Sidemount was originally created as a way for cavers to get past sumps they encountered in dry caves. The first sidemount rig was very different from the rigs we currently see being commercially produced by dive equipment manufacturers. It consisted of a simple belt with a loop on each side to hold the cylinders on the body of the diver. The tanks were positioned low on the body. The main advantage of this configuration was the simplicity of it. Cave explorers were more easily able to carry single tanks, rather than manifolded tanks, into the caves to the sumps where they would be needed. The harness system was also small enough to either be worn or carried in a small pack.
As cave diving in the UK progressed, cave diving was also experiencing its beginnings in the United States. Florida, well known for the thousands of fresh water springs, was the center of cave diving activity. Quite a bit of cave exploration had taken place in many of the known springs. But the passage that was explored was mainly large passage that could only be negotiated by divers wearing backmounted double tanks. This left miles of passage unexplored. Some divers began experimenting with the harness systems being used in the UK. The need for an air cell for buoyancy control was more of a factor in the Florida systems so divers began modifying jacket BCs for sidemount configurations.
Rather than bore you with more history of sidemount, we'll fast forward to today. In the early 2000s, the first couple of commercially available sidemount systems were produced and placed on the market – the Dive Rite Nomad and the Golem Gear Armadillo. While they shared many similar features, they also differed from each other in many ways, namely in the harness and the lift capacity of the wing. Today, we have over half a dozen commercially produced sidemount systems available to divers. Some of these systems are suited to cave diving, some are better suited to open water diving, and some are marketed for both cave divers and open water divers. While there are many divers who dive these systems unchanged out of the box, many also make modifications to suit their diving to these systems (more on modifications in a later post).
Sidemount systems continue to evolve as more and more divers experiment with it. Unlike traditional backmount systems, there will likely not ever be a standard sidemount configuration. While most divers begin diving manifolded backmounted double tanks for a specific purpose, such as technical diving, as stated earlier, divers begin sidemount diving for different purposes. As long as this holds true, a standard rig will not develop.
One of the original reasons divers started diving sidemount was to get into smaller passages. Not all passages are passable with backmounted cylinders. While the passage may be pretty wide, the floor to ceiling height doesn't allow passage of a backmounted diver. There are several passages located in the caves of North Florida that are only passable by lower profile sidemount divers. There are even several passages and caves that have significant size passages, but the opening to them is only large enough for a low profile sidemount diver. While backmounted divers have tried to pass through these openings, many fail, and the damage they are causing to the system is very evident. In this case, sidemount is using the right tool for the dive.
Some people dive sidemount for health related reasons. Whether it's a bad back or bad knees or ankles, removing 100 pounds of steel from your back can be an orthopedic miracle! Dissenters will argue that this requires more trips to the water and sidemount divers still need to carry tanks, but that's not necessarily the case. With a $40 truck cart from Wal-mart, tanks are easily rolled to the water from your vehicle in one trip. The second trip is one without any heavy tanks, or you can leave your truck cart at the water and get in (well, that is if you're not at Ginnie otherwise the cart might not be there after the dive). Once in the water, the tanks are much lighter and easier to handle. In the water, sidemount is also a lot easier on the diver's back. Moving the tanks to the side gets the weight mass off the spine. Moving the tanks down also allows a different body position in the water. While many backmount divers must arch their backs to maintain a horizontal position in the water, this isn't the case in sidemount.
Finally, there's the cool factor. I'm not going to elaborate on this type of sidemount diver. They are pretty easy to pick out. Fortunately, at least in my experience, there aren't too many of these, not in Jackson County anyway.
Keep checking back here for more on sidemount diving. And don't forget to visit our website - Chipola Divers.
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