Do you dive backmount

I'd like to ask one of you forum savvy guys or gals to start a poll or thread that might shed a little light on the above question. I know that many will respond that they dive the orientation that the cave or project dictates. But in my little world of cave diving, walled-off admittedly from the big picture, it seems like there are very few back mounters left out there. I'd like to get a feel for the percentage. So I'll take a guess. I'd say that in the US most cave divers dive side mount. I'd go further and say 3 out of 4 of the open circuit dives made in US caves last year were made in side mount. Bring it on!!! :roll:

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Originally Posted by cavekrazi

I'd like to ask one of you forum savvy guys or gals to start a poll or thread that might shed a little light on the above question. I know that many will respond that they dive the orientation that the cave or project dictates. But in my little world of cave diving, walled-off admittedly from the big picture, it seems like there are very few back mounters left out there. I'd like to get a feel for the percentage. So I'll take a guess. I'd say that in the US most cave divers dive side mount. I'd go further and say 3 out of 4 of the open circuit dives made in US caves last year were made in side mount. Bring it on!!! :roll:

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Come down to Ginnie Springs on any busy weekend and you'll see just how far off your numbers are! Granted, Ginnie is a recreational dive location with not a lot of exploration going on so the need for sidemount is not an issue here. Living down here and diving in all the popular locations, I'd have to say that "75% sidemount" is a stretch!

I see plenty of folk still utilizing the twinset configuration when I go diving. And that is mostly at Peacock.

A few years ago, Lamar gave a side mount workshop.
There are two reasons to go sidemount.

1: mission specific.
2: life style.

Me, I'm in the second group. Age, knees and back dictate sidemount.

Safe diving all.


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id say its probably 60/40 or 75/25 in favor of BM still

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Originally Posted by patpicos

id say its probably 60/40 or 75/25 in favor of BM still

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I agree with Patrick but I'd make it a threesome and say it's 60/30/10 with the 10 being on RB's... ;)

Safe diving,

Rich

Forgot to include the Internet Divers and the sidemount rebreathers.

Make America inclusive again :)

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Originally Posted by patpicos

Forgot to include the Internet Divers and the sidemount rebreathers.

Make America inclusive again :)

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LMAO!

Safe diving,

Rich

In my experience I'd say at Jackson Blue I see 2/3 in sidemount, and at Ginnie I see 2/3 in backmount.

Backmount for me .. CCR second place. Sidemount rarely.

Backmount for me.

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I still dive back mount, but only when diving one of my breathers, I prefer side mount, I just haven't pulled the trigger on a side mount rebreather, yet...

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Originally Posted by DogDiver

back dictate sidemount.

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I hear this as a reason,but I watch someone carrying a steel cylinder to the water, and bent over with knees extended , as well as twisting at the waist to get the bottle placed near the water. More likely more stress on the back at this point than having cylinders on your back.

I dive 98% BM with the occasional excursion to Jug in SM. My buddy dives SM though and in my last class there was one of every configuration; SM and BM rebreathers and SM and BM Open Circuit. I tend to see more sidemounters at Peacock than Ginnie and substantially more sidemounters in the panhandle. I'd say its fairly even spread in the north FL region. Industry wide though back mount doubles are far and away more popular for any tech application. I do not think you will ever see these "open water sidemount" rigs take off.

backmount for me.

There's more than enough bm cave to see to keep my occupied.

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Originally Posted by Sludge

In my experience I'd say at Jackson Blue I see 2/3 in sidemount, and at Ginnie I see 2/3 in backmount.

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That's right! but i guess those sidemount guys at JB are mostly Edd's Students.
I dived BM in Mill's Pond and it was perfect. big caves. JB, HITW, TWIN.
That said, i guess i will go sidemount soon.

BM and BM rebreather. I own a sidemount rig, but I rarely dive it. Often I'll take it when I travel for OW because it's straps and a bladder and lighter weight and smaller size than a bp/w.

Side mount recently; I took the training, understood challenges and benefits; so far, I'll use BM only when the dive requires it.

Dove backmount for two and a half years and just switched to sidemount about a month or so ago. I like it much better; absolutely hated carrying roughly 100 pounds of gear on my back every time I walked to the water. Valve drills are WAY easier than dealing with manifolded tanks too - my shoulders aren't that flexible and I got shot in the right elbow years ago, which caused a permanently shortened range of motion on that side. I could do valve drills, but they looked pretty bad if you watched me do them. Having the choice of either using a handcart to carry all of my gear to the water or carry each tank individually prior to getting in my wetsuit and walking to the water to clip my tanks on is an awesome feeling.

Shoulder injury prevents back mount valve drills (range of motion). So now I'm side mount.

I'm on backmount.

Backmount or rebreather with sidemounted bailout tanks.

Backmount for me

Backmount most times, CCR often, sidemount when the cave dictates it.

backmount

Backmount

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Originally Posted by DogDiver

A few years ago, Lamar gave a side mount workshop.
There are two reasons to go sidemount.

1: mission specific.
2: life style.

Me, I'm in the second group. Age, knees and back dictate sidemount.

Safe diving all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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so many years ago I think that was the case, I got into it for the lifestyle because of impending bad knees. Once I got into it though, I truly do believe that it is a better/safer configuration than doubles for cave diving. Unfortunately it comes at the cost of not being anywhere near as easy as doubles, so I do still dive backmount when I am in OW. Only time in doubles in a cave is if I'm trying to drain doubles prior to splitting them up, or potentially if someone wants to try sidemount and I don't have a spare rig with me so I'll dive their doubles. That hasn't happened in a cave yet, but has in OW several times. In Peacock area as well as Marianna I see a lot more sidemount than backmount these days, but Ginnie is opposite. Unsure of what that balances out to in the end, but that has been my observation. The Peacock area has definitely seen a swing towards sidemount in the last 7 ish years since I got cave certified

This should have been a poll. Not many sidemount divers are responding, because of the subject.

:yawinkle:

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Originally Posted by cavekrazi

I'd like to ask one of you forum savvy guys or gals to start a poll...

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Originally Posted by FW

This should have been a poll. Not many sidemount divers are responding, because of the subject.

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Here we go.

http://www.cavediver.net/forum/showt...on-do-you-dive

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Originally Posted by Scubaru

Here we go.

http://www.cavediver.net/forum/showt...on-do-you-dive

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Thanks.

Everyone that responded here, please vote in the poll, so all the results are in the same place.

Poll options suck. Just sayin'.....

Sidemount.

I dive sidemount only. I've never actually dove doubles. I did play with a set in the ballroom once. You can keep 'em. 99 percent of my dives are cave. The few open water and boat dives I've done were in sidemount. If I never did cave I'd probably switch to doubles but for now I just use the same rig for everything; fresh, salt, cave, cavern, open water, boat, shore, whatever.

Much like cmint, I sidemount all the time in all environments.