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Over recent years, a plethora of new sidemount BCDs have been released onto the diving equipment market. To the casual observer, the range appears wildly diverse. However, there are actually two primary ‘schools’ of sidemount design heritage. These schools were shaped and refined by the environmental conditions and needs of the first pioneers of sidemount diving<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The origins of sidemount diving come from sump exploration in the UK. Most of this exploration was dry caving, with only small submerged passages (sumps) that required scuba equipment. The UK sump divers typically carried small scuba cylinders, containing only sufficient volume for very short passages, often hung from the waist of their existing cave harnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sidemount diving concept migrated to the cave diving communities in Florida and Mexico. These communities developed into two distinct schools of sidemount system design<\/a>; based on their buoyancy requirements, cylinder characteristics (steel versus aluminum) and regional diving preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These two ‘schools of design’, Mexican-cave <\/strong>and Florida-cave<\/strong>, are very evident in sidemount BCD manufacturing today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When selecting a suitable sidemount BCD to purchase, you should bear in mind the history, design evolution and intended use of sidemount BCD designs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They can be quite specific for cold or warm water demands; especially in regard to cylinder material and buoyancy requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> Click here to read more about Sidemount Diving History<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/scubatechphilippines.com\/scuba_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/sidemount-diving-history-1024x768-300x225.jpg\" "\\"sidemount-diving-history-1024x768\\"")