Side mounts

Side mounts the next "Big Thing" or just a fad ?

I'd say a fad. They have their place for cave diving or possibly wreck ferreting but not for most divers.

Dived by lard arses that'll get stuck between the posts jumping off lifts.

I was thinking when carrying stages
Also there Indies and that's a faf

Its been around alot longer than you think, great way to dive just not always the best when you need to carry alot of gas

Yep but it seems a lot of people are talking about it at the mo

I'm sure there'll be some on the boat on Sunday.
Dive how you like, but I won't be diving with you until I can see flawless gas donation abilities.

According to Sport diver this month Side Mount is about to be the next big thing in diving. As a female diver i use Side mount and it is an amazing dive experience, you dont have to have large air tanks you can go to smaller 7lts if you like.

The balance is so different to a back tank for an avid photographer it is an absolute must not only for the balance and ease of movement but you can clip your camera(s) on the back harness. It is very hard to explain the difference, but safety wise you have a spare tank for your buddy in need not just a share system so technically you could finish your dive if your buddy has a problem with their tank. (not recommended of course)

Side Mount is becoming highly recommended for female divers and Steve Martin the side mount guru has quoted "women make the best side Mount divers"

I would highly recommend you try this out and make your own mind up!

Yes thats because woman are the only silly fools to be taken in by his sales pitch

First let me say i have nothing against sidemounts i did a try dive in them .Trim was easy to get and keep in them but so it is in backmount . I see them as a tool to do a job and there is no doubt that there are things/places you can do/go in sidemounts that you cant in backmount, and here's the but . Its nothing new .

Really i dont think so its been about years just because some equipment manufacturer's get behind it ( because it sells new kit?) it is nothing new

As you can with backmount

So don't its drivel anyway

So men make the best Backmount divers then , I think there are a few who will disagree

On this we agree its a great way to dive but it has limits as all diving does
Pete

I'm just BIG boned........Alright
I must admit when I opened up my post the other day I didn't realise so many people were talking about side mounts. For me, the first I knew of side mounts was off a YouTube cave diving video and someone was down at Stoney with side mounts.
For me it sits right between rec diving and tech diving. I don't do a lot of deco ie no more than 5 mins and I don't dive deeper than 40mtrs. All I'm after is a bit more back (side) gas than a standard 15 will carry and the extra redundancy you get from having 2 cylinders.
Don't get me wrong, I love my manifolded twins but I'd like to try out side mounts just to see how I get on.

Go for it there great just not a life changing event

Commenting on something posted 6 months ago is inadmissible, lardy big bones.

Worse than a fad, it's a craze, like wearing one orange sock and one green sock, we look back and cringe but they had their place, ok, it was the eighties but still!

Seen at least one set at Dahab. The diver in question was doing Lighthouse Reef, so trotted down with one tank, went back and fetched the other.

It looks a sane enough rig, but like all twins its heavy.

Only saw even conventional twins at the Blue Hole (techies everywhere, 5 meters down a pontoon to water) and Lighthouse Reef (techies training. I did see a few walk there kit back into the dive centres, though thinking about it that was mostly re-breather users.). Elsewhere saw nothing but singles.

I'm sure people dive other shore sites with twins, but crossing the reef in any sort of surf with a mountain on your back is f***ing hard work.

There is no such thing as the universally perfect diving set up for all environments.

But a moderate sized single tank and BCD certainly has its place, simply by weight alone.

Cheers Harry

she started it anyway its winter ,in summer i will look like a undernourished greyhound

No Pete you twit, that was to Sidemount Smudge.

That comment was very sexist....i actually use both back tank and side mount. If you suffer from a bad back the weight distribution is totally different with no strain on your back! Each system has its place and it is a personal preference.

If you use twins then the weight on your back will be different on sidemount although both heavy. I can not walk very far with a single tank on my back as we mainly shore dive but with side mount i can still walk the same distance with maybe a little less strain.

I wasn't expecting quite so much Testosterone being thrown about, may be us silly fools of women will get to like the side mount and dive longer than you back tank heros!!

He didn't say all women, just the ones that don't understand the offside rule.

I guess that's all of them then.

That is unfair.

It was scuba sioux that did the forum dredging, Smudge is an innocent bystander.

Not that the resultant mud slinging hasn't been entertaining.

Harry