Been diving sidemount for much of the last week. And, as is the wont of sidemount, I've tinkered with my harness a bit, getting it just a fraction of a fraction more streamlined and efficient even after all these years. Changed back to a SumpUK buckle, moved my line cutter to behind the sliding, waist D-rings to allow more space further forward, lowered the light canister holder by a centimetre... that sort of thing.
As opposed to backmount where there's a simplicity of, basically, just getting the D-rings in the right place and that's about it.
I conscientiously switch back and forth between backmount and sidemount constantly.
This is not a practice I particularly recommend to people. Muscle memory is important and, depending on how often one dives, maintaining muscle memory on one set of kit or the other is already tricky enough. Trying to maintain on both is... well... let me put it this way:
I make sure to not dive one or the other configuration any longer than a week. And for the first half an hour of a dive on the "new" gear I keep reaching for the power inflator in the wrong place. Or I'll do something like unthinkingly switch to my necklace reg... on backmount.
If only there was a way to absolutely standardize everything.
OOOOOOO!!!!!! I know!!!!! Let's turn sidemount into backmount! For no good fucking reason whatsoever!
I still daydream occasionally about getting one of those bloody manifolds for The Shrine. But why spend $300 on some garbage?
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