Dive Malta: Sidemount Diving

My name is Nadine Bauer. I'm a professional photographer, biologist and scuba diving instructor originally from Germany, but right now I'm based in Malta. I first got into scuba diving while I was traveling in Indonesia. I was in the north of Bali in Amit. I spontaneously decided to do my open water course. One of the most memorable experiences there was the Komodo National Park where I was diving and at around five meters there were like 10-15 mantas just circling around us while getting cleaned. So they were basically on their cleaning station and with that I made the decision that I want to pursue scuba diving and especially become a dive professional. My favorite setup to dive is the so-called side mount configuration. It's where the tanks are configured and mounted alongside the diver instead of having a tank back mount on your back. This configuration I especially love because of the weightlessness underwater, the positioning in the water, the hydrodynamic as a more in trim and more flying underwater, as well as the flexibility and the redundancy of having two tanks underwater which enables you some more safetiness underwater and flexibility while especially cave diving and wreck diving. To maybe explore a little bit more where you need to go through tight passages. It originated from the UK and from the US. So in fact in the 1960s it started with the UK sump divers. It was basically people that were exploring dry caves and sumps and then they were restricted to go further into the caves by some sumps and water filled restrictions. So in fact they just took the tanks and mounted them on theirselves without having too much of a buoyancy control or even care about buoyancy and trim. Nowadays it's very popular especially in cave exploration and for wreck diving. It even has a purpose in only recreational diving where more and more people try the side mount as a configuration and start loving it. Side mount diving offers quite a few advantages and there are multiple reasons why I love diving this configuration so much. One of the main reasons is the positioning underwater. Since side mount diving you have two tanks, each one on your side of your body instead of having one on the back, you have a better hydrodynamic underwater and have more the feeling of flying underwater. The other reason is the redundancy and with it also the safety. Having two separate tanks with two separate independent first stages and second stages it offers you a better safety especially when it comes to penetrating overhead environment like caves or wrecks. If you need to share air whatever you can easily mount one tank off and pass it to your body or even with failure of your equipment underwater you have two independent systems which just easily can shut off and still have one as a backup or safety nest. Another reason why I really love side mount diving is the flexibility especially when you're diving in caves and wrecks and you need to pass through narrow passages or restrictions. It's easier just to take off one tank and push it through the restrictions and also with that you have less chances of an entanglement behind you so you are more streamlined underwater. I really love the configuration especially for wreck diving and especially for Malta since you have a lot of wrecks laying around here. On one hand it gives me the safety nest of the redundancy. The other point is the flexibility. Most of the wrecks around Malta are actually prepared and sunk as an artificial reef or wreck. You can do a little bit exploration inside of these wrecks, explore the engine room, some of the corridors and sometimes these narrow passages also require to be a bit more flexible and maybe take one tank off to fit through a corridor or a door to explore more. So it gives me also this flexibility of maybe squeezing through some narrow spaces. My favorite piece of equipment that I love to use while side mount diving are the Apex XTX 50 regulators. The first and the second stages are very easy to breathe from. They have a fifth port which requires you for having a side mount set up so it's easy to mount it as well as they're very resistant regulators and also very usable for cold water diving and easy to service. What I would recommend for everybody who would love to start diving side mount or even try to dive side mount is to find the right instructor and especially knowledgeable instructor. I think it's like everywhere in scuba diving instructor makes a great part of your education and how you will continue diving as well. So especially if you want to try side mount diving you should find the right and knowledgeable instructor. Another point is be patient and also it needs to be the right setup so you really have this weightless feeling underwater and really can enjoy diving side mounts and the equipment especially the equipment set up outside of the water before you actually go into the water makes more than 50 percent of your performance underwater. So having the right instructor with the right knowledge for also explaining and setting up and helping you to get the right gear makes your experience for trying side mount or even diving side mount very very good.