Sidemount and helmets in open water

[Razorista]

In the Keys it's earned the nickname 'wide mount'. Not so much fun doing some of the wrecks. Moreover, getting back on the boat's a bit of a problem.

Never dove 'the Keys', don't even get out of the country much, but I am diving a Razor system and am 'narrowly build' myself.
Any place a human could ever have fit through I can manage and a lot of those most humans could not even use without equipment.
Buddys of mine are build differently and they also could pass any opening on a wreck that was build for humans to move through without touching.

I also can enter boats in more difficult situations than I ever could in backmount configurations.

For me there simply is no alternative. Using backmount would always be less secure and more difficult.

Regarding light and helmet I would rather have to much equipment than to little, but my helmet is only secured with a single bungee, not safe enough to jump of a boat with it.
Until this moment I wanted to avoid using the light when diving from a boat, but this made me think about it again with a different perspective, so I might change that decision now.

 

[FiddlerOnTheRoof]

I dive only sidemount... wreck diving and ow mainly. I often use my dive helmet in ow and definitely while wreck diving.

 

[Razorista]

I got used to wearing it on night dives first.
I already had the backup lights mounted to it, it is the most reflective and recognizable part of my equipment, no reason not to use it.

In open daylight I often hide it in the car, however.

And I also did not use it on the two 'official' cavern dives I took part in. Even though I was using a cannister light I could have mounted to the helmet the second time.
I neither wore it on my last wreck dive, if I remember correctly.

 

[decompression]

Raz, question for you. You are using the lights on the helmet as back ups or primary in open water?

 

[undrwater]

Never dove 'the Keys', don't even get out of the country much, but I am diving a Razor system and am 'narrowly build' myself.
Any place a human could ever have fit through I can manage and a lot of those most humans could not even use without equipment.
Buddys of mine are build differently and they also could pass any opening on a wreck that was build for humans to move through without touching.

I also can enter boats in more difficult situations than I ever could in backmount configurations.

For me there simply is no alternative. Using backmount would always be less secure and more difficult.

Regarding light and helmet I would rather have to much equipment than to little, but my helmet is only secured with a single bungee, not safe enough to jump of a boat with it.
Until this moment I wanted to avoid using the light when diving from a boat, but this made me think about it again with a different perspective, so I might change that decision now.

Is it possible to have a buddy video your entries and exits? Also your use of helmet mounted lights. A lot if this sounds useful and interesting.

 

[The Chairman]

For me there simply is no alternative.

That's how we differ. If all you own is a hammer the world becomes a nail. I have different tools for different jobs. I enjoy matching the tool to the job rather than forcing the job to the tool.

Long hall ways are a pain for me in sidemount. Getting back up on a ladder with railings are also a pain. Side mount lends itself to shore diving as well as RIB diving for me. That's the great thing about diving: there are lots of choices. No one choice is perfect for every person or every diver.

 

[AJ]

In open daylight I often hide it in the car, however.

Why would you care what others think of your equipment? I dive dry all year with a D12 and sometimes a stage. Even in the local qaurry in mid summer. Fellow divers do laugh at my config, but I could not care less what others think. I have my reasons for doing things my way and that's enough for me.

 

[Razorista]

Raz, question for you. You are using the lights on the helmet as back ups or primary in open water?

Both now.
I can connect my primary to the helmet, one backup is attached to the other side.
Before I had a backup on each side and a piece of cut-up PVC pipe to hold the primary.

 

[Razorista]

Is it possible to have a buddy video your entries and exits?

Sadly I did not manage to get such a video for year now and nobody else has released one either. I have given up on it for now.

Regarding light use HP made an excellent demo video recently (I could not match that anyway):

 

[Razorista]

That's how we differ.

We do not differ in my opinon.
We have very different physique however.
I cannot manage most backmounted equipment at all.

But that makes me even more vehement about it.
Someone of greater physical ability can probably make backmount work, but sidemount is still much easier.

If all you own is a hammer the world becomes a nail.

We face only one task: optimal use of time spend under water
So more or less we only have a nail, no need to find a wrench for it.

I have different tools for different jobs. I enjoy matching the tool to the job rather than forcing the job to the tool.

I enjoy that too.
Name one situation, however, where sidemount is not the obvious option.
one condition however: ignore everything that happens above water

When I ask that question most of the time I am told things about entry end exit strategies.
I got provoked into trying a lot of them and I am quite fed up with it (below you can see about 16000liters of gas on a stairway):