DevonDiver
N/A
The first thing to understand is that sidemount rigs developed along two disparate routes of design.
Read: The Two Schools of Sidemount Diving Heritage
This allows you to identify the inherent features on a rig... and hence its design history. That, in turn, gives you direction on what sort of diving a given rig will be optimal for.
Divers have consistently struggled to modify and adapt rigs for the wrong 'type' of diving.
UK/Mexican cave rigs always proved ungainly and 'beach balled' when dealing with steel high capacity cylinders. The 'work around' was to use multiple lightweight stages, rather than fewer heavyweight cylinders.
USA/Florida rigs suffered equal problems when dealing with aluminium / warm water diving needs. They're overly heavy or bulky... awful for travel. The use of butt rails and certain bungee methods, such as ring bungees or heavyweight independent bungees, was an anathema to keeping aluminium cylinders properly trimmed.
Its only in the last couple of years that we see some manufacturers strart to crack these limitations.... and produce rigs that can handle the needs of either approach without the 'traditional' drawbacks.
The XDeep Stealth Tec is an example of a Mexican cave style rig that eliminates the 'beach ball' effect and can handle high capacity steel tanks without drawback.
From the opposite direction, the Hollis Katana stems from the US/Florida cave heritage, but introduces modularity and minimalism... and has options that actually make it effective for warm water and aluminium tank configuration.
Firstly, you need to travel to WHERE they dive the approach you need. If you will dive AL80 cylinders, go to where those cylinders are the standard.
Secondly, you need to identify an instructor who had genuine expertise is both sidemount AND the rig/s you're interested in.
Some sidemount instructors really just have zero expertise... they only ever don sidemount on rare occasions... often only when teaching sidemount courses. Some are just making it up as they go along. Needless to say... avoid them like the plague.
Other sidemount instructors are specialists on a single rig. A good example of this is 'Official Razor' instructors. For sure they have significant expertise and experience... but they'll only teach in their given rig of preference. That's perfect if your rig of preference matches their rig of preference.
There's very few sidemount instructors that teach a wide variety of rigs. To gain expertise in a variety of rigs takes a lot of time.
I've been diving... and teaching.. solely on sidemount for over a decade. Thousands of dives as a full-time diver. In that time, I've only managed to gain significant experience on maybe a dozen rigs.
By 'significant', I mean with a high level of attention-to-detail; understanding the nuances and critical aspects of a rig and it's performance...
Of course, many rigs are loose clones of others... so the principles and expertise can transfer from one brand to another... if the rigs are largely similar.
The need for buoyancy redundancy is a serious question. For 'lite' technical sidemount you may not need it. Sidemount is particularly adaptive for a balanced rig approach.
That said, having 'solutions' like a balanced rig, ditching cylinders or using lift bags to ascend when otherwise negatively buoyant is NOT an equipment fix. It's a skills fix.
Only the individual diver can ascertain if they really have the skills and psychology to implement 'creative' and more complex solutions to a bladder failure under the worst case scenarios.
From my experience, many don't. Developing reliable capacity to do these solutions takes many hours of dedicated practice and hundreds of hours relevant experience.
In which case, opt for a dual bladder solution.
That could mean a dedicated dual-bladder BCD.... or adding a 2nd bladder to an existing rig. There's deft... and dumb... examples of both.
So... that'd be anything up to ~45m/150' range, with moderate deco. Runtime s circa 60 minutes?
Obviously, it depends on your individual parameters (weighting, competency etc), but pretty much any rig will handle 2XAL80 with an AL40/60 deco. I've used a Dive Rite Trim Pillow (2L wing) for dives like this. I currently use a Deco Sidemount (10L wing) for dives up to 3x AL80.
That said, I know good divers who need more buoyancy... simply because they need more weight than me. So... something up to ~20L capacity.
Beyond that requirement... or for divers with less refined weighting or skills... I'd recommend a dedicated technical wing... buoyancy in the region of 30-40L. There's a vast range of decent rigs with those capabilities.
My personal preference is the XDeep Stealth Tec. The dual bladder version is released any day now... and that'll be about as complete and cutting edge as there is.
That's because I dive tropical waters in a 3 or 5mm wetsuit... and regularly do dives with 4+ cylinders (AL80s or AL100s).
After the XDeep, I think the Apeks WSX, Razor 2, Hollis Katana and UTD Z-Trim are all very good. Or you can go for a clone-type that basically copies these.... maybe save some money.
Pending finding your ideal instructor, do consider investing in Steve Martin's sidemount video series. It's expensive (on a par with the cost of an El Cheapo sidemount course), but it's hugely comprehensive and will definitely get you started with the foundations for configuring and using a UK/Mexican cave style rig. The videos themselves use XDeep and Apeks rigs as examples.
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