Learning side mount with out instructor?

[Caveeagle]

Find a friend who dives SM and ask them to help you fine-tune. Diving is diving. Trim and stuff is just tweaking.

I suppose the value of this advice depends on what friends you have access to.

I have several friends who are active SM cave divers and use a variety of gear end techniques. I don't expect most people can get good help / advice in the friend circle, or they probably would not be asking these questions on SB.

I will also add, that even w a good instructor, you should expect a leaning curve, trial and error and multiple dives to tweak and adjust. If you are lucky enough to have place good for test dives, this is much bettter. If your paying charter or entrance fees for every dip, you could probably save money by hiring a good SM instructor. ...even if you have to travel.

 

[bamafan]

There are way more crappy sidemount instructors out there than good ones. Even in Florida there are only a handful that I would say would be worth your time. Most sidemount instructors only teach one way. They are lost when it comes to teaching what they don't dive. Personally if I was doing it again I would go to Mexico. There are lots of good sidemount instructors there even though they rarely dive steel tanks.

This is a newly certified full cave diver who finished their training with HP in Mexico only a few weeks ago. She probably has less than 100 scuba dives total.

Petra Sobotka

 

[Bigeclipse]

those of us that have been sidemount diving for more than probably 6 years are almost all self taught since it predates any sort of formal sidemount training outside of cave country and also predates most of the commercial rigs out there.
What makes instructors valuable is accelerating the timeline. Theoretically they have already figured it out, and as such can help you do it. Now since it has become a fad and agencies like PADI have no actual proof required of an instructors abilities to be able to cert sidemount divers, there are a TON of pretty useless sidemount instructors out there. Again, if you are outside of
An instructor can get you sorted in a 6-8 hour day. It will probably take you 20-30 hours to sort it out for yourself to the same level

I have done quite a bit of reading on sidemount and watched some videos. I definitely understand the concept. The one thing I'm having difficulty with is the independent reg setup. With manifolded doubles, you are breathing off one reg with your other second stage in a bungee around your neck. It appears in sidemount you want to breathing both tanks down evenly so things stay even in the water. I have read people will switch regs every 500psi or so. So the question I have is where are your regs when you aren't breathing that particular second stage...clipped off on shoulder d-ring...hanging on a neck bungee...etc?

 

[tbone1004]

@Bigeclipse it depends on your specific regulator configuration. MOST people have settled on what ends up looking like a hogarthian long hose setup with the long hose on the right and short hose on the left. Edd Sorenson, all the Mexico guys etc. all teach that. Dive Rite is a weird exception with long hose on the left, and some of the European people use a Toddy style system with two short hoses.
That said, most all use a hogarthian style long hose loop, so it looks the same as in doubles when breathing the long hose. When not breathing the long hose, some will clip it off to the right shoulder like you do in backmount when on a stage, others will let it hang. Depends on what you're doing to whether that is important or not

 

[Bigeclipse]

@Bigeclipse it depends on your specific regulator configuration. MOST people have settled on what ends up looking like a hogarthian long hose setup with the long hose on the right and short hose on the left. Edd Sorenson, all the Mexico guys etc. all teach that. Dive Rite is a weird exception with long hose on the left, and some of the European people use a Toddy style system with two short hoses.
That said, most all use a hogarthian style long hose loop, so it looks the same as in doubles when breathing the long hose. When not breathing the long hose, some will clip it off to the right shoulder like you do in backmount when on a stage, others will let it hang. Depends on what you're doing to whether that is important or not

Thanks for the answer. That’s what I was thinking of doing (hogarthian long hose type setup) since I’m already used to it.

 

[DogDiver]

Living in cave country, when I decided to change from backmount to sidemount the only option was to attend 3-4 workshops on sidemount. Lamar from Dive Rite did them. He has been most helpful throughout my transition. He stated there were only two reasons to go sidemount. 1) mission specific. And 2) lifestyle change. This holds true ten plus years later.

 

[Schwob]

to make/buy a small/cheap mirror and take it in the water with you

This works quite well (e.g. to a pole) and is reasonably easy to mount or hang (2 strings up to a dock or such) weight on bottom)
Convex mirror works well for instant feedback
Although, on second thought, since convex, maybe an 18" one would be plenty big too... did not try that so...

 

[a878bob]

The mirror is not a bad idea when you get pretty close, but initially I still think you need help from a seasoned sm'er.

 

[broncobowsher]

I have done quite a bit of reading on sidemount and watched some videos. I definitely understand the concept. The one thing I'm having difficulty with is the independent reg setup. With manifolded doubles, you are breathing off one reg with your other second stage in a bungee around your neck. It appears in sidemount you want to breathing both tanks down evenly so things stay even in the water. I have read people will switch regs every 500psi or so. So the question I have is where are your regs when you aren't breathing that particular second stage...clipped off on shoulder d-ring...hanging on a neck bungee...etc?

My method, which I am sure someone will tell me is wrong, is the short left hose bungeed around the neck and the long right hose has a clip (zip tied through a break away O-ring) that I don't clip to anything most of the time. Usually it will wrap around my neck and just hang out between my chin and right shoulder. If it gets unruly then I clip that off. Initially I had to clip it off all the time, but as setup got refined the clipping got less and less. Now it is almost never.

What I (and most everyone I dive with) have never got right is getting the tanks tamed. One guy is an instructor (that I didn't use) and he even fights his tanks at times. Too anal about that picture perfect trim perhaps? Honestly I am not that concerned about it. I don't cave. I sidemount because it is easier to travel and rent tanks than find or travel with a set of doubles. But the big reason is the back doesn't like doubles on deck, but does sidemount just fine. It's a bit of a mute point now, transitioning to a rebreather. Even lighter.

 

[NatureLVR]

You might find this useful, courtesy of a very smart SB member:

Ultimate Guide to Sidemount Cylinder Trim