Aggressor and sidemount
- Thread starter Ministryofgiraffes
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Messages
- 26,281
- Reaction score
- 5,875
- # of dives
- I'm a Fish!
Aggressor dive decks - at least the ones I've seen - are set up so each diver sits in front of their tank which is filled all week between dives. There would not be room for two sidemount tanks at your dive position. On a full boat the space between divers is even fairly tight although you can wait 10mins and the dive deck is then fairly empty.
If they were accommodating, they could lash yours to the rail nearby since the fill whip should reach but on some boats that's almost to the stairs down to the dive platform so would be in the way.
Also there's often some live drop drift dives - they use the boat itself as the pickup vehicle so I don't see that happening on sidemount. They like everybody to splash at the same time and stay with the DM - on pickup they cut the props, signal several people to board quickly then do it again to maintain position till everyone is picked up. Most people walk all their gear up the ladder with help from the on-board crew. Except removing fins.
backmount banded doubles would pose the same problem for them. On the flipside,I'm sure if they can accommodate you, they will try. Just don't show up expecting them to - see if you can contact the boat directly (they usually have a celphone active during pax changeovers) so maybe contact them a week earlier then again on your arrival day.
If you're doing the Bahamas itinerary (not Tiger Beach) there's a couple of dives where the easiest way is to splash ready to dive, ie not getting in the water first then having a crew member hand down your tanks since it can be pretty rough - if that's your process Although on most dives they do hand down video/camera gear.
If they were accommodating, they could lash yours to the rail nearby since the fill whip should reach but on some boats that's almost to the stairs down to the dive platform so would be in the way.
Also there's often some live drop drift dives - they use the boat itself as the pickup vehicle so I don't see that happening on sidemount. They like everybody to splash at the same time and stay with the DM - on pickup they cut the props, signal several people to board quickly then do it again to maintain position till everyone is picked up. Most people walk all their gear up the ladder with help from the on-board crew. Except removing fins.
backmount banded doubles would pose the same problem for them. On the flipside,I'm sure if they can accommodate you, they will try. Just don't show up expecting them to - see if you can contact the boat directly (they usually have a celphone active during pax changeovers) so maybe contact them a week earlier then again on your arrival day.
If you're doing the Bahamas itinerary (not Tiger Beach) there's a couple of dives where the easiest way is to splash ready to dive, ie not getting in the water first then having a crew member hand down your tanks since it can be pretty rough - if that's your process Although on most dives they do hand down video/camera gear.
runsongas
Contributor
pony is allowed afaik, but only for safety redundancy. can't be using it every dive for extra gas. you also have to bring your own, none available for rental.
- Messages
- 26,281
- Reaction score
- 5,875
- # of dives
- I'm a Fish!
Should be OK. They may want you to bungee it to the rail somewhere so it doesn't become a missile if it falls over on the valve - it;s likely too big to go in the bin under your station - plus all your other gear is stored there between dives.
have fun going thru the TSA with it. Don't expect Aggressor to do the visual/re-assembly on arrival. Most boats are just moored for the day with no land-based support.
SM from a boat can be a hassle however I bought LP50's & a used SMS50 a few years ago for boat diving. I've since sold the SMS and use an Armadillo for everything. The 50's are a lot easier to deal with on the boat and you can exit the water up the ladder with them attached. YMMV but it works for me. A single 80 on 1 side works as well. From my experience recreational boats don't care too much for sm due to divers sometimes not being considerate of others that are only diving a single 80. I can understand that point of view. Regardless, have fun!
I don't understand why 2 poster clain SM off boats is difficult - it really isn't.
Get to the ladder - remove your fins, climb up. I can walk along teh deck to a seat and remove each cylinder whilst standing - no more difficult than a pony
Get to the ladder - remove your fins, climb up. I can walk along teh deck to a seat and remove each cylinder whilst standing - no more difficult than a pony
- Messages
- 26,281
- Reaction score
- 5,875
- # of dives
- I'm a Fish!
I don't claim to know all the SM ins/outs but your scenario works on the boats you dive from. My only experience seeing a SM diver deploy was on a day boat and he clipped off his tanks in the water. While the crew is very accommodating - usually what they're handing down to divers in the water is camera gear.
Most of the Aggressor liveaboard dive decks I've seen are set up with a single backmount tank holder for each diver - and they're generally crowded when the pool opens - so where does the other tank go? Most will not want it free-standing in the area everyone is crowded into - toes or danging gear can get crushed if it falls over.
Most of the Aggressor liveaboard dive decks I've seen are set up with a single backmount tank holder for each diver - and they're generally crowded when the pool opens - so where does the other tank go? Most will not want it free-standing in the area everyone is crowded into - toes or danging gear can get crushed if it falls over.
I have no problem with Aggressor's rules, because as you rightly point out, dive decks on LOB's are generally designed to support a single tank per station.
Unless the SM diver in your example had back issues ( a back roll in SM can be hard on you because there is no cylinder to cushion the blow, I see no need to don and doff tanks in the water (unless the boat latter is weak).
But generally speaking getting on and off a day boat in SM should be no more difficult than in Back mount, indeed I can throw on my harness and clip off my cylinder faster than more people can climb into teh wing or jacket.
When travelling I'm always clear that I'm not intending to deco etc, I generally tell a "white lie" and explain I have poor gas consumption as the reason for SM. The places I go are pretty much SM friendly. There is also the advantage that larger HP100's etc are limited, so by me using SM it free's up one for others.
OP
Ministryofgiraffes
Contributor
I’ve never had an issue with it and in the Red Sea etc. It’s commonplace. I was on Blue last year ( great boat) at brothers and there was no issue with dual SM. The DMS were actually training some guys on SM during the week and we were diving from the deck and zodiacs with return to zodiac and return to boat. We just unclipped and passed up. No issue/no drama. The dive deck was busier than aggressor decks look and much busier than when I went on the Belize 3 a while ago. But we just lashed our 2nd tank to the first one and secured the first one to the station. 3 teams of divers diving in 10 min blocks. It was definitely busy on the deck, but nothing major. I guess they are just more open to it, or lots of the German divers prefer dual sm, so it’s generally accepted. I asked some last night if they have ever had an issue on Red Sea boats and dual sm and they all responded ‘why would you have an issue?’
OP
Ministryofgiraffes
Contributor
Not that anyone has asked, but if you are interested, here is a snap of the dual on the deck station. I do get miffed when people bleat on about sidemounts taking up too much too much room on deck etc. You can clearly see it’s tidier than the rigs next to it with a lot less crap hanging down...
Similar threads
