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Sidemount Tanks: Getting Them to Behave Themselves & Sit Where They Should

One of the least mysterious things about sidemount diving is how to rig a set of steel primary cylinders so they hang at diver’s sides as they are supposed to, rather than hanging pendulum-like below them. However, some still struggle to get it anywhere close to right. Perhaps this article will help.

Words:
Steve Lewis
Images:
Download the full article as pdf ⬇︎
Tech and Training

There may be several variations on the basic theme, but I have found the simple way to rig steel cylinders to hang this way is to break the process of rigging them into a series of simple steps. Now, before explaining things in detail, there are a few assumptions that apply to this method.

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But I can't be bent

One might be forgiven for assuming that as a certified diver, one would understand the science and common-sense behind the basic guidelines governing our approach to decompression stress. After all, a good part of a diver’s initial training (and, hopefully, much of the curriculum for more complex programs), explained the vagaries of breathing compressed gas underwater. However, there seems to be a huge gap between the average diver’s approach to decompression stress, and that approach in a “perfect world”.

Words:
Steve Lewis
Images:
Download the full article as pdf ⬇︎
Tech and Training

The issue with diving—­at least for this discussion­—is that as a diver descends in the water column, he or she has no option but to breathe compressed gas. Because of this, the inert gas contained in whatever is being breathed is stored in the diver’s body. This is sometimes called inert gas uptake.

 

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Solo Divers and Risk Management

Diving is risky business. Just how risky depends on a whole shopping list of factors and influences, but let’s agree that there are more risks involved with diving than, say, sitting in your basement watching Olympic curling on TV.

Words:
Steve Lewis
Images:
Peter Symes
Download the full article as pdf ⬇︎
Tech and Training

Now if we were to apply similar logic and argument, we could go further and make the point that Solo Diving carries an additional level of risk over and above the “run of the mill” stuff associated with regular diving.

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Why you should never go diving with an idiot

Being swept along on this technical diving thing, has been a long, somewhat twisted, but definitely entertaining journey. If you and I had met when the whole affair started, we could not possibly have envisioned how directly and pervasively, what were then radical activities, like cave diving, trimix diving and rebreather diving, would influence the mainstream dive community.

Words:
Steve Lewis
Images:
Steve Lewis
Download the full article as pdf ⬇︎
Tech and Training

But perhaps, evolution is too soft a word to describe what’s happened. So many things have changed. Gear, training, the places we visit to dive, how we exchange information, even what form dive magazines and textbooks take: case in point with X-RAY MAG for example.

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Cave Diving & CCR -- Bailout Gas

Remember the first rule of scuba diving that you were taught in your basic open-water class? I believe it goes something like: “Keep breathing!” Simple advice and unarguably the best advice possible for any diver, not just those entering the sport for the first time.

Words:
Steve Lewis
Images:
Steve Lewis
Peter Symes
Download the full article as pdf ⬇︎
Tech and Training

For example, the same first rule is true for technical diving. Gas management 101 starts off by stating something like: “Always have a sufficient volume of appropriate gas to breathe throughout the whole dive!”

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So You Want to Be a Scuba Instructor ...

… just as soon as you get OW certified!?

Do you remember your first reaction to being able to breathe underwater? What was the first thing you wanted to do when you caught sight of a coral head liberally seasoned with tiny, multi-colored bait fish? When your instructor handed you your very first c-card, did you get a strong urge to swap places with them?

Words:
Steve Lewis
Images:
Peter Symes
Download the full article as pdf ⬇︎
Tech and Training

Judging by regular postings on any one of the various scuba forums and diving message boards in Cyberland, a fair percentage of newly-minted divers suffer through an overwhelmingly strong urge to replace their current situation with the “romance and glamour” of life as a scuba instructor on a warm beach someplace exotic and far away from the nine-to-five rat-race, the daily commute along clogged highways, and the vagaries of a climate that features seasons… especially cold ones.

 

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