What's with sidemount?

[waterpirate]

My problem with sidemount is the same as diving indies in a backmount scenario. If you get task loaded and miss a tank switch you have blown your whole gas plan. Is this true or am I missing something? If you are not involved in anything that would add task beyond the tank switch, no biggie?
Eric

 

[wedivebc]

My problem with sidemount is the same as diving indies in a backmount scenario. If you get task loaded and miss a tank switch you have blown your whole gas plan. Is this true or am I missing something? If you are not involved in anything that would add task beyond the tank switch, no biggie?
Eric

It is just as easy to get back on track once you realize your mistake. Manifolded tanks have become a crutch where they were once considered a convenience it is amazing how many new(er) divers think they are a requirement.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My problem with sidemount is the same as diving indies in a backmount scenario. If you get task loaded and miss a tank switch you have blown your whole gas plan. Is this true or am I missing something? If you are not involved in anything that would add task beyond the tank switch, no biggie?
Eric

It's a matter of practice ... and no more difficult, really, than occasionally checking your bottom timer. I have "setpoints" ... time intervals determined by depth ... they can be 5-minute, 10-minute, or 15-minute intervals. When I reach a setpoint, I switch. If for any reason I exceed the setpoint, I switch anyway and make up for it on the next switch ... even on a deep dive, missing it by a couple minutes isn't going to amount to all that much ... and if you're task-loaded longer than that you've got bigger issues to worry about.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[CuNanoTube]

(DISCLAIMER: I do not sidemount dive, yet.)

I agree with the above. I've got nothing against or for sidemount diving, and I see it as a tool. However, I think it breaks down into a few groups:

1. People with a valid need for it. (Due to environmental restrictions and/or bad back or joints.)
2. People who think it's cool, but understand it's limitations and uses. (There is nothing wrong with this, I mean how much stuff do we do in diving for the sake of "cool factor"?)
3. Trend-humping Fashion Lemmings who latch onto the latest "thing" and overuse it, whether it is appropriate or not. Just because it's cool and they bought all this cool gear and wanna show off at the dive site, etc.

I really only have a problem with the third group because they are the ones you seem to be describing. Using a tool with no larger understanding of its use, limitations, advantages and are just into it "because it's the latest awesome thing and all the cool kids are doing it." See: "Apple and iProduct Hipsters". Same deal, IMHO.

Does that mean we can consider sidemount divers SCUBA hipsters?

But really, I am a firm believer that as long as you are not hurting anybody (or yourself) "because I can" is a perfectly acceptable reason for doing something.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

(DISCLAIMER: I do not sidemount dive, yet.)

I agree with the above. I've got nothing against or for sidemount diving, and I see it as a tool. However, I think it breaks down into a few groups:

1. People with a valid need for it. (Due to environmental restrictions and/or bad back or joints.)
2. People who think it's cool, but understand it's limitations and uses. (There is nothing wrong with this, I mean how much stuff do we do in diving for the sake of "cool factor"?)
3. Trend-humping Fashion Lemmings who latch onto the latest "thing" and overuse it, whether it is appropriate or not. Just because it's cool and they bought all this cool gear and wanna show off at the dive site, etc.

I really only have a problem with the third group because they are the ones you seem to be describing. Using a tool with no larger understanding of its use, limitations, advantages and are just into it "because it's the latest awesome thing and all the cool kids are doing it." See: "Apple and iProduct Hipsters". Same deal, IMHO.

Unless they're diving with you, why should you care why someone else chooses the equipment they dive with? Or, for that matter, the consumer products they use?

I really only have a problem with people who are judgmental about things that don't affect them.

There's another group to consider ...

4. People who just want to.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[rongoodman]

After diving caves in sidemount, I doubt that I'll ever do it any other way. OTOH, having just finished trimix in sidemount, and done some backward roll entries off an open boat in Akumal, backmount does seem to make more sense in that situation.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Wookie are the sidemount divers on you charter doing deep dives? This is why I ask, A few years ago I used two 50 als, I was monkey diving, no bladder and decided to add another 50 on the other side, took some weight off belt so it would not be hard for to be buoyant at depth. Breathing down 2000 psi on each tank left me at a comfortable safety stop.
Now I roll off an Inflatable so side mount is a different a approach for me then your customers getting in the water. Yet I shore dived these al 50's back then and I could don them walk to water then after dive, walk to truck and and doff them, bigger tanks I would carry to edge of water and don.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Ron I have figured the back roll out in no current, anchored boat in current is a different story.

 

[rongoodman]

Ron I have figured the back roll out in no current, anchored boat in current is a different story.

It worked, it just wasn't very pretty. Off a larger boat with a giant stride isn't so bad. Getting things organized under water after the entry will get smoother with practice, but the main reason I did it was that I didn't want to schlep two different sets of gear to Mexico on this last trip.

 

[Wookie]

Wookie are the sidemount divers on you charter doing deep dives? This is why I ask, A few years ago I used two 50 als, I was monkey diving, no bladder and decided to add another 50 on the other side, took some weight off belt so it would not be hard for to be buoyant at depth. Breathing down 2000 psi on each tank left me at a comfortable safety stop.
Now I roll off an Inflatable so side mount is a different a approach for me then your customers getting in the water. Yet I shore dived these al 50's back then and I could don them walk to water then after dive, walk to truck and and doff them, bigger tanks I would carry to edge of water and don.

We do not limit gear configuration on tech dives in any way, but we look at homebuilt/heavily modified rebreathers with a very close eye. We do not allow full sized doubles on any recreational dive trip, purely as a matter of space. I would have no problem with a diver bringing small diameter doubles (40's, 43's) and diving them sidemount, or diving an 80/100/whatever sidemount with a counter balance or not, and I have no issue with monkey diving. As Bob said, we look at sidemount divers very carefully, but only because it seems like the wrong tool for the job when diving 40-80 foot deep coral reefs.

I ask because I'm trying to get my head wrapped around sidemount for recreational divers. It seems we are going to see this configuration more and more, so I want the crew to be ready for it. It means I will have to go out and buy a bunch of 40's for rentals, and figure out a way to secure them on the boat. It's gonna make surface intervals longer, which means less diving for all because it takes longer to fill 2 tanks than one. Not for the air compressor, but for hooking up the whips and actually filling them. If it were a passing fad, I wouldn't bother with it. If it's something I have to cater to, I need to configure the boat a little differently.