Sidemount VS Backmount

[Neptuno]

I spend my time upsidedown, rightside up, on my head, sideways, slantways - anyways I want and can hang in just about any position with equal ease.

I dislike sidemount wanting to pull me into "its" prefered position - and as I said - rolling onto one's back or head-down-upside down in sidemount is something you do to test if the rig is up to the challenge: if the tanks remain attached you are doing "well". but it won't be "comfortable" (with steel tanks anyway).

hey gary, loooong time no see you.. did you got a manifold already

I just got back from a 2 days first time using SM, it does feel very weird, but most of it for me is because it won't roll you when you go on the sides or any other position but horizontal, so, for me it is more stable than BM when you need to move your body to the sides.
still like BM so far tho but will keep trying as long as philipe keeps loaning me the SM rigging

[phillip1]

hey gary, loooont time no see you.. did you got a manifold already

I just got back from a 2 days first time using SM, it does feel very weird, but most of it for me is because it won't roll you when you go on the sides or any other position but horizontal, so, for me it is more stable than BM when you need to move your body to the sides.
still like BM so far tho but will keep trying as long as philipe keeps loaning me the SM rigging

No problem lets go back next week end, I forgot I want to get a few mini spools from you, they are very very cool.

[ops959]

i defend the sidemount advantage...

reasons

1 - i can mount my canister light on the nomad xt harness (instead of clamping)

2 - i can mount my camelback water source onto the back of the xt wing

3 - i can carry my tanks to the water, then clip them on

4 - i can swim faster and go more streamlined

5 - i won't pull my back out carrying doubles down to the water

6 - shut down drills are simplest

...can't wait to purchase my dive rite nomad xt and maybe even sell my doubles...?

why really dive doubles?

is this my wake-up call?

[Sludge]

1 - i can mount my canister light on the nomad xt harness (instead of clamping)

I find this perplexing - when I used to sidemount, I never could find a place to mount the canister that I liked. I was going for the flat and wide profile; on my side, it interfered with my cylinders, and on my waist, it interfered with my profile. I ended up butt-mounting it.

In backmount, it's on my waist strap just in front of my plate, and I don't even notice it.

[adam0321]

[

. Some say that sidemount is more difficult than backmount, because you have to change regulators every 200-300 psi or so.


i would consider this a pro. it forces you ti utalize and exercise both regs. I know i neglect my back up reg and for that it has free flow on occasions.

[phillip1]

If anyone finds changing regs 4-5 times during a dive difficult in any way they should definitely not be cave diving.

[adam0321]

i agree

[Gary]

I only change every 1200 psi or more: 2/3 thirds on 1st tank, turn at 3rds but stay on 2nd tank, swap 2nd time at HALF on 2nd tank. And once more either at 1/3 on 1st tank or so the tanks leave the cave equal.

Maybe 3-4 swaps a dive anything over 4 is mostly for my own amusement in having tanks even on exit.

[phillip1]

I think it is important to have both tanks as equal as possible during the dive so you can switch clips from top drings to front drings as the tanks get empty and not have one tank hanging up and much emptier than the other.
I switch every 300 psi more or less, so tanks empty out even and ride as horizontal as possible at all times.
In SM I think It is very important to get both tanks to be as horizontal with the body as possible no matter what pressure.

[CaveBuddy95]

300psi is same for me, except that I use bungee d-rings that I just need to slide forward (towards buckle) as tank get around 2200-2300psi, like this it saves me the hassle to unclip and re-clip! I have 2 of those bungee d-rings on each side in case one came to brake!
They are good only if you have a stiff webbing and give the same low profile you'd get if you used the Razor. So far I love it!

To stay on-topic keep tanks close to horizontal and therefore same pressure + or -