What's your entry look like?

[kelemvor]

If I'm on a boat where I have room to walk around and can walk to a platform and giant stride in then I place the cylinders on the bench, one on each side. I clip them in place, bungee around the valves, hoses where they belong. Fins come on and I walk to the platform and jump in. I've done this with 108s, 2 AL40 deco cylinders, and my SS Magnus with no issues.

I'm very new to sidemount, but this is my procedure as well. Kit up except for tanks early on the boat ride. Tanks and fins when the captain tells everyone to get ready. Giant stride in with both lp108's clipped and bungeed. This is what I learned in SM class, and successfully executed on subsequent dives. Fins are a little difficult to don with tanks on but it is doable. I don't think I'd like to do it the other way around (fins then tanks).

Shore diving sidemount? Well.. I'll just say I think I have some issues to work out and nothing constructive to offer .

I might have to try that "drop the tanks first" method posted in this thread. If I can find a willing boat op. It sounds nice.

 

[canadianoid]

What Dive-aholic said except I don't bungee up on the boat.. The bungees come on in the water.
Fins on always before the tanks, whether it's a shore or boat entry.

 

[TSandM]

I was diving this last week with a guy from the Palm Beach area. His statement was, "The captains on the boats around here HATE the sidemount divers, because they take forever and slow everybody down." I don't know if that's the case or not, but it was his perception.

 

[SanDiegoSidemount]

"The captains on the boats around here HATE the sidemount divers, because they take forever and slow everybody down."

Ouch.

Forever gearing up, or diving their doubles? Doubles divers here in CA routinely get warned by boat ops to keep their bottom times reasonable if they're sharing the boat with singles divers on non-tech trips.

I can't see how sidemount by itself makes any difference at all in gearing-up time. IMO, most of that is related to the diver's level of organization and self discipline, not the gear configuration.

Could it be that most of these FL sidemounters are primarily cavers, and lacking boat etiquette?

 

[Razorista]

Personally I am incapable to understand why some groups have problems with waiting for the slowest to enter the water and diving based on the diver with the highest air consumption.
But it certainly is a problem everyone will face sometimes.

...because they take forever and slow everybody down...

To be fair, there surely is some truth in this.
There will always be a few sidemount divers on a boat without much previous experience with the situation.
Since people tend to help each other everything can be slowed down.

With some experience however, I do not see any chance for a backmount diver to match the speed and grace one can manage kitting up and moving around in a sidemount configuration.
You need experience and routines - new ones you did not learn on the first day of an OWD course. More or less nobody knows how to teach this, yet and standards will not be that detailed for years.

Crews and helpers do not know how to handle sidemount divers.
There is no easy method for boat crews to learn where and how to help, since most divers have different good or bad routines.
Either they do everything perfectly on their own, or they look especially awkward to outsiders.

This is one of the more demanding parts of learning to actually use sidemount everywhere.
You always have to be careful not to seem a nuisance to experienced divers and crew not familiar with that config.
Jealousy will often influence the reaction. Waiting for the freak for ten minutes and than being easily 'outclassed' by him in the water understandably irritates people.

 

[Dive-aholic]

I was diving this last week with a guy from the Palm Beach area. His statement was, "The captains on the boats around here HATE the sidemount divers, because they take forever and slow everybody down." I don't know if that's the case or not, but it was his perception.

I'm sure it's the case. There are a lot of divers out there new to sidemount and they aren't very fast with gearing up. I can beat pretty much anyone, backmount or sidemount, in gearing up and getting in the water, but I have over 1000 dives in sidemount configuration in various locations.

 

[MSargeant]

If i'm donning cylinders in water i drop them off by the edge when i arrive.

-Drysuit on
-Mask and gloves in fin foot pockets
-Harness on
-Hood on
-Computer + compass on
-Attach fins to bungee and walk whilst putting gloves on and spitting in mask
-Hop in, remove fins from bungee and put them on and rinse mask
-Left cylinder on the right cylinder, or left cylinder on then swin off whilst attaching right cylinder (Bolt snap to waist, bungee over shoulder, infator hose, second stage).


If i'm jumping in with cylinders on:

-Drysuit on, harness on, gloves on, hood on, computer + compass on.
-Left cylinder on same as way described above followed by right.
-Mask in fin pocket walk to water, mask on, fins on, jump in.

 

[danvolker]

I was diving this last week with a guy from the Palm Beach area. His statement was, "The captains on the boats around here HATE the sidemount divers, because they take forever and slow everybody down." I don't know if that's the case or not, but it was his perception.

Lynn,
that is the correct perception....I know all the boat captains here, and dive with most of them...and have yet to be on a charter boat with SM divers than can come any where near the drop potential of typical advanced back mount divers....It is not much of a problem on our baby reefs like the Breakers, but on Junu or Jupiter where the current will usually crank, or on most of our wrecks....either SM does not work well, or we just have the world's worst SM divers in South Florida...which is possible of course

---------- Post added March 2nd, 2014 at 10:25 PM ----------

Ouch.

Forever gearing up, or diving their doubles? Doubles divers here in CA routinely get warned by boat ops to keep their bottom times reasonable if they're sharing the boat with singles divers on non-tech trips.

I can't see how sidemount by itself makes any difference at all in gearing-up time. IMO, most of that is related to the diver's level of organization and self discipline, not the gear configuration.

Could it be that most of these FL sidemounters are primarily cavers, and lacking boat etiquette?

BM doubles divers may waddle slower than a spear fisherman wearing a single 80, but once on the platform, they are just as fast in jumping in and blasting straight down for the bottom......The SM divers just tend to languish on the surface, needing to deal with gear issues...and the surface time they waste, blows them way off the marks by the time they get halfway down to the bottom.

---------- Post added March 2nd, 2014 at 10:35 PM ----------

Now if one of you SM guys that are "Good" and really fast at entries.....and IF you can get yourself to Palm Beach, I will cover a boat trip cost if I can video you getting down as fast as are typical good locals with Back mount--on a high current wreck dive....To qualify, you just need to be quick enough not to blow the drop--you don't need to keep up with the spear fisherman.

 

[TSandM]

Dan, I spent a week diving with Curt Bowen up in Canada, and I suspect he could meet your challenge. He quietly and efficiently geared up and got in the water on every dive, and never delayed a single one.

I think choice of gear configuration AND familiarity with it makes a big difference.

 

[victorzamora]

In Mx, diving SM, I was typically one of the first in the water. It's all about figuring out HOW to do it on a boat. The first two times I tried it off of a boat were a fairly miserable failure. After that, I started getting the hang of it.