Tom Falardeau
April 3rd, 2007, 11:28 PM
Evolution is a funny thing. I bit the hook of backmount doubles, long-hose, team-centric, backplate, etc philosphy (aka DIR) very hard a few years ago. Some others did to a more (JimC) or lesser (marc g) degree. Yet we all seem to have ended up in a sidemount configuration by 2006. Next step in evolution or a dead-end branch like the neanderthal?
Funny, but every time I go to cave country in the last 18-24 months, it seems that sidemount is gaining new practitioners. I've had 2 cave instructors tell me, in the last week, that they prefer sidemount and think it's more rational than backmount for cave diving. Can a doing it right for sidemount (DIRFS) be far behind?
JimC has made the basic case for sidemount in his inaugural posts, and he does know of which he speaks. Add Marie and me to the list of those who think sidemount is inherently safer, better for the environment and easier on the aging body than lugging huge backmount doubles.
I'm watching the sudden spurt of growth of backmount doubles among our Ontario diving brethren (most of the new crop being well removed from deco diving and actually needing more than one cylinder), as if it was the next fashion in diving. Based on the progress of fashion in society (or to overuse the trite "jump the shark" expression), diving backmount doubles has "jumped the shark" when recreational divers with less than 100 dives and nowhere near qualified for deco dives are lugging around backmount doubles. I say good luck to them, their knees and backs.
The other day, I witnessed a couple (man & woman - the former huge, the latter petite) of backmount doubles cave divers. The man carried double 120s... his wife double 85s - so far so good, until, that is, I heard him express his satisfaction at matching his wife's thirds............In other words, instead of gas matching, this pair were both diving to thirds, independent of each other's ability to provide gas in case of emergency. If the man had a catastrophic gas failure, his wife would never have been able to get him out of the cave on her small tanks. Bad training - probably. Bad understanding of gas management - definitely. Accident waiting to happen - I sure hope not.
However, the wife would never have been able to carry enough gas to match her husband - she was about as tall as the 120s (I exaggerate for effect, but you get the message). The solution to cave dive safely for this couple would have been to sidemount. With proper gas management techniques, each diver would be able to carry whatever amount of gas they wanted and could carry, since sidemount divers carry their own rescue gas, not their buddy's, like backmounters.
Taking Marie and me as example, on backmount, we both used to dive double 130s.... and it wrecked Marie's back. If I were to backmount smaller tanks to match her carrying ability, we would be much limited in our ability to explore. Switching to sidemount with proper gas management, Marie can now dive with two 100s and I with two 130s, and we hit thirds at the same time, yet never rely on each other for rescue - we plan our gas for self rescue. We always have enough gas in either of our separate side tanks to get us out of the cave - and having two catastrophic failures on a single diver, which would deprive us of our bug-out gas, is akin to winning the 6/49, or damn near, statistically speaking - so it is safe. Safer, definitely when we're doing tight tunnels where sharing air on a long hose, hogarthian style, is physically impossible.
Wait for it. Sidemount is going to go mainstream, even among our friends of the more rigid hogarthian persuaison in the next few years.
Funny, but every time I go to cave country in the last 18-24 months, it seems that sidemount is gaining new practitioners. I've had 2 cave instructors tell me, in the last week, that they prefer sidemount and think it's more rational than backmount for cave diving. Can a doing it right for sidemount (DIRFS) be far behind?
JimC has made the basic case for sidemount in his inaugural posts, and he does know of which he speaks. Add Marie and me to the list of those who think sidemount is inherently safer, better for the environment and easier on the aging body than lugging huge backmount doubles.
I'm watching the sudden spurt of growth of backmount doubles among our Ontario diving brethren (most of the new crop being well removed from deco diving and actually needing more than one cylinder), as if it was the next fashion in diving. Based on the progress of fashion in society (or to overuse the trite "jump the shark" expression), diving backmount doubles has "jumped the shark" when recreational divers with less than 100 dives and nowhere near qualified for deco dives are lugging around backmount doubles. I say good luck to them, their knees and backs.
The other day, I witnessed a couple (man & woman - the former huge, the latter petite) of backmount doubles cave divers. The man carried double 120s... his wife double 85s - so far so good, until, that is, I heard him express his satisfaction at matching his wife's thirds............In other words, instead of gas matching, this pair were both diving to thirds, independent of each other's ability to provide gas in case of emergency. If the man had a catastrophic gas failure, his wife would never have been able to get him out of the cave on her small tanks. Bad training - probably. Bad understanding of gas management - definitely. Accident waiting to happen - I sure hope not.
However, the wife would never have been able to carry enough gas to match her husband - she was about as tall as the 120s (I exaggerate for effect, but you get the message). The solution to cave dive safely for this couple would have been to sidemount. With proper gas management techniques, each diver would be able to carry whatever amount of gas they wanted and could carry, since sidemount divers carry their own rescue gas, not their buddy's, like backmounters.
Taking Marie and me as example, on backmount, we both used to dive double 130s.... and it wrecked Marie's back. If I were to backmount smaller tanks to match her carrying ability, we would be much limited in our ability to explore. Switching to sidemount with proper gas management, Marie can now dive with two 100s and I with two 130s, and we hit thirds at the same time, yet never rely on each other for rescue - we plan our gas for self rescue. We always have enough gas in either of our separate side tanks to get us out of the cave - and having two catastrophic failures on a single diver, which would deprive us of our bug-out gas, is akin to winning the 6/49, or damn near, statistically speaking - so it is safe. Safer, definitely when we're doing tight tunnels where sharing air on a long hose, hogarthian style, is physically impossible.
Wait for it. Sidemount is going to go mainstream, even among our friends of the more rigid hogarthian persuaison in the next few years.