Sidemount BCD Guide

if you're thinking of moving onto sidemount like so many others the most daunting piece of kit to look at will probably be your BCD BCD s4 sidemount are very different to your traditional BCD for single or twin sets so let's take a closer look at sight mount B CDs to make your choice a little bit easier side mount B CDs a side mount BCD is a dedicated piece of kit for side mount diving so you won't be able to use it with a single cylinder on your back but you will be able to side mount a single cylinder or two cylinders either side of you that way they don't have any backplate down the center to add rigidity because you don't need it yeah at a CH 'men tall over it to attach your different stay cylinders and typically the bladder is lowered down towards the small of your back wrap around wrap around B CDs are much more modern their bladder will wrap around your waist and attach around in front of you this means that you're very low-profile you have very minimal snack hazard and even when the bladder is inflated it's not going to lift up away from you it stays nice and close and hugs to your body traditional your traditional side mount BC D was adapted from a normal style back plate and wing setup so it's halfway in-between things have changed since but these are still popular because they have the same look and feel as a traditional BCD but the attachment point and the feasibility of attaching side mount cylinders inflator on side mount B CDs your inflator hose traditionally comes underneath your arm instead of over your shoulder this means it's much more compact and streamlined and because you spend most of your time horizontal in the water on side mounts you can always deflate and inflate very very easily you can usually adjust exactly where it attaches whether it's under your left arm or your right arm depending on your needs weight system you still have integrated weights on some side mount V CDs but they traditionally run down this this means that you can control exactly where your lead lies and it holds it close to your body which makes it much more effective at creating an effective trim you can adjust exactly how high it is because where it is placed on your body depends on how horizontal you are in the water so a lot of side mount divers prefer weight a lot higher up over their shoulders so you can control exactly where you have it and some be CDs you can add extra trim pockets over your shoulder straps so they hold you in a more horizontal position storage many side mount B CDs have a butt plate down over your bum so these usually have an attachment point like this one for your side mount light canister and you have these rails so the rails are attachment points for bolt snaps you can also attach pouches and in some certain circumstances you can attach some cylinders onto them if you need to they're useful attachment point they're out of the way and they're very unobstructed you also have these d-rings down on your waistband but these are more for your stage cylinders cylinder attachment points up over your shoulders you'll have pre bent D rings these are for the top end of your cylinder so where the valve goes do you clip your cylinder off onto that to allow for flexibility and a lot of B CDs will also have some kind of bungee retention system to hold the cylinder closer into your body so your nice and streamlined towards the lower end of your harness system you'll have a plate like this that holds everything together so around your waistband you're going to have attachment points for different reasons and then around if you move further this is where most people tend to attach their stage cylinders so if you have a static d-ring you may need multiple if you're diving on aluminium cylinders or if you have a d-ring like this it holds steady when you want it but you can relocate that d-ring as the buoyancy of your sin Changez so this gives you good flexibility on the fly whilst you're diving you can move exactly where that Deering is so you don't need multiple attachment points dumped fouls you will often have multiple dump valves over your BCD and these work the same way as your traditional BCD but they're usually located in slightly different areas you typically have one between your shoulders or down in the small of your back and then one either side of your waist now the ones either side of your waist you can swap over it's the same size as your inflator so you can unscrew it move it over to the right hand side if you want so you can use it no matter which way you like customizability because there is no one way to go side mount diving many B CDs nowadays have a whole range of customized ability so this one for example is fully customizable it's one size fits all and you can fully adjust everything to the point where your weight system can be attached slightly higher or slightly lower your bladder isn't fully attached so you can adjust it and move it to where you need it you have full range of control over where every single d-ring how long every strap is and where things sit on your body storage pouch because your cylinders and equipment take a lot of space up around your waist and hips a lot of side mount divers store their equipment in separate pouches down over their bum so these attach on the rails either side of the buck plate and they just allow for some storage area for your essential equipment to keep it safe and to hand so that was a quick look at a few different side mount B CDs but there are plenty out there and lots to customize so have a chat with your instructor over which BCD would be best for your needs let us know in the comments below which BCD you use to side mount dive thanks for watching and safe diving

Channel: Simply Scuba

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Keywords: simplyscuba, simply scuba, The Simply Group (TSG), Sidemount BCD Guide, sidemount, bcd, guide, scuba diving, scuba diving (interest), scuba diving (sport), dive gear, scuba diving equipment, dive shop, how to, sidemount rig, choosing a sidemount, scuba advice, scuba diving help, help, xdeep, dive rite, hollis, apeks, seac sub, scubapro, scuba

Id: OkMejFnqTFI

Length: 6min 27sec (387 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 02 2017