some questions

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Nitro91

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Messages
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Location
Sydney, Australia
# of dives
50 - 99
I am looking into sidemount and have some questions. steel vs ally tanks?

also is it a challenge with shore diving, sometimes exit/entry can be difficult even with normal back mount, is it harder/easier with sidemount?

thanks
 
Since the answers really do vary from person to person even in the same place, some feedback on what and where your diving is like would help, but.

I am sold on aluminum, because I am using sidemount as an infinitely extensible gas supply, and that means I carry odd numbers of tanks, (1, 2+1, 2+2, 3+2).

There is a fair bit of how to snug up tanks in that recent thread about how to mount deco bottles. (In general, and without disrespect to anyone else posting, Dive-aholic has worked through most (all?) approaches and methods and teaches them which means he has done a lot of thinking from his own personal, and also his students points of view. I would take a class from him if I could. But you and I are both far away from Florida.

I am mostly concerned with teaching tourists how to leverage what they might find in random locations, but since surf is real for me, above water security is the most key factor, thus I like the metal to fix top snap that the Dive Rite system has, as opposed to any bungie only attachment format. the fact of life with that system though is that there is some slop in the water with aluminum tanks in the water, (mostly because the bottom attachment point has to go pretty far up the cylinder, thus allowing some butt floatiness, because of the lever arm of the unclipped butt of the tank. (Which I am perfectly comfortable with)
 
I dive SM AL80's in OW, pretty much all shore entries. I usually either gear up close to the water, or drop one tank close to the water and clip that one on there. It all depends on how far the walk is. Entry and exit at times can be trickier then BM, but once you get used to it, it is not all that bad.

I used to use the ring bungee system that the good sir above me talks about. I like the ease of attachment and use. Very simple. However, I like the trim of the bottles using a loop bungee system. However, I wanted some hard attachment points for shore entries. So I added a loop of 550 cord to the neck of the tank with a bolt snap to attach the top of the tank to the my upper chest dring. Works great from me.
 
I'm going to Bonaire in June to do some shore sidemount diving. What about clipping into the tanks in the water? Has anyone tried that? So far, I've done all boat entries in sidemount (I'm talking doubles here).
 
When im shore diving SM, I take my tanks and put them into the water, then i go gear up, clip the tanks on in the water.......i find this much easier, YMMV
 
Steel vs aluminum really depends on the type of diving you're doing and what kind of gas needs you have. For diving at home in 68 degree water steel is preferable. They provide the weight I need to sink a dry suit and provide the gas I need to do the dives I'm doing. When I travel to Mexico to cave dive aluminums are sufficient. I dive wet there and depths are shallower so I don't need the weight or gas supply steels provide. Same goes for OW - colder and deeper is better with steel, warmer and shallower is better with aluminum. You have to use the best tools for the dive.

Sidemount can be done with difficult shore entries. It might be easier to clip on one cylinder and have the regulator ready to go and pull along the 2nd cylinder to clip on once past the surf. It will take practice.
 
Is shorediving with a SM configuration more difficult than with a BM configuration?

The simple answer is Yes.




As far as tank material? Steel is real. :D
 
mmk, well my next purchase scuba wise will be a semi-dry, probably next week.
next is sidemount gear.

i currently have a deep sea supply 26 pound wing and steel backplate.

is it possible to use any of this to go with sidemount gear?
maybe i just need to buy a butt plate, but i think the wing will not stay on the plate without a tank on the back.
 
I'd suggest not trying to reinvent the wheel. We made our own sidemount rigs years ago (before there were any available) and it was a long, trial and error process to get them right. Steel tanks in saltwater, for sure. It's always easier to put tanks on in the water if it's practical.
 

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