I would rather lose a good earring than be caught without make-up. ~ Lana Turner
There… I did it. I went sidemount. I can’t imagine you didn’t see this coming.
I got the Nomad XT and it is very pretty. Coordinates well with my dry suit. And we all know you have to be coordinated to dive.
First, I purchased plates and webbing and several dive friends sent emails, pictures and videos on how to build my own rig. After viewing them all and remembering the adventures in grommeting of my last dry suit, I sent the plates off to a friend who needed a travel rig and went on to test dive the Armadillo, Nomad and Hollis rig.
After speaking with Nick Hollis, I really thought that was going to be the one for me. As it turned out, the webbing hit me just outside my shoulder and even with the chest strap, I could not pull the webbing in enough to allow me to reach my arms across my body. The Armadillo again felt awkward being stiff and still a bit wide for me and the wing had a really high profile when inflated.
I settled on the Nomad XT with several alterations. It sat just slightly narrower across my shoulders and with the alterations; it removed the crunch of gear my chest was prone to push up around my face. I also felt it carried some extra adjustment points in spots I needed them. The sizing is odd. The wing is the same size throughout and the different sizes come in the length of the webbing and where they are adjusted. The wing pulls in at the shoulder webbing and there is a bungee adjustment across the back on the inside of the wing.
First, I switched the inflator and dump valves. I know this is controversial with tight passage; but it took some bulk from my shoulders and moved it to my hips and that was important. I replaced the chest strap with cord and ran it under my dry suit chest valve. I then pulled my inflator up from the bottom and attached it to the cord. This put my dry suit and wing inflators both in the same spot center of my chest and made them available to both hands without any stretching. It also moved the point where the webbing is pulled in slightly lower and gave me more shoulder movement.
Now there is just the pull dump on my left shoulder, my two gauges coming up from under each arm and my regulators vying for space at my chest and shoulders.
I left one backup light on the right side lower D ring and butt mounted my light. My second backup light, arrows and cookies are in my dry suit left pocket. This takes the bulk of gear from around my face and neck and distributes it about my body in places I can easily reach. The twist switch on the canister of my light is a pain as i must use one hand to hold the canister and one to twist the switch, but luckily the cord has always been long for me and just extends enough for me to use mounted this way. Weight pockets at the back of my shoulders trimmed me out. They may be replaced with hard weights up front but that is to be decided still, but I am thinking …. not.
Two days of adjusting and readjusting gear, and it turns out, I still need two more days. Can’t find quite the right bungee to pull over my tank valves. I need just the right one, too stretchy and it is so short I can’t reach it. Too thick and it is so hard to pull I don’t have the finger strength to pull it around the valves. My beloved Jet fins are also being relegated to the backmount pile, they are just too heavy for this set up. I found the DiveRite fins to be a bit long for me and will be trying the SlipStreams next.
For my first dive we tried Orange Grove. With the low water levels being experienced there, it was difficult to find a good platform to learn to gear up from. The thick coating of duckweed just served to annoy and in the water the tanks pulled so far forward the gauges were leaning against my mask lens. Not good.
We moved from there to Cow Springs. Let’s just say…. There is poison ivy there. Trust me, I know.
Second dive and a change in bungees and the gauges were just at the back of my armpits and I hugged the valves with my arms and rode atop them as I adjusted and readjusted the air in my wing. This forced the valves down and my trim to be slightly out of whack.
Dive three the bungees were shortened and this moved the tanks back just a tad and the gauges were too far under my arm to read. Spent the dive yanking on them to pull them out to read. I will change to ¼ inch shock cord and pull the valves just a tad forward and should be set.
A few trial runs of valve drills and air shares and some practice changing depths and things were starting to feel right. A few grossly misjudged attempts at tight swim throughs drove home the fact that I am now flat and wide, and no longer cube shaped (just as high as wide). I am getting the hang of the sideways twist now.
Well….. if you are going to put all this to the test, might as well test it out right. A trip to Lower Orange Grove was in order.
Lower Orange Grove is a short cave, but encompasses all the trials you could ask for. Located in the cavern below Orange Grove at about 80 feet, the entrance immediately heads down to the gold line. First is some breakdown and then a narrow twisting corkscrew tunnel heading steeply down which then turns into a low wide tunnel at about 130 feet that slowly slopes down to the caves deepest point of about 170 feet. Past the beginning sandy bottom of the cavern and breakdown of the entrance, the cave floor and walls are coated in a thick layer of fine gray-brown silt, just waiting to let you know how good your positioning is and how careful your technique.
Maybe not so daunting on a regular day, but a pretty good test of a brand new dive technique.
With a three-man team, we descended. The plan was, using 25%, to go to 150 feet, swim around and turn. Minimum amount of deco and maximum amount of twisting, turning, silt and hovering, plus carrying and dropping a stage.
I am happy to announce that all was well.
Unfortunately, upon reaching the steps at the end of the dive, as I clipped my stage bottle to the rope, I caught my gold hoop earring and it now rests somewhere on the bottom ‘neath a blanket of emerald green duckweed.
I was informed by one of the locals, had it been brass and not gold, a group of his Jersey wreck diver friends would already have it salvaged, polished and sitting on the mantle. I just laughed….I know a real Jersey wreck diver would go for the gold too. So when one of you guys find it…. I WANT IT BACK!!!