Sure thing. I'll wrench it out of teh dive store later. If I forget give me a kick!
Sidemount Diving, Cozumel Trip, Do You?
- Thread starter Andrew Dawson
- Start date
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Sure thing. I'll wrench it out of teh dive store later. If I forget give me a kick!
@Andrew Dawson
When do you leave? If after the weekend of August 14/15, then come on over to the beach house, water is warm (mid 70s up to 80 depending on the weather) so you can tweak your setup.
When do you leave? If after the weekend of August 14/15, then come on over to the beach house, water is warm (mid 70s up to 80 depending on the weather) so you can tweak your setup.
Why did you find it difficult?
halocline
Contributor
This is part of the problem with many of the replies on this thread. I have been to Cozumel at least 20-25 times, and have dove with Roberta for most of those trips. I also have years of experience diving single tanks, BM doubles, and sidemount. I can say from personal experience that the dives in Cozumel on boats like Roberta's are MUCH easier with single tanks. And everyone else on the boat will be diving single tanks. There is a reason that everyone dives that way in Cozumel. It's not only because the majority of divers only know how to dive single tanks. I have met plenty of people at Roberta's who split their trips (as have I) between recreational diving on the reefs in Cozumel and technical diving in the caves on the mainland. ALL of these people use single tanks in Coz and doubles or sidemount in the caves, where it is appropriate.
But, the OP should send Roberta an email and she what she has to say about it. She might say something like "you can try if you want, but you probably won't like it as much as single tanks" and considering she's been there running a dive operation since 1988, she probably has a pretty decent idea of what works well and what doesn't.
MichaelMc
Working toward Cenotes
I'll readily admit back mount is less work on any boat, and most on any boat will be back mount. And yet I like sidemount underwater and so put up with the work above water.
Now, if you'd like to unpack the MUCH easier, that could be a distinguishing difference to outbalance the preference underwater for sidemount.
Yes, I've not been to Coz. But I would like to, and I dive the xDeep recreationally as my almost exclusive configuration with LP50, AL40, 72 and LP85. Because I really enjoy it underwater and it gives me warm fuzzies of redundancy. So I have a similar interest as the OP.
If I were going, my gear packing and travel list options seem to be:
- side rig for boat and Cenotes
- side rig + pony for easier boat exit/entry
- side rig, pony, + back rig for easier boat but not enjoy side during boat dives.
it really isn’t - or shouldn’t be. I can be in my rig with both tanks fitted and splashing before most BM divers have got themselves sorted.
But as I’ve said above, the rig needs to be optimised for boat diving. Loop bungees and attaching tanks in the water isn’t the best
Similarly if I were to cold water shore dive with steels I’d have to alter my rig
The problem arises when people assume that their is one SM config that does it all equally
OP
Andrew Dawson
Contributor
Again, fantastic feedback, thoughts, and viewpoints from all who posted!!
It is not an easy answer, IMHO.
I have emailed her a few times on this...BTW, she is a fantastic communicator! The response was generally accepting of my wishes to dive SM...yet, also helped me reconsider as it is much more common for single-tank BM diving. It was not a hard no nor an easy yes. So, it led me this way...to consult the fine minds of the Board of Scuba
@wetb4igetinthewater, awesome! It looks like I am bumping Jay down the bench
It is not an easy answer, IMHO.
I have emailed her a few times on this...BTW, she is a fantastic communicator! The response was generally accepting of my wishes to dive SM...yet, also helped me reconsider as it is much more common for single-tank BM diving. It was not a hard no nor an easy yes. So, it led me this way...to consult the fine minds of the Board of Scuba
@wetb4igetinthewater, awesome! It looks like I am bumping Jay down the bench
halocline
Contributor
Typically the dive boat, which is a tiny outboard skiff with 6 divers, pulls up to an approximation of the dive site and starts drifting. Divers gear up and sit three on a side, and back roll into the water as closely together as possible. Keep in mind that there is a current, and so any delay in getting the divers into the water can take the boat further away from the site. This varies from site to site and from day to day.
Once everyone is in the water, which happens very quickly, the divers immediately descend together to get to the reef. If one of the divers is still fudging around to get a 2nd tank rigged, the group can easily get separated. Keep in mind that the current changes from the surface to depth.
Sidemount ALWAYS takes some time to gear up in the water. Then there is the gear check, which any responsible diver is going to do. That means having a sidemount-savvy buddy check clips, bungees, hose routing, etc. again, in the water, with everyone else waiting arounf while the group drifts away from the intended site.
Then there's the dive itself. There is current to deal with, and lots of small interesting swim throughs, lots of opportunities to poke around reef openings and ledges. Any two tank set up is far more cumbersome and less streamlined in the water than a single tank. That's simply a fact of less bulk and mass being carried around. And considering the fact that everyone else on the dive is diving single tanks, what's the point of having two tanks? The answer is, there is no point. This is buddy team diving in warm, clear, open water. If someone can't do that safely with a single tank, then they have real problems as a diver. Sorry if I've offended anyone.
Okay, now we get back to the boat. There are two typical ways of getting out of the water and into the boat. First, divers surface near the boat and grab a line on the side. Then they either take off their fins and weights, hand them up, and climb up the ladder with BC in place, or unclip the BC and the captain hauls their BC aboard, then they remove fins and climb up. Doing that with twin tanks is twice the work, and usually sidemount divers will use both hands in the process of stowing regulators, unbungeeing (is that a word?
) and unclippling. Ok, so you have to do that while hanging onto the line so that you don't drift away from the boat. Then there's the issue of getting tanks rigged. Do you want opposing valves? How about adjusting the rigging? That's something else to deal with for both the dive op (I don't know how it is for them to get opposing valve sets) and the diver, who will have to re-rig the tanks every day, because usually in Cozumel you don't use the same cylinders day after day.
As I have said a few times on this thread, I am an avid sidemount diver in the Mexican cave systems. It's perfect for that; you need redundancy, you are hand-carrying tanks down rickety stairs (when there are stairs) to the cenote, you're gearing up in very shallow water with a good stable confined area to do equipment checks, and of course, the cave topography lends itself to sidemount; lots of passages that are vertically tight but have plenty of room horizontally. TOTALLY different scenario than a cozumel reef dive off a small skiff.
You say you have a preference for sidemount underwater...ok, I can see that, but the real comparison would be between sidemount and back mount doubles. Those are systems with somewhat comparable uses; technical diving, bigger gas requirements, redundancy, etc....comparing either to single tank is just not really useful in my opinion. There are dives when it's appropriate to bring double tanks and others that are appropriate for single tanks. I just don't get why someone would want to force the issue and use doubles-any kind of doubles- for single tank diving.
halocline
Contributor
Please don't take any offense at this, but maybe you are a superhuman who can rig a two tank sidemount system faster than single tank divers can back roll and rinse their masks, but that is NOT the norm. I know this because I do both things frequently. You can't really expect a typical person to be able to do this, at all.
It would be extremely cumbersome to fully rig a SM system in the Cozumel skiff where there is barely enough room for the 6 divers in single tanks, and then try to back roll off the boat in SM. And it would be impossible to climb the ladder with your SM tanks on. So in this specific scenario the option is to rig don/doff tanks in the water, and in my earlier post, I explained in detail why that is impractical on Coz reefs.
Look, someone could certainly force the issue and demand to use a two-tank set up on single tank recreational dives in Cozumel, for whatever reasons they have, and probably find a dive op that is willing-for a price- to accommodate. But that is a far cry from it being a recommended, practical, or even enjoyable idea.
I can't believe I'm still arguing about this, it's so obvious to me having been in the situation for years. Now, if you were on a technical dive trip in Cozumel (they do exist) where you were doing deco dives, deeper, maybe longer, with a group of tech divers equipped, then sure sidemount would be fine. But that's almost certainly going to be on a bigger boat with a platform, or at least with far fewer divers on a small boat and a DM/crew that is experienced and expecting to deal with technical dive practices.
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