I've been diving sidemount for 10 years but I wouldn't get a sm ccr (when I can travel again for training). Don't like any of the units I have seen and I don't know how you would carry enough BO with a sm ccr for what I want the ccr for.
I wouldn't dive sidemount just for the hell of it.
The sidewinder allows for decent bailout since you have 2 normal sm bottles and can easily carry a stage or two. The units like the sidekick or liberty do limit you some to one sm tank, then stages. Great trim and adequate sm bailout were the two things I actually liked about the sw. I won't go into what I didn't like.
I dove sm for 10 years, but have actually been getting back in to bm and loving it more than sm for it's ease and simplicity. My main issue with bm 10-12 years ago when I started down the technical path was my intro to tech instructor was a big prooponent of the halcyon cinch system, so I went with that. Because I was tightening and adjusting the shoulder straps constantly, every time I dove my tanks were sitting in a different spot and it was frustrating. I've since dithced the cinch and have fallen in love with bm again. You'll be happy to know I've only dove my stealth twice in the past almost 2 years.
What I don't like about the sidewinder is that it look very flimsy and cheaply made. They're innovative and that I like but I don't know why they are not using better quality materials. There also seems to be a lot of hype about that unit and when you asked about certain things, the fans get super defensive... that's fishy to me.
A guy over here basically ripped off the sidekick with some improvements and higher quality materials ... don't know why kiss doesn't use better materials.
All I will say on here is that I went into the sw class being told by everyone how awesome it was and I had high hopes. Was underwhelmed on day 1(build quality is pretty crappy and that was part of it) and continued disliking it through the class. Once I was done with class and started talking to sw users, suddenly they started being honest about some of the negatives and agreeing with my opinions. Though they wouldn't be honest before I took the class. Also, the majority of people who I've discussed the sw with that are hardcore fans have never dove another unit.
If you want my full review, do a search on scubaboard. My review/comments were met with good discussion over there. I honestly don't think it would go as well here.
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