Something that we see that is becoming more and more popular is diving sidemount. This means positioning your tanks on your side, instead of your back. Now a lot of people want to dive sidemount because it is the new thing to do, There are many benefits to diving sidemount, first of all it is very comfortable, especially on your back. When diving sidemount you have nothing on your back except a small bladder for buoyancy control. There is no steel or aluminium backplate.
It is also much easier to get great trim. Another advantage is if you are cave diving in remote locations because it is far easier to carry 2 tanks than one twinset. But the best thing about sidemount is that you are so streamlined compared to back mount. You can even unclip the tanks to put them in front of you giving you a much smaller profile and allowing you to fit through some very very small gaps. Great when exploring caves and wrecks!
Now it is not without it’s drawbacks. The biggest of all is that it is harder to manage your gas. There is no manifold connecting the 2 tanks so you have to keep an eye on the pressure and not accidentally breath too much from one. Otherwise you will end up floating on one side and sinking on the other! So to compensate for this you need to switch between regulators every few minutes to keep the gas levels at the same. Also the wings usually only hold a small amount of air so you need to make sure you can float with full tanks and a full wing.
Diving sidemount is an interesting change for many serious divers as it gives you something new to try. If you are interested in cave and wreck diving it can grant you access to those places you couldn’t reach before.
When breathing the tanks down the primary tank the one you would be breathing in an out of air buddy situation (the one on your left with the neck brace should have the same amount or more than the long hose so the way to breath them down would be a 1/6 on the neck brace 1/3 on the long hose 1/6 on the neck brace , if you we’re running basic rule of thirds the dive would be turned on gas now 1/3 on the long hose then 1/3 on the neck brace before the third on the neck brace is breathed down the team should be on the surface if there was not a air supply problem this is the procedure for basic rule of thirds but with the evolution of diving gas plans have evolved and the basic rule of thirds will not suit some modem deco algos or more complicated cave profiles and the basic rule of thirds have been modified to find out more about gas planing contact Davy Jones tech happy diving Tim Lawrence
Incredible a good deal of very good advice!