Quote Originally Posted by FreeDiver View Post
Nah, I'm AOW single cylinder, though my uncle has offered me his backmounted doubles setup. I'm kind of weird about taking that though, and aside from the tanks themselves, not sure it would be relative to what I want to dive with. I think I just like SM better as an outsider looking in. Something about being able to have every bit of my gear in sight and accessible one way or another seems sweet. What do you do in a freeflow emergency situation in backmounted doubles?
You would do a valve drill, same as in SM it's just different and might be more difficult at first but no reason why can't be able to be just as proficient in both. There is big difference between sidemount diving and diving sidemount. Sometimes this is where doing to much research or overthinking it before having any training doesn't always help. It is just a tool and as such should be employed when it is the best option. There are many people that vary their set up based on the dive they are about to do. Small gnarly SM/NM restrictions, diving solo, yeah maybe you go with 2 short hoses, leisurely dive with a buddy and some restrictions maybe you go SM with 1 long nose. Massive penetration of a large cave where you need multiple stages, maybe BM and stages is the way to go. Find a good instructor and focus on the fundamentals. If I had spent half as much time focusing on propulsion, trim and buoyancy instead of what gear to buy or what the best configuration would be it would have stood me in much better stead.