Side mounting
Side mountingHoover, Pierce (1999) " Tanks on the Side," Sport Diver, vol. 7, no. 5, October,
p. 26
While diving, especially in caverns, divers encounter very narrow horizontal openings which they must pass in order to continue in the cave system. Unhooking the tank from the B.C. and pushing it a head of you is not always the safest way to go through an opening where you don't quite fit. There is a new system that allows divers to
carry tanks with them and not effect their hand availability or their vertical size. This method is called side mounting. Side mounting places the diver's tanks at the side of the body and under the arms, thus reducing the diver's front-to-back profile to less than a foot
for most divers. British sump divers were among the first to perfect the side-mounting system. To reach the submerged and deep portions of a cave, known as sumps, the diver is often required to waddle or clamber over slick or jagged rock floors. With 100 pound
double sized tanks on their back this could be very dangerous. So the divers would carry the tanks through the dry portions of the cave and just attach it to their weight belt when they get to the dangerous portion of the cave. The next phase in the side-mounting
history came when Americans began using side-mounted tanks to squeeze into low or narrow underwater cave passages too confined for traditional double-tank rigs. Now, a new system promises to bring side mounting into the mainstream of diving technology.
Dive Rite, a huge manufacturer of diving equipment, has developed a method of attaching tanks to the side of their popular TransPac. This is making diving easier for many cave divers, such as those with back problems. This article outlines one diver, Jim Fishback, who has back problems and cannot...
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