Sidemount- Specialty or the new normal?

[corvettejoe]

[sskasser]

You should know better. Shirley has no morals....

HEY!!!!! I have MORALS! Questionable morals are STILL morals!

[Kelly Jessop]

Hmmm....BM is still used in Mexico
http://www.nationalgeographic.com.es..._sagrados.html

[phillip1]

Yes it is but SM is more popular now and growing and for good reason.
If you need to put limits on your diving then BM is a good choice.

[tstormdiver]

I have dove the sidemount configuration a few times & really just can't get into it. Nothing wrong with it,... just not overly excited about it. To each their own. Now that I'm moving towards rebreather, hopefully in the future it'll be a mute point anyway.

[FW]

... Now that I'm moving towards rebreather, hopefully in the future it'll be a mute point anyway.

Most rebreather divers sidemount their bailout

[tstormdiver]

Most rebreather divers sidemount their bailout

Yes, I know, I will be doing that. I was referring to strictly sidemount configuration, not so much bailout.

[Rich]

From an instructor viewpoint, I can teach you to cave dive in sidemount (if you're comfy etc with your rig) or I can teach the more experienced cave diver how to "sidemount"...

Safe diving,

Rich

[shellmoundal]

I took the 2 day class with Edd before I attempted to dive in an overhead enviroment. I was certifed "Sidemount Overhead Enviroment" PSA INTERNATIONAL. Without the class I would not have benn aware of Left and Right Gas Control. Also there is a correct way of breathing control and back control when divng in areas where you have to increase or decrease depths without using Dump or Inflator. There are so many ways to increase your Air Supply.
I was checked at Gennie Springs for my Overhead Certification on Sidemount. I am Intro to Cave.
And yes, Edd was the first to be able to train OW in Sidemount, not PADI. Check it out and you will see that is the case.
I have so much more control in SM than I ever did in any other type of configuration. I will say though, if your system is not balanced to your personal body it will probably be a bad experience.
I suggest to get professional training which will make you a better and safer diver. There are differences and you need to know them. Practice your SM Skills everytime you dive just like all the Skills you learned in your Cave Dive Training. When SM Diving you are adding Task Loading over BM.

[victorzamora]

With all this blind groping going on, how did they miss the genitals?

They didn't miss those! Two guys grabbed there. Also, it was clearly a male elephant:

The third blind man touched the "tusk" of the elephant. “How sharp! An elephant is like a spear!”
The sixth blind man touched the "tail" of the elephant. “How thin! An elephant is like a rope.”

Shirley was clearly being polite by using words like "tusk" and "tail" to describe those features.