side mounts-are they DIR

dirdave · November 9th, 2006, 04:02 AM

Hi all
I just passed the CDAA cave rating ( wow- what a ripper , hard course) am going on to do the Penatration course early in 2007, and then off to Mexico with CLM to do cave 1 + 2.
my question is ( as the title suggests) are side mounts DIR , if not what happens in tight 1 diver restrictions where back mounted gas won't allow you to get thru the restriction ??, do we as DIR cave divers simply not tackle these sites or do we bend and go back to the other side ?? there are a lot of "Pen" only sites here in Australia, that I want to still be "DIR"ing

Vie · November 9th, 2006, 05:50 AM

"We don't do it unless we really need to look at something where there is no other way, and it is a logistic nightmare to set up, but it can be done right." - George Irvine.

See the articla "DIR Sidemount" by Geoge Irvine (on the Paul Berry/Inner Realm website) below...

INNER REALM

The OCDA also employed the sidemount configuration when needed - see picture below...

http://www.ocda.org/images/Cosmic/Cosmic%20(20).jpg

dirdave · November 9th, 2006, 07:24 AM

thanks for that

davy · November 9th, 2006, 10:30 AM

Vie,

Can you elaborate a bit on the hose routing of that side-mount setup?

Vie · November 13th, 2006, 05:06 PM

Quote: (Originally Posted by davy)

Can you elaborate a bit on the hose routing of that side-mount setup?

According to the OCDA's Bob Koch:

"...at the time this picture (from Cosmic Cavern) was taken the left side tank had a 40" hose and was worn like a standard stage bottle. The right hand tank had a very short hose and the 2nd stage had a necklace on it. We've since changed over to the new Apeks XTX second stage which is reversible, so we now have a 40" hose on the right bottle and it's used in reverse. The right hand tank's unused second stage clips off to the left chest d-ring when not in use and vice versa. We no longer use a necklace as we sometimes have to go 'no mount' to get through a small restriction which required removing tanks and pushing then through the restriction first (what fun)."

There are also some info re "DIR" side-mounting (mainly for deco) and configuration/usage description by Nick Toussaint if you look in the Quest archive. The consensus seemed to be that the guys in Mexico (Nick T, Chris Le Maillot, Danny Riordan) are the ones to talk to when it comes to side-mount.

davy · November 14th, 2006, 10:21 AM

Thanks Vie,

That gave me some more stuff to think about...

kamyk · November 19th, 2006, 07:27 PM

DIRDave isnt that Ewens Ponds from your avartar ?

November 9th, 2006, 04:02 AM	#1 (permalink)
dirdave(Offline) New Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Perth Western Australia Posts: 42	side mounts-are they DIR Hi all I just passed the CDAA cave rating ( wow- what a ripper , hard course) am going on to do the Penatration course early in 2007, and then off to Mexico with CLM to do cave 1 + 2. my question is ( as the title suggests) are side mounts DIR , if not what happens in tight 1 diver restrictions where back mounted gas won't allow you to get thru the restriction ??, do we as DIR cave divers simply not tackle these sites or do we bend and go back to the other side ?? there are a lot of "Pen" only sites here in Australia, that I want to still be "DIR"ing __________________ How Hard can it be ?

November 9th, 2006, 05:50 AM	#2 (permalink)
Vie(Offline) Loner at the ball... Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Krung Thep, Siam, mostly Posts: 189	"We don't do it unless we really need to look at something where there is no other way, and it is a logistic nightmare to set up, but it can be done right." - George Irvine. See the articla "DIR Sidemount" by Geoge Irvine (on the Paul Berry/Inner Realm website) below... INNER REALM The OCDA also employed the sidemount configuration when needed - see picture below... http://www.ocda.org/images/Cosmic/Cosmic%20(20).jpg Last edited by Vie; November 9th, 2006 at 06:10 AM.

November 9th, 2006, 07:24 AM	#3 (permalink)
dirdave(Offline) New Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Perth Western Australia Posts: 42	cool thanks for that __________________ How Hard can it be ?

November 13th, 2006, 05:06 PM	#5 (permalink)
Vie(Offline) Loner at the ball... Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Krung Thep, Siam, mostly Posts: 189	Quote: (Originally Posted by davy) Can you elaborate a bit on the hose routing of that side-mount setup? According to the OCDA's Bob Koch: "...at the time this picture (from Cosmic Cavern) was taken the left side tank had a 40" hose and was worn like a standard stage bottle. The right hand tank had a very short hose and the 2nd stage had a necklace on it. We've since changed over to the new Apeks XTX second stage which is reversible, so we now have a 40" hose on the right bottle and it's used in reverse. The right hand tank's unused second stage clips off to the left chest d-ring when not in use and vice versa. We no longer use a necklace as we sometimes have to go 'no mount' to get through a small restriction which required removing tanks and pushing then through the restriction first (what fun)." There are also some info re "DIR" side-mounting (mainly for deco) and configuration/usage description by Nick Toussaint if you look in the Quest archive. The consensus seemed to be that the guys in Mexico (Nick T, Chris Le Maillot, Danny Riordan) are the ones to talk to when it comes to side-mount. Last edited by Vie; November 13th, 2006 at 05:47 PM.

November 19th, 2006, 07:27 PM	#7 (permalink)
kamyk(Offline) New Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: New Zealand Posts: 128	DIRDave isnt that Ewens Ponds from your avartar ? __________________ www.cavedivers.com.au

November 9th, 2006, 10:30 AM	#4 (permalink)
davy(Offline) DIveR Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Belgium Posts: 274	Vie, Can you elaborate a bit on the hose routing of that side-mount setup?

November 14th, 2006, 10:21 AM	#6 (permalink)
davy(Offline) DIveR Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Belgium Posts: 274	Thanks Vie, That gave me some more stuff to think about...