turt1e
Registered
I wonder if Medicare would cover one of these? 'Creating the Spectacle!' Online - Part 1 - Finding Freedom. - YouTube
Anybody know of anybody trying sidemount and not liking it
- Thread starter chironomidkraut
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DaleC
Contributor
I don't really get the whole "right tool for the job" concept. Unless the rig enables an otherwise undoable dive it's just preference, not necessity. In most cases there isn't a "right" anything - just what one enjoys diving. In an orchestra there isn't a "right" instrument to play.
There is a right instrument to play if you need a certain sound. Something doesn't have to be "undoable" in a certain kit for it to be better suited than others in certain ways. I don't doubt that there are those who backmount or sidemount better than others, but the kits certainly have their separate strengths.
Personally, I only take into the water tools that help me make my dive in the safest and most enjoyable way possible. For you that might be sidemount. I haven't encountered a situation where that would have been the case yet.
flots am
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Don't be sad.
If getting a little help means getting me another 30 years of diving, I'm all for it.
flots.
JamesK
Contributor
Use back mount doubles (w/cut-off valves on the 2nd stages, OOOH the horror :O !!!) for cave diving....Gave side-mounts a try, several times....They have limited uses and no advantages that out weigh back mounts.......Try carrying/swimming w/stage and/or deco bottles w/side mounts....or getting into confined spaces and removing/donning a side mount set-up-vs-back mount.....And the main reason for me was loosing 1/2 your air if one of your 2nd stages goes bad [w/or w/o a cut off valve].....Try using side mount w/a scooter !!!!..... If you like them, use them.....For me the con's far out weighed the pro's......
DevonDiver
N/A
j2s.... same question I asked others.. what training, if any, did you have for sidemount?
DaleC
Contributor
I just did a dive with a buddy. He was BM doubles, I was SM doubles. We both had fun and were safe. Which rig was right?
Arguing that for me SM was right but for him (or you) BM was right is just saying neither or both were - which is what I was saying.
Saying that in certain circumstances one rig might offer advantages over another (and thus might be right) was also what I was saying.
Saying that one rig offers features over another that one might like, but not necessarily need, to dive pleasurably and safely is a preference.
People tend to use the most extreme examples to try and re-enforce their equipment choices but I really question how many are actually doing those dives. My money is not that many, that often. For those few cases the dive does in fact, dictate the equipment but for the majority there are many equally valid configurations.
I agree with this. Very few people do "pinnacle" dives with any regularity. That said, if you're doing them, I would think that all of your other dives would want to be in similar kit for the purposes of repetition and building/retaining muscle memory. I live in California where we have very few "cave-like" environments and the wrecks that we do have are such that my back mounted doubles or backmounted rebreather can squeeze into the spots I need to go. Hence, there is no benefit to sidemount for me.
I wonder if you're using the example of the posters who are citing the comfort of carrying multiple bottles into the water as the "extreme". If so I would say that people are doing a lot more of that than you think. It is atypical for me to go for a week without a multi-tank staged dive, as we have lots of sites here that are conducive to that type of diving. That's not extreme, that's just what deep diving is all about. Again, I only have about ten hours in SM config, but I did not like carrying four+ tanks in that configuration. Perhaps, as Devon has pointed out, I should get more training and have someone futz with that to assist in my comfort.
I would say that if you're diving in southern California, do not have back/hip/joint/other issues and you're diving sidemount, you're diving a suboptimal equipment configuration to a banded, manifolded set of back mounted doubles. There's no benefit that I can see, feel or have heard of that would suggest to me that adding the task of managing independent air sources is advantageous in a way that makes sense. I get why it would be popular in Mexico and Florida where you have cave systems that are more comfortable to push.
So while you can sidemount dive here, the obvious question to me is why would you? To push those super tight spots between stalks of kelp? I'd like to know of/see video of the places where sidemount was a necessary decision in local diving.
I can't tell you all the times where I can be comfortly kitted up in my harness during a surface interval and then just clip on a new tank while others are hauling and mounting tanks. It's made many people inquire about "this rig" me and my students are wearing. My BM double 120s were a serious pain to haul around, now that they are SM, no where near the strain. Further, I get to pick the tanks I need for the dive, instead of using what's manifolded, I just add regs. Versatile and easier on the body, other than that, no reason to dive SM....
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