JimC
March 30th, 2007, 01:30 PM
Side mount was originally developed to allow the exploration of restrictive underwater cave passage that was not accessible by standard back mounted cylinders. Side mount configurations allowed the diver to maneuver through much smaller passage by placing the cylinders on the divers side, thus reducing the overall girth of the diver. Side mount rigs also allowed for the easy removal and replacement of cylinders underwater, enabling the hard-core cave explorer to squeeze through even smaller restrictions by removing one or both of the cylinders and pushing the cylinder in front of them through the restriction.
Sidemount is at its heart a set of independents doubles carried on the divers side. There are a few commercial rigs that can make getting into this discipline easier such as the DiveRite Nomad and the ADM Armadillo. Many divers choose to make there own homebrew systems out of webbing, wings or old BCDs.
Sidemount starts to blur into sump diving as the rig gets smaller and things like the buoyancy cell are discarded and smaller tanks are used in favor of a smaller profile. This quest continues into what is known as no mount diving where the cylinder attachment system is discarded and a single H-Valved cylinder is utilized in order to get into progressively smaller spaces or where rugged and difficult dry cave systems must be negotiated.
Sidemount is at its heart a set of independents doubles carried on the divers side. There are a few commercial rigs that can make getting into this discipline easier such as the DiveRite Nomad and the ADM Armadillo. Many divers choose to make there own homebrew systems out of webbing, wings or old BCDs.
Sidemount starts to blur into sump diving as the rig gets smaller and things like the buoyancy cell are discarded and smaller tanks are used in favor of a smaller profile. This quest continues into what is known as no mount diving where the cylinder attachment system is discarded and a single H-Valved cylinder is utilized in order to get into progressively smaller spaces or where rugged and difficult dry cave systems must be negotiated.