Learn Backmount First

[coldwatercanada]

I learned Sidemount first in fact ive only had doubles on my back for about 10 minutes in the pool. The reasons I went with sidemount 1. Sidemount is easier to deal with in a drysuit. All your valves are right in front of you and all your hoses are in plain view. 2. I'm taking my padi tec 40 primarily increase my bottem time and to advance/increase the ability/skills for wreck diving and the idea behind using sidemounts in caves applies for more advanced wreck diving (IMO) 3. Sidemounts are a little harder to use in a boat setting(if the boat is a poor set up) But for shore diving theres no comparasim in the ease compared to BM(Agin IMO) 4. The cost of sidemounts is easily 800 bucks to a grand less!

Not sure if that helps but those are my personal reasons for going with sidemount over BM. Agin just my opinion please dont jump down my throat anyone ha ha

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

The cost of sidemounts is easily 800 bucks to a grand less!

You save the cost of a manifold and bands... unless they're solid gold, I'm goin to go out on a limb and call bull****.






I've always found BM shore entries easier than SM, and I'm a SM advocate.






If SM is going to be your primary configuration, learn it first, end of story.

 

[coldwatercanada]

SM bcd is typically cheaper then wing/plate and like you mentioned manifold/bands then two or four tanks independently devoted to bm! I have pro valves on all my single back mount tanks so I can use them for either jacket bcd or sidemount config!

So let's say $80-100 on the bcd $300-600 on the manifold and bands and then $350-900 on the tanks so added up on the low end your looking at about 700$ difference

Also with shore entry you can carry your sm tanks and place them in knee deep water (conditions considered) then go get te rest of your stuff and go gear up in the water where bm u have to wear your gear in. Yes it's more trips but some of the older guys prefer brining it down in stages then strap on your back and go

Again that's all my opinion and the prices I see

 

[BabyDuck]

there's no right or wrong, but here's my opinion -

bm is fairly 'regulated'. yes, there are tweaks to make it yours & yours alone, but *in general* most people set up bm close to alike. so when you learn bm doubles, the things you're concentrating on are weighting, trim, handling two tanks at once - but once you learn where things are, that's pretty much where they stay.

sm, by comparison, is very *very* personalized. pretty much nobody else is going to do anything close to the same. you'll try things and adopt, adapt, or discard. there are tiny tweaks made *constantly*. each tiny tweak can have big changes in balance or trim or where things fall or where you find them. i found this maddeningly difficult and frustrating, though of course with time it has settled some & i enjoy sm finally.

am i a slow learner? maybe. but to me the point is that of course you can start sm, hopefully with a class or some really good mentoring because i'd have been killing people if i'd had to reinvent the wheel by myself. but with bm, there's the wheel - go use it. no frustration.

ymmv.

 

[beanojones]

You save the cost of a manifold and bands... unless they're solid gold, I'm goin to go out on a limb and call bull****.

That's ignoring the tanks that are in the bands and manifolds.

Before I gave up backmount, I had several thousands dollars tied up in tanks that could only be used for doubles BM. Now every tank I have can be used at any time.

The difference in cost is enormous. Additionally sidemount reg sets (depending on the setup) are just deco reg sets, so there is the reg being reused.

The cost difference is pretty enormous.

 

[coldwatercanada]

Exactly!! I work at a dive shop that's just developing our tec program and we have gone through dozens of gear selection in the last few months ha ha I know the numbers!!

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

That's ignoring the tanks that are in the bands and manifolds.

You are ignoring the spirit of THIS thread. Yes, I'm ignoring the tanks already in bands and manifolds, because they would not exist in the OPs case. There is no tied up fundage anywhere.

FWIW, tanks can come outta them bands. I broke all mine down just fine when I decided it wasn't financially feasable for me to keep two different kits. This is not the case of this thread.

Before I gave up backmount, I had several thousands dollars tied up in tanks that could only be used for doubles BM. Now every tank I have can be used at any time.

Those tanks were certainly broken down and used for SM, were they not? If not, thats on you.

The difference in cost is enormous. Additionally sidemount reg sets (depending on the setup) are just deco reg sets, so there is the reg being reused.

The cost difference is pretty enormous.

Setup specifics make a difference. A BM set of regulators takes only a few little changes to become a SM set of regs. Enormous costs? Not at all, not by even my cheap standards.

SM bcd is typically cheaper then wing/plate

Then canuk prices are atypical, thats not the normality anywhere else.

and like you mentioned manifold/bands then two or four tanks independently devoted to bm!

This is a one or the other comparison, both setups require tanks. Tank setups for SM are only insignificantly cheaper than BM due to the manifold and bands(and in SM, you're still buying connection hardware of some sort - can be as cheap as hose clamps or as expensive as SS hardware cambands; and all the clips to go with it).

So let's say $80-100 on the bcd $300-600 on the manifold and bands and then $350-900 on the tanks so added up on the low end your looking at about 700$ difference

If these numbers are correct, then canada is way off the pricing map. Tanks are necessary with both SM and BM, so thats a wash.

Also with shore entry you can carry your sm tanks and place them in knee deep water (conditions considered) then go get te rest of your stuff and go gear up in the water where bm u have to wear your gear in. Yes it's more trips but some of the older guys prefer brining it down in stages then strap on your back and go

Again that's all my opinion and the prices I see

This is only the case if you're diving in some placid lake or spring, this does not apply to the most common shore diving conditions.

 

[JamesK]

OK, the one point I don't get is mentioning the regulators being cheaper.

My backmount setup consists of:
2 1st stages
2 2nd stages
1 long hose
1 short hose
2 inflator hoses (wing/drysuit)
1 spg hose
1 spg

Now my sidemount setup consists of:
2 1st stages
2 2nd stages
1 long hose
1 short hose
2 inflator hoses (wing/drysuit)
2 spg hoses
2 spgs.

So my sidemount would actually be more expensive. Well if it was not for the fact that my SM rigs are Dive Rite and my BM are ScubaPro.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Thats because there's a push for turning everyone into a SM diver, which is fine, but doing so by lying about pricing is probably not the best marketing practice.





Price is a wash, learn in what you'll dive, end of story.

 

[JamesK]

Dang it. Now I want to add up the price of my backmount gear compared to my sidemount gear.


Scratch that. If I found out what I truly had invested in this stuff I would probably cry.