Sidemounting Tanks for Older Divers?

In our August Red Sea travel review, our writer said that the trip to a dive site "was a bumpy, spray-flecked 15-minute inflatable journey, tough with a heavy tank on my back. I was envious of those using sidemount tanks. Max, a British-born Sikh with a shaved head, was one. Sitting comfortably with his tank between his legs, he rambled on with humorous observations while we back-toters suffered."

Max's tank stood next to him during the rough journey, and when they arrived at the site, he needed only to lean forward a little and hook the tank onto the upper and lower D-rings on his BCD before back rolling in the water. After the dive, he easily unhooked it and passed it to the boatman before climbing into the RIB.

Sidemounting could be the answer for divers who suffer from back problems or just want less discomfort when not under water; it even makes your underwater time more comfortable.

While you still don't see many sport divers with sidemounted tanks, it's a common rig for cave divers who often need to squeeze through tight constrictions. They attach their tanks to a D-ring high up on the front of their harnesses so they can swing them forward and pass them ahead while still breathing from them. Once through, they then clip them to a lower D-ring with a bottom clip so that they're out of the way when kicking forward.

Technical divers who need more gas than they can carry on their backs in a set of double tanks may, similarly, attach an extra tank or two (usually with different gas mixes for different stages in the dive). Rebreather divers, who like to take open-circuit bail-out gas in tanks in case they lose confidence in their closed-circuit equipment mounted on their backs, do the same.

While these divers use sidemounted tanks because there is no more room on their backs, more than a decade ago, recreational divers discovered advantages to sidemounting their single (or even two) tanks. And from there, training agencies were quick to create sidemounting courses for recreational divers.

What different equipment is required?

You need to have spring clips attached by webbing to both the neck and the base of the tank, which your local dive shop can supply. You might be able to soldier on with your current BCD if it has the appropriate D-rings. However, you may need an extra-long medium-pressure hose for your regulator, routing it from the tank that will now be positioned close to your underarm.

Most manufacturers produce sidemount BCDs, which are wing-like, with a corrugated hose positioned to connect to a short, medium- pressure hose from the regulator. Apeks, X-Deep, DiveRite, Halcyon, and Hollis SMS are popular sidemount BCDs.

You can use your current regulator, but you'll most likely prefer a longer hose to pass from the tank around the back of your neck to the second stage in your mouth. You can keep your alternate air source, which can be stowed with its hose under elastic straps on the tank(s).

Equipment manufacturers, such as Apeks and Scubapro, sell sidemount regulator sets with two regulators, one with a short hose and another with a long hose. Many sidemount divers like to have the confidence of a two-tank air supply; they can easily turn either tank on or off because the valves are very accessible. You can also have your SPG(s) conveniently on a short hose.

You don't need to go through technical diver shutdown drills with difficult-to-access back-mounted tanks. You just need to experiment rigging your tank (or tanks) so it sits comfortably and positioning your weights to give you good trim.

What does diving with a tank sidemounted feel like? With an aluminum tank, it's a delight. It's not awkward. You might soon wonder why you suffered with a tank on your bank all these years. With ready access to the tank valve, you can have the safety of two tanks to give superb redundancy. And with only one tank, you'll realize what those cave divers found out about long ago, making it easy to get through tight spaces. Divers who convert to sidemount never look back.

If you use a single weightier steel tank, you may have to rig your weights differently to compensate; wearing them lower gives you a good horizontal attitude in the water. You soon realize back-mounted tanks are a tribute to convention rather than convenience.

The Joy of a Sidemount

Sidemounting means you can carry a superior look on your face when other divers are hunched over, enduring the heavy tanks on their backs, during uncomfortable small boat rides to dive sites. Liveaboard crews will place your tank in the boat or on the swim platform if you're entering the water from that. Similarly, dive center crews will take your tank to the water's edge for you. Sidemounting your tank could be a godsend for those thinking of giving up diving because of a bad back.

- John Bantin, Senior editor