My venture into Sidemount.

[noreastDIVER84]

Well since I have not posted in here in a while I figure it is time for an update.

I did my second open water dive of the season in sidemount, and it is the first that I am doing with Faber hp120's. I have been in the pool a couple dozen times this winter with the new tanks. I decided that I needed 8 pounds of weight with this setup in a drysuit, with 4th element arctic undergarments. I trimmed out nicely and did a 45 minute drift dive in the setup. I have retired my Faber lp 112's from sidemount as I was not happy with them, I think it was that they were too fat.

I will be doing a week of sidemount diving in Bonaire in just under a months time and I look forward to every minute of it.

 

[Jax]

WhooHoot!!!!! Had a great time at the Scuba Show . . . between Steve Lewis' Book "The Six Skills" and the show, Steve is a lot more interested in further diving!

Questions for you sidemounters . . .

1. Where do you mount your Argon bottle and

2. How do you run the light cord if the canister is on your butt?

 

[DwayneJ]

WhooHoot!!!!! Had a great time at the Scuba Show . . . between Steve Lewis' Book "The Six Skills" and the show, Steve is a lot more interested in further diving!

Questions for you sidemounters . . .

1. Where do you mount your Argon bottle and

2. How do you run the light cord if the canister is on your butt?

Hi! Nice to meet you and your husband!!

Not sure about the Argon bottle as I just use air. Tobin from Deep Sea Supply had a Light Monkey battery canister with a right angle fitting for the power cable so there was minimal strain on the cord. I also believe the cord was longer than what I currently have on my own Hollis 16w led (also Light Monkey). I saw another post saying swapping power cords from Light Monkey is $150. Not sure if there is extra $$ for the right angle.

What I dont know is if the power cord runs under or over harness webbing... I still mount my canister on my waist belt clipped to my chest D-Ring and it seems to keep out of the way.

Dwayne

 

[Jax]

The light monkey with the right angle adaptor was only 5 hours, though. I'll have to reinforce the perpendicular cable . . . but where does the cable run up the body? Do you tie it off to the rig?

 

[DwayneJ]

Cable runs across my front not attached to anything - Since I have the shorter power cord, it does not dandle. With the longer power cord maybe one wrap down your arm may keep it in place but others may chime in.

Just to be clear, Send your existing canister light back to Light Monkey can install a longer/shorter power cord plus add a right angle adapter if needed. I have a Hollis 16W eLed and if I wanted to install a longer cord, Light Monkey will do this for me for I believe ~$150.

 

[Jax]

Thanks, Dwayne; I bought the can light from Light Monkey and that size doesn't come with the right angle adapter . . . yet. They are putting the 52" cord on it for me.

I am thinking I can run it under the wing, with velcro tie-offs to the little D-rings, and then down my left arm. Not in the way, still can be clipped off or moved to the right hand as needed.

On my bp/w, I can mount it on the right hip, come across under the hoses and webbing, still out of the way of long hose deployment.

I'm always looking for efficiencies, so any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Argon bottle (not that I use one all that often as I try to avoid water cold enough to require it!) is butt mounted just below the light canister.

Canister light cord runs between cylinder and body, under my waist belt, and under my chest strap. I do have a 50" cord on it, though.

 

[Jax]

Cool! :dance3: I guessed right on the cord.

Water cold enough to require argon . . . that's any water under 75^o, right?

 

[phaust]

is there really worth it ? (argon bottle instead of just one lp hose from one tank..)

i dive a lot in 35-40F water and i never saw divers having argon before..

i saw this paper too. interesting read

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/divers3/Argon.pdf

 

[TSandM]

A lot of us who dive reasonably cold water (45 - 50 degrees) have concluded, through unscientific personal testing (and despite a significant financial bias to conclude otherwise) that Argon makes a very noticeable difference.