Sidemount diving has been around for decades but was used mainly by extreme technical divers who used the configuration to penetrate small sections of caves. Only recently have its adaptability and advantages been discovered by divers of varied experience levels and, due to advances in equipment and greater availability of training, sidemount diving is becoming an increasingly common application for both recreational and cave divers.

Sidemount diving began in England in the 60’s to allow divers to squeeze through tight spots while exploring sumps. Divers brought the technique to the United States in the mid 70’s for the same purpose and in the early 80’s divers began to use sidemount to reach lower and tighter places that were too low for conventional back mounted tanks. It is also very popular in Mexico as a method to reach sumps in dry caves or entrances requiring long treks horizontally or vertically and to go through tight spaces during cave exploration without disturbing the environment.

Sidemount is a gear configuration in which a diver uses two independent tanks and regulators which are connected to the body on each side via a harness instead of mounted on the back. The tanks lie parallel to the body and each tank is connected at two points. The bottom of the tank is connected to the harness with a clip near the diver’s hip/kidneys and the top of the tank is secured with a bungee/cord at the top of the shoulder such that the tank valve hangs under the arm. This configuration provides the diver with two separate and redundant sources of gas since the tanks are not connected by an isolation manifold, as they are in a backmount configuration.