Actual youngest sidemount diver - sorry

[OldNSalty]

I believe I am the youngest side-mount diver ever...as soon as I complete the course.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Jason,

Welcome to the forums! One thought, unrelated to this discussion—if you name is what your username is, and given the location details you’ve put in this thread, you’ve made it very easy for people to tell who and where you are. The internet is a big place and it’s best to keep information like your name closer to your chest. I believe you can put a request in Site Support section of the forum for a username change, if you decide you don’t want your name and location available for the internet to see J

As far as age and sidemount, I don’t see what the big deal is. A bigger accomplishment would be to be the oldest person diving backmount!

If you are still a minor and you have already injured your back enough by playing sports that you can’t handle a hundred pounds on your back…then I’m super glad I don’t play sports!

Are you diving sidemount with a console? You should consider switching to just an SPG. The other items typically found in a console such as a depth guage, bottom timer, or dive computer, can be more easily used from your wrists than from a console. Putting the SPG on shorter hoses works well with sidemount diving.

The glass is not pressurized in a pressure guage. The inside houses a “Bordon tube”…of which I can only give you a very simplified laymans’ observational explanation. A Bordon tube is a coiled metal piece which changes how much it’s coiled up depending on the pressure applied. It’s similar in some ways to the coiled metal bits in some thermostats, which change how tightly they are coiled based on temperature changes. The rest of the empty space in the back of the SPG and behind the glass or plastic face might be at atmospheric pressure for all I know, but I doubt it’s anything other than a very slight vacuum to about 15psi.

If the tube develops a leak, either slow or catastrophic, then the insides become more pressurized. As the inside is water tight under typical circumstances, this requires something to leak. The rubber plug on the back would hopefully allow this gas to escape without forcing the front glass or plastic out.

In the past, it was a common guideline to hold the SPG face against the tank as you turned on the air. Modern equipment seems to suffer from fewer failures of this type, though. After 3 years of use, I’ve had about 20% of my SPG’s leak water inside. They still read pressure properly, but are full of water.


Why did you decide to get a certification to dive sidemount? What was your exposure to sidemount before the course? Why does your instructor dive sidemount? What do you think was the best thing you learned in the course? Why did you mouth off to anyone at the dive shop?

 

[DevonDiver]

I believe I am the youngest side-mount diver ever...as soon as I complete the course.

(To the OP) Seriously though, I think you might be disappointed...it IS a big world...

(shared on a Facebook group - young teen sidemount diver)

 

[OldNSalty]

Wait-are you going off of biological age DevonDiver? If that is the case I'll shoot for oldest sidemount diver.

 

[GAdiver]

So how old are you? I believe Jay (who works at Cave Adventurers) was 15 or 16 when he became the first (or second) person certified in PSAI's Side Mount program.

Dave

Jay was OW sidemount at 15 and got his waiver for overhead at 16 (I think) and I just turned 13

---------- Post Merged at 11:01 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:55 PM ----------

Jason,

Welcome to the forums! One thought, unrelated to this discussion—if you name is what your username is, and given the location details you’ve put in this thread, you’ve made it very easy for people to tell who and where you are. The internet is a big place and it’s best to keep information like your name closer to your chest. I believe you can put a request in Site Support section of the forum for a username change, if you decide you don’t want your name and location available for the internet to see J

As far as age and sidemount, I don’t see what the big deal is. A bigger accomplishment would be to be the oldest person diving backmount!

If you are still a minor and you have already injured your back enough by playing sports that you can’t handle a hundred pounds on your back…then I’m super glad I don’t play sports!

Are you diving sidemount with a console? You should consider switching to just an SPG. The other items typically found in a console such as a depth guage, bottom timer, or dive computer, can be more easily used from your wrists than from a console. Putting the SPG on shorter hoses works well with sidemount diving.

The glass is not pressurized in a pressure guage. The inside houses a “Bordon tube”…of which I can only give you a very simplified laymans’ observational explanation. A Bordon tube is a coiled metal piece which changes how much it’s coiled up depending on the pressure applied. It’s similar in some ways to the coiled metal bits in some thermostats, which change how tightly they are coiled based on temperature changes. The rest of the empty space in the back of the SPG and behind the glass or plastic face might be at atmospheric pressure for all I know, but I doubt it’s anything other than a very slight vacuum to about 15psi.

If the tube develops a leak, either slow or catastrophic, then the insides become more pressurized. As the inside is water tight under typical circumstances, this requires something to leak. The rubber plug on the back would hopefully allow this gas to escape without forcing the front glass or plastic out.

In the past, it was a common guideline to hold the SPG face against the tank as you turned on the air. Modern equipment seems to suffer from fewer failures of this type, though. After 3 years of use, I’ve had about 20% of my SPG’s leak water inside. They still read pressure properly, but are full of water.


Why did you decide to get a certification to dive sidemount? What was your exposure to sidemount before the course? Why does your instructor dive sidemount? What do you think was the best thing you learned in the course? Why did you mouth off to anyone at the dive shop?

I definently see your point on oldest person diving back mount. Haha. I really was just apologizing for the other thread. It was mostly practices when I hurt my back because they would put me as a lineman if I got detention and I weigh less than 100 pounds. I'm going to dive with a Hollis brass pressure gauge and a mares icon HD.

 

[GAdiver]

(To the OP) Seriously though, I think you might be disappointed...it IS a big world...
View attachment 132050
I said certified. look at the way his hoses are routed his SPG is sticking straight out and on a bc with an over the shoulder inflate the inflator hose goes under the shoulder strap unless you are trying to get entangled. His reg hose is sticking way out and needs to be tucked. I don't know if it was just who I was trained by but my instructor saw every little entanglement hazard everywhere and fixed it and told us not to route hoses with any entanglment hazards. When I take my cavern class whenever I take it I won't dive with my bottles rigged like that, nor will I dive with a buddy backmount or sidemount that has his bottles rigged that way. If he is actually certified he should probably route his hoses differently and ask SM divers with more experience how they rig.

 

[Drewpy]

If you are not cave certified and not diving in tight spaces..why dive sidemount?

 

[GAdiver]

If you are not cave certified and not diving in tight spaces..why dive sidemount?

1. See a future cave training possibility 2.back problems, Al40s are very light and can be donned and doffed in-water

 

[GrimSleeper]

(To the OP) Seriously though, I think you might be disappointed...it IS a big world...
View attachment 132050
I said certified. look at the way his hoses are routed his SPG is sticking straight out and on a bc with an over the shoulder inflate the inflator hose goes under the shoulder strap unless you are trying to get entangled. His reg hose is sticking way out and needs to be tucked. I don't know if it was just who I was trained by but my instructor saw every little entanglement hazard everywhere and fixed it and told us not to route hoses with any entanglment hazards. When I take my cavern class whenever I take it I won't dive with my bottles rigged like that, nor will I dive with a buddy backmount or sidemount that has his bottles rigged that way. If he is actually certified he should probably route his hoses differently and ask SM divers with more experience how they rig.

I haven't read the thread you're apologising for, but this is you being conciliatory? Wow. You've got some serious life lessons coming your way at some point, I fear. Trust me, you don't know everything.

 

[DevonDiver]

I haven't read the thread you're apologising for, but this is you being conciliatory? Wow. You've got some serious life lessons coming your way at some point, I fear. Trust me, you don't know everything.

"Life lessons ahead" is a given for teenagers.

Such a joyous stage of existence to believe the world so simple a place that you could ever consider yourself to have 'worked it out'. Is a shame that reality and experience inevitably crushes that naive, but amazing, view of the world.