nowadays will never ever dive in a cave.
It is sad to see these new sidemountdivers from the big agencies trying to get into the water, helplessly trying to bungee their steel tanks on the shore being washed away by the swell...yes..and lots of them are returning to backmount.
I mean to say that the level what we see here of all these new SM divers is not very high, if you want I can send you some youtube links ;-)
I honestly can see your points, I chose for the bigger picture.
Regards
Mike
I'm trying to comprehend the argument here ... when I dive singles, I dive a standard hogarthian setup. If I need to donate, I donate my long hose. When I dive doubles I dive a Nomad. If I need to donate, I donate my long hose. The only possible difference is that if I'm not breathing off my long hose, it's clipped to a breakaway on my right shoulder D-ring ... where it's easily accessible. I do not ever have to donate a cylinder.
... and what is the problem? I frequently dive mixed teams ... often with GUE or UTD trained dive buddies. Nobody seems to have any difficulties understanding how each other's equipment works.
Well yes ... but how much of an advantage is that, really? Seems to me to be an overstated argument ... if you're having difficulties dealing with minor equipment configuration variants, then perhaps that says more about your deficiencies as a diver than it does about the equipment your teammates are using.
Again, I'm not understanding the argument. When I switch from a back-mounted hog rig to a sidemount rig, nothing in my pockets changes. My light gets used the same way and clipped off in the same place. My emergency skills may or may not be identical, depending on which regulator I'm breathing off of at the time ... but worst-case, the differences are so minor that anyone who's doing dives that require two tanks should have adequate skills to manage it without much conscious effort.
Imagination isn't needed ... information is. I see the advantages ... and I think, frankly, they're overstated. I also see the disadvantages ... all configurations come with both. I don't like the trade-offs ... which is why I didn't choose this rig.
Well OK ... but then why come here and make a big deal about other people choosing another way of diving?
And I still don't comprehend your purpose in making this post ... my sidemount training covered failure points too. It also covered more than one type of system, pointing out the advantages/disadvantages of each. Did yours? With all due respect, I don't think the standardization that seems to be your major selling point is worth the potential failure points ... neither I nor anyone I dive with seems to have any real problems managing regulator changes. I use a long-hose on my right tank, and if I have to donate it works so closely to a standard hogarthian method as to be effectively seamless.
My sidemount instructor dives sidemount all the time ... in caves ... which is where I took my class. He's probably got more sidemount experience than you do ... and evidently a fair fewer biases in terms of what he teaches and how he teaches it.
Well the solution to that problem is simple ... don't get your training on Facebook.
Some of us prefer to think for ourselves, and make choices that best suit our goals, diving environment, and preferences. I'll base mine not on what some agency tells me is the "right way", but on what makes the most sense to me based on the dives I want to do.
Is there a wave of new openwater sidemount fatalities? Can you point me to some statistics showing how all these fatalities could have been prevented by sticking a manifold on your back and removing the very advantages that an independent sidemount rig has to offer? Because, honestly, I'm just not seeing them ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
