I don't get side mount?

[Dhboner]

If you take a course from an experienced sidemount instructor such as Steve Lewis then your set-up takes around an hour After that you might tweak a few minor things but you are basically there. I rig my tanks on land (just prefer it that way) and I am ready to go as fast or faster than my backmount friends. I can get on or off a boat with absolutely no trouble with steel 100's in my drysuit (I am 56 years young)...I simply giant stride or backroll off and climb the ladder with tanks on to exit. All my failure points are right in front of me and in the event of some catastrophic problem I can feather my valves and continue using a free flowing regulator. As for charters...if the other divers are using single tanks then I just follow their profile more or less and get two dives out of my gear (I never understood the whole boat operator balking at letting a sidemounter in the water with two tanks thing). I am certainly not an evangelist for sidemount, but until you have experienced it and had your questions answered by someone who actually knows what they are talking about then dismissing it outright is pretty damn stupid.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

When you have seen those ladders used on most Philippines diving boats, you will realize that walking up is NOT an option for SM diver regardless of age and physique.
If you are "invading" Philippines in 2016 with SB you will understand what I meant!!

... then that might be one of those environments where it's not appropriate. I'll readily admit there are those. What gets my goat is when someone gets exposed to one of those environments, and automatically assumes that it must be like that everywhere else in the world.

"Open water diving" encompasses dozens ... or maybe hundreds ... of different types of variables that each must be factored into the appropriateness of a given choice of diving equipment.

FWIW - I've dived some pretty rough conditions in the Channel Islands in sidemount. Granted it took some experimentation to figure out what works best. A combination of very rough conditions and a very small boat ... or a skimpy ladder that requires you to "clamber" would definitely make sidemount a no-go. Then again, most people would find those conditions rather difficult in backmount doubles too ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

---------- Post added September 14th, 2014 at 10:14 AM ----------

(I never understood the whole boat operator balking at letting a sidemounter in the water with two tanks thing).

Some dive ops find it safer to just assume that their clients are too dumb to make rational decisions ... and treat them accordingly.

I am certainly not an evangelist for sidemount, but until you have experienced it and had your questions answered by someone who actually knows what they are talking about then dismissing it outright is pretty damn stupid.

... because about half the time someone asks a question on the internet, they've already decided what they want the answer to be ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Centrals]

... then that might be one of those environments where it's not appropriate. I'll readily admit there are those. What gets my goat is when someone gets exposed to one of those environments, and automatically assumes that it must be like that everywhere else in the world.

"Open water diving" encompasses dozens ... or maybe hundreds ... of different types of variables that each must be factored into the appropriateness of a given choice of diving equipment.

FWIW - I've dived some pretty rough conditions in the Channel Islands in sidemount. Granted it took some experimentation to figure out what works best. A combination of very rough conditions and a very small boat ... or a skimpy ladder that requires you to "clamber" would definitely make sidemount a no-go. Then again, most people would find those conditions rather difficult in backmount doubles too ...

Horses for courses!
Both BM & SM has its own advantages and disadvantages, nothing is perfect.

 

[TSandM]

Eric, for me, the biggest seduction of sidemount is the sheer grace of diving with the center of gravity of the tanks adjacent to my own COG, so that I am stable in every conceivable orientation in the water. When you add that your back is now flexible, you have a setup that feels more like being a dolphin than anything else I've experienced in the water. If it weren't for the drawbacks, I would dive sidemount all the time, everywhere.

The drawbacks, as I have found them, are so significant that I don't dive sidemount at all. Unlike Bob, I find walking with the tanks in place to be horrible, way worse than backmounted doubles. I have found trying to gear up for shore entries to be incredibly difficult, again way worse than backmount. I've found hauling Al80s down stairways one at a time, in my hands, to be harder in the long run than just throwing a pair on my back. And I have found the Razor setup that I bought to be hard to manage in cold water with thick exposure protection and thick gloves.

Yes, you can dive single tank sidemount, but I didn't like it very much. I found myself off balance and unable to remain still. Maybe I'd figure it out with practice, but I dunno -- with a sidemount wing, you don't have the option of parking gas on the side of the wing away from the tank you are balancing, like you do with a slung stage in backmount.

 

[eelnoraa]

What I don't "get" is why we keep having threads whose only purpose is to criticize how other people choose to dive ... using hot button words like "cool kids" as though it were some kind of insult.

Bob, I don't think OP is to criticize how other people choose to dive. I read it more like he is trying to understand the reasons. The question could be genuine.

---------- Post added September 14th, 2014 at 01:53 PM ----------

I also have brief experience with side amount. I took a side amount introductory course in Monterey Breakwater. Here is my thought afterward:

For cold water shoreline, side mount (vs BM bp/w) doesn't make sense to me. Reason is the logistic:
1. Removing the backplate in side mount means I need to put weight back on somewhere. Eventially, all those weight are on the harness on my back, exactly where the plate was.
2. At least breakwater, beach diving, single tank, I found it is much easier to gear up with BM and walk to water and get in. With side amount, I have to carry to tank with my hand, less comfortable. With double, I would still prefer BM in this dive site. Reason is with side amount, I have to carry one tank at a time down to the beach. It is 2 trips for me. And the first bottle, reg gets all sandy because I left it there for the 2nd tank.

Now once in water, I would say SM dive about the same as BM, or maybe with a few slight advantage:
1. I can be less careful rotating myself without feeling I will roll over.
2. Either in my head, or it is real. It is less drag because tanks are under my arm. I each fog kick, I seem to glide further.

Have these said, I have never had real issue with BM. So I am not sure I will switch over at my home diving, considered the logistic issues,which bother me more.

I can see myself diving SM in vacation/water, where I don't need much weight. The harness is smaller and easier to pack. I can take 2 regulators and be diving double when I feel like it

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Horses for courses!
Both BM & SM has its own advantages and disadvantages, nothing is perfect.

... of course they do ... I said the same thing earlier in this thread ...

Like every other approach to diving, it comes with advantages and drawbacks.

What I'm pointing out is that you and a few other folks are using specific circumstances to claim it's not advantageous in a broader set of circumstances. I don't think a lot of the arguments I see posted in this and the many other threads on the topic have much validity in that broader sense ... too many variables may or may not apply.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

---------- Post added September 14th, 2014 at 04:23 PM ----------

And I have found the Razor setup that I bought to be hard to manage in cold water with thick exposure protection and thick gloves.

... I've heard the same complaint from a couple other locals who went with the Razor. I'm not familiar with that particular setup ... it'd be interesting to discuss why people find it so ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[undrwater]

I've spoken to a few here in SoCal who have "gone sidemount." They won't do it for shore dives on purpose, though. Likely why you're not seeing them.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Side mounting was designed originally for one purpose over 20 years ago. For Cave Diving in tight places!!! More recently in the cave community it has evolved into two purposes. 1: mission specific cave dives. 2: change in cave diving lifestyle.
I went sidemount 7 years ago for lifestyle reasons. It's easier on my back and knees. Especially using two steel 120's, one Al 40 and any number of "stage" bottles. I dolly my gear to the spring edge and put the tanks on at chest depth.
A additional benefit is with the additional streamline configurations I can go just as far with sidemount steel 80's as I could mackmount 95's.
And the nice fuzzy feeling of having all my valves and regulators in front of me.

Not picking but you are not side mounting 2-120's plus a 40 are you? I think that your back would have felt better if you just switched to the 80's or 95's instead of the 120's to start with.

I started out with double 120's and now dive dual 104's. I get farther with the 104 mainly due to the reduced drag and less air in the BC to float the 120's. The 120's have been broken down into to singles and with the H valves they are perfect for single tank dives with reduntant regs....the same setup as my double cave setup.

I am still working on my SM kit but will only use it as needed, i.e. tight areas in caves.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Bob, I don't think OP is to criticize how other people choose to dive. I read it more like he is trying to understand the reasons. The question could be genuine.

Yes, that actually is correct, I was just curious as to what the appeal is because I didn't want to maybe miss out on something that I wasn't seeing.
I just didn't respond to Bob's snarky and defensive post because It didn't have any value to me.

I liked Lynne's post because I can understand where she's coming from, but I don't understand anything about the particular rig she was talking about, or any of the rigs for that matter.

I'm not interested in sidemount per se for any technical diving because I have given up tech diving years ago and only dive singles now, but I thought it would be at least a favorable consideration to find out what it is about sidemount that is appealing to people just doing shallow recreational dives.

The streamlining thing I like, I'm all about improving slipstream, as some people may know.
I just don't know if I'm on board with the complexity, it does seem like there are more parts.

The closest I've come to anything remotely close to SM and away from a backmounted tank is hand holding a 40 cf sling bottle in Lake Tahoe grubbing for goodies on the bottom in 40 feet of water with no BC and towing my kayak.

So, analyzing it a little further, I see how being a flatter wider but less tall profile in the water would be beneficial. It would almost require by default a perfectly flat trim to even make it work. You would become kind of a flat flying pancake, which is good underwater.
The drawback is the whole land awkwardness and setup thing.
And then for me I'm also seeing a problem doing some of the things I like to do like spearfish and collect scallops and lobsters, etc.
And then what about getting the stuff on in the water off a kayak, any chance of that?

 

[TSandM]

It's actually much easier to get the gear on in the water -- what's hard is getting in from the shore, unless you have a shallow, quiet area where you can kneel and hook up the tanks.

The sidemount rigs vary from something similar to a HOG harness without plate, to something kind of like a soft back-inflate setup. They are about as complicated as setting up your first backplate rig, but the complex part is getting your particular tanks situated properly and the whole setup weighted so that the tanks don't ride low, or butt-high. Just as you have to adjust your weighting for different types of doubles, you have to adjust both the total weight and the weight distribution for each kind of sidemount tank you use, and each exposure suit you have on.

Setting the tanks up so that they are snug to your body and horizontal is the challenge . . . and there are a variety of approaches to it, and some make it easier to handle gear on land and some make it harder. If you are going to use sidemount as it is intended, you need to be able to detach the tanks and reattach them, which means manipulating snaps both at your shoulder and behind you (that was the part I found most difficult in cold water).

The second time I dove sidemount, I got to put on a rig that was pretty close to perfectly sized for me (although it was someone else's). I dove in warm water, with free fingers. It was absolutely amazing fun, and I still think Rob Neto for making that possible. I really do wish I could figure out a way to make diving sidemount simple in Puget Sound, because if I could, as I said, I would do it a lot, because it feels so marvelous.