Well of course, because that IS my M.O. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by victorzamora
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Well of course, because that IS my M.O. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by victorzamora
Now, to be constructive: I was taught in SM. I've never been diving doubles. My Cavern, Intro, Apprentice, and Full Cave classes were all done in sidemount. I did Apprentice with Edd. I took the other three classes from one of Edd's instructors, Michal Turek (fantastic instructor, fyi). While there was no sidemount "course" and I had no official training in SM, all of the courses involved gear rigging/setup and discussions about good SM practice in caves. Cavern/Intro started with a gear-rigging session, and then trim/setup fixes. I sold my first SMS100 (too small) and bought another rig. My Apprentice course started with some more gear trim/setup, but it was much shorter as I was already MUCH more proficient in SM from my Cavern/Intro course. Edd had a new mod for me to test out on my rig, so my Full Cave class started out with another gear tweak which took extra fiddling.
Another note: your instructor is CRUCIAL to getting into SM properly with minimal frustrations. I had taken a couple of classes in SM with an SM Instructor/Diver and taken a Tec40 course, and I fiddled with SM exclusively for over 9 months. I progressed more in 3 hours with Michal than 9 months on my own. I'm technically knowledgeable, an Aerospace Engineer, and I obsess over things to make sure they're perfect. I'm sure you can get great results with the help of a good dive buddy and a camera, but I can also say that that is the long way about it.
As far as it being a specialty, I have to agree with a recent post: I dive SM because you can do any cave in SM you can in BM, but not the other way around. I haven't gotten to that level yet, but I don't want to have to learn a new skill set for that. Another reason I like SM is that I can do a sidemount dive with any two rental cylinders. I don't have to worry about sourcing a set of doubles. Personally? I believe sidemount to be the superior option. I don't know if I'd call it "normal" yet....but I don't believe it to be a specialty any more than doubles. I believe you need training to dive doubles properly, but can get away without the training. I believe SM to be the same.
I would have to agree about sidemount being superior for cave diving, but for diving off a boat I think backmount has an advantage. I never had any formal training for sidemount. I was just exposed to it so much I just became normal to see divers in sidemount. I also have never dove doubles, but I kind of want to. I didn't have as much trouble as you did, however you gained experience that I didn't. Good Luck and good diving victor.
Will, you were lucky in that you were diving with proper SM divers and had feedback. I was not and did not, but believed that I was. THAT is what cost me all of that time and effort. But yes, I'm looking at building a custom SM rig and those lessons along the way will help in that.
???Quote:
Originally Posted by cavern newbee
Hey, at least he let you know up front he had no experience with the subject he is talking about.Quote:
Originally Posted by Slüdge
I've never felt limited in BM. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I used to want to dive doubles for overhead and I soon realised that it was not for me. But I has dove a single 130 to untie my dad's boat and that thing is heavy.
How did you come to the realization that it was not for you if you never even tried it? By listening to people like Phillip?
He weighs less than a set of doubles. That's probably what talked him out of doubles
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