Switching to sidemount?

[Davidstealey3]

i tried sidemount with Pete from Dive Rite and loved it. so what, you have to make extra trips to the lake or quarry, but it beats carrying around the doubles to and from the water on the back. the hose config he had on the demo was quick and simple. not a lot of hoses all over the place.

more or less it comes down to what you want to do. my buddies wife is in her 40's and does doubles now. at her height of 5'4" and her age, she would rather do the extra walking rather then carry the weight.

do what will work best for you. and if you decide to do sidemount, Dive Rite teaches courses just for the use of this particular system and think you could learn a lot from it

 

[shoredivr]

I took an open water sidemount course from Aquaholic on this board (Chipola Divers) and loved it. Specific questions about hose lengths, size of tanks, placement of cam bands around tanks, length of bungees, etc etc are all answered. You get to feel the difference as Aquaholic makes adjustments to your rig as you swim around. He also videos your dives so you can see how your trim looks, and where the bottles are placed.

I had played around on my own, doing my own rigging and hose lengths, watched videos, etc., but found the class really solidified things for me. For example, I had placed the tanks more like stages, they were way too low to be sidemounts.

 

[CamG]

Greetings bamamedic and I to am experimenting with the sidemounting.
I have watched many video's on youtube and talked with several divers who sidemount.
I suggest easing into it carefully and try a nomad if you can. There are other good rigs out there. I talked with Pete from Dive Rite and adapted my Transpac with the butt plate and bungees. So far it has been great but I can see a nomad in the future just because it is a cleaner profile. Hose routing is covered pretty well if you research it on youtube and other cave forums. There are some options but try to stick to standards, it is just easier for your buddies. Tank sizes are what makes it really fun. I chose to leave my doubles alone and hunt for other side/stage bottles. I love to dive doubles and love to dive side mounted to. Heck, it does not matter what it is as long as it is diving! I always dive with a redundant system over 60' and if temps are below 45º. Which here in IN that is most of the time. A few warm dives in the summer and even then sling a pony for good luck!
Have fun with the side mount but be safe and always perform over and above pre-dive checks. It helps to have a informed buddy.
CamG Keep diving....keep training....keep learning!

 

[Colliam7]

How are people setting up their hoses, and what size hoses are sidemount divers using? Is the average sidemount diver using small SPG's or the 2 inch SPG? How are the hoses routed from each first stage? If it helps, I'm diving Atomic Z2's without a swiveling first stage. I've seen sidemount divers use a right angle adaptor on their bungeed backup...if I use a Miflex hose, could I eliminate that?

As the responses suggest SM is in a period of evolution and there are any number of different, and valid, approaches to setting up your rig. Most of us have come to whatever configuration we have at the moment based on 1) formal or informal instruction, 2) trial and error, or 3) most often a combination of both. Currently, I dive a Transpac/Nomad, with a 7' hose on the right tank, looped in bungees on the tank, a 33" hose on the left tank, running in front of my left shoulder and behind my neck, on a standard necklace, with omni swivels inserted on the second stage end of both hoses. Right now I am using small SPGs - that is what I happened to have on the regs I decided to dedicate to SM - with 6" hoses. I have bought a short miflex hose to see if I like it better, but haven't tried it yet. At the moment, I am working on determining the optimal bungee lengths (my dive buddy and I have bought a tool and supplies to make our own bungees, as we experiment with different lengths). For tanks, I am using HP100s, with left and right valves (tanks broken down from a set of manifolded doubles), or AL80s with standard valves. In either case, I set the tanks up with the valves facing away from me. My primary inflator hose comes off my left tank reg, and my secondary inflator hose (drysuit or backup bladder on the Nomad) comes off my right first stage. By next week, I may have changed it a bit, but this is where I am today.

Is SM a 'trend' or a 'fad'? Possibly, to some extent it is. But, it IS a whole lot easier than carrying backmounted, manifolded doubles around (particularly my double 130s), and I can carry four single tanks onto a dive boat that won't let me carry two sets of manifolded doubles (go figure). With heavier HP steels, I do think SM moves you to a more face down position on the surface, but that is manageable. Having said that, I have no plans to give up backmount. Rather, I like the flexibility of deciding what to dive, when.

 

[brockbr]

Or, you can dive the two or three Kelsey & I have... But that would mean you have to actually come out and dive

 

[hudson]

bamamedic,

The miflex hose won't compensate for the 90 degree bend required with a conventional second stage, you do need the elbow.

Dive Rite has excellent sidemount configuration videos for the nomad. Just ignore the parts about "chokers" - they are mostly worthless, IMHO.

During the transition I think your two problems will be: 1) tanks riding too low 2) trim (you'll be feet heavy). These are most influenced by the position of the tank bands (typically fairly high, almost halfway up the cylinder) and how 'tight' the attachments are to your butt plate (don't fall into the trap of leaving them somewhat loose to make them easier to clip on and off, the tradeoff isn't worth it) and potentially fin weight and shoulder trim weights. You'll also struggle to get the bungees on the necks, if you are anything like me - in the end, there isn't much of a trick to this (I've tried various things), you'll just need to get used to the "stretching" motion.

I'm also PM'ing you a link to a pretty decent sidemount guide (it's on TDS so I don't know if it's bad form to post here...)

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

I took an open water sidemount course from Aquaholic on this board (Chipola Divers) and loved it. Specific questions about hose lengths, size of tanks, placement of cam bands around tanks, length of bungees, etc etc are all answered. You get to feel the difference as Aquaholic makes adjustments to your rig as you swim around. He also videos your dives so you can see how your trim looks, and where the bottles are placed.

I had played around on my own, doing my own rigging and hose lengths, watched videos, etc., but found the class really solidified things for me. For example, I had placed the tanks more like stages, they were way too low to be sidemounts.

I believe its Dive-aholic that you are refering to.

 

[shoredivr]

I believe its Dive-aholic that you are refering to.

Yes, you are right. I typed that post 3 times and got timed out each time...Dive-aholic's name got mangled in the process. Apologies.

 

[ae3753]

Definitely a lot of variation.

I detail how to route hoses on a side mount tank on my site. I like this set-up since it's very similar routing to Hogarthian, and makes it easy for myself and mixed teams.

Here's my wife (5'4" and 105#s) taking my Razor harness for a trial spin. You can see the hose routing in the video.

 

[DaleC]

Not to hijack the thread but I am curious as to what effect the upsurge in SM interest will have on the manifolded doubles vs independant twins debate. It seems these things go in circles sometimes. Perhaps another thread though.

Two questions I have for the SMers though:

1. I dive backmount IT Al80's and can easily breath one side down to 1000psi (my usual reserve rock bottom) before switching regs thus only one reg switch/dive yet I often here others claiming a need to switch regs every 500psi or so. Do any of you find your balance thrown off that much that early?

2. I dive the standard longhose - bungied B/U configuration but, because the longhose is clipped off half the time, I secure the reg boltsnap with a tear away O ring instead of cave line. Do sidemounters with the same hose config. do this as well?