What do I Buy???

HELP
Still green and looking to sidemount.

What is a good setup for wreck and open water sidemount?

I also will need a wing with that. So many systems now like the "y-system, the SHAVER, the groundhog, ect.."
You get the point.

Is it the harness that makes such a nice tight trim or is it the setup of the tanks.

Thanks for your help.

knowone:

YouTube - Steve Bogaerts Sidemount Skills demo in a Razor Harness

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He does not have a wing for it.

I hear it will be here soon. The UTD wing is said to work well with it too.

I hear it will be here soon. The UTD wing is said to work well with it too.

I hear it will be here soon. The UTD wing is said to work well with it too.

Greetings Crock as in other threads so far you will first need to determine what type of diving you wish to do.
By this I mean is it cold water, wreck, cave, purely OW, etc. and what kind of dive times.
Are you strictly REC with no DECO or are you going to have to carry stage or deco bottles.
How heavy of environmental suit are you wearing?
Those are key elements to determine the amount of lift you will need.

The harness systems those without lift are pretty case specific with intended use of warm water and AL 80's using exposure suit for lift as well as cylinders when they start to become more buoyant once they are breathed down.
I have been testing this type of harness and it is great for what it was intended for.

I have also a Dive Rite Nomad that is far more versatile as far as lift to allow for stage or deco bottles.
I also have the back weight pouch to be able to adjust trim when carrying more bottles, etc.

With any SM rig it would be useful to take a class to get it properly fitted and some ot the key points of SM diving.
There are books out there but it just takes longer and can create bad habits to teach yourself so to speak.
Just my experience and opinion though.

Of the rigs I have had on I like the Nomad for its versatility and the Razor for its simplicity.
If you can swing it get both use them as intended and you will have the best of both worlds.
One thing is paramount YOU HAVE TO TRAIN WITH THEM TO MASTER THE TECHNIQUES INVOLVED!
That is why I recommend the class to help cut down the training time and get you rolling correctly.
With all types of diving there are little tips and points that make it so much more enjoyable!

Have fun and try all the different rigs out there I try whatever I can get my hands on.
It does not mean I will switch but it has given me other ideas to try to adapt.
It will not be as difficult to select a rig as you think once you have them on it gets easier especially if you get to dive them.

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

Crock:

HELP
Still green and looking to sidemount.

What is a good setup for wreck and open water sidemount?

I also will need a wing with that. So many systems now like the "y-system, the SHAVER, the groundhog, ect.."
You get the point.

Is it the harness that makes such a nice tight trim or is it the setup of the tanks.

Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

It's a combination of the harness and the cylinder position. For the type of diving you are interested and doing and your location, you should look at systems with wings that have lift capacities in the 50 lb range. Anything less and you'll have difficulty staying neutral with heavy steel cylinders and stage cylinders. There are currently 4 systems available with lift in that range - Dive Rite Nomad, Hollis SMS100, OMS Profile, and Oxycheq Recon. For wreck penetration, I would eliminate a couple of those right away for one reason or another. As for the remaining, it depends on personal preferences. They all have negative attributes out of the box. However, they can all be modified. The issue is what specific attributes you like and how much modification you are willing to do. The best thing is to find an instructor or mentor with lots of experience with sidemount diving. There's really too many variables to list here. I spend an entire day with my students just dealing with rig choice and modifications.

Dive-aholic:

It's a combination of the harness and the cylinder position. For the type of diving you are interested and doing and your location, you should look at systems with wings that have lift capacities in the 50 lb range. Anything less and you'll have difficulty staying neutral with heavy steel cylinders and stage cylinders. There are currently 4 systems available with lift in that range - Dive Rite Nomad, Hollis SMS100, OMS Profile, and Oxycheq Recon. For wreck penetration, I would eliminate a couple of those right away for one reason or another. As for the remaining, it depends on personal preferences. They all have negative attributes out of the box. However, they can all be modified. The issue is what specific attributes you like and how much modification you are willing to do. The best thing is to find an instructor or mentor with lots of experience with sidemount diving. There's really too many variables to list here. I spend an entire day with my students just dealing with rig choice and modifications.

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Thank you. Your answer is very helpful. Which ones would you eliminate? This will help narrow it down.
Thank you for your response.

Pardon the intrusion, but I would like to bump this thread. I, too, am very interested in which BC's Dive-aholic would eliminate and why. I just stumbled into the whole SM arena and I am trying to decide if I should jump onboard.

I am currently rec-only but I am branching out into tech so I would prefer it if I could get a BC that would accommodate as many different scenarios as possible. I don't cave dive yet but that is definately something that I am interested in.