Sidemount Diving: The Almost Comprehensive Guide Paperback – September 21, 2015

This is a well-written, informative book on sidemount diving. In contrast to many diving related books, including sidemount diving, this book is not generic but specific, and the author has a talent for writing. You don't come away thinking: just wasted money on generalities (that could be summarized in a few pages), and this person should not be writing for public consumption. Steve Lewis, among a few others (now including Rob Neto), are in the category of people who produce well-written, informative diving related books.Perhaps the audience that would most benefit from the book are beginning and experienced sidemount divers. The second group might include those thinking about sidemount diving and "experts" (sidemount cave divers and instructors). For those with only limited open water experience (e.g., AOW) who are thinking about sidemount diving, the book would be useful in conveying the myriad complexities associated with picking rigs and trimming them out, but they might not be able to fully understand some of the "how to's" in the book. The author provides specific information, in some cases, imbued with subtleties that comes from years of diving/teaching sidemount in caves and open water. It would be unusual for a book that's informative to beginning and experienced divers to be fully comprehensible to open water novices.The book's strengths include: The author alerts the reader to issues he/she should be cognizant of, in many instances, suggesting solutions without dogmatically fixating on one over others. The author has his preference, based on his own extensive experience, but he leaves it at that. A beginning sidemount diver, reading material on the Internet, will have difficulty distinguishing wheat from the chaff. It is here where Rob Neto's book provides the most valuable service. For experienced sidemount divers, the book provides perspectives on rigging and technique that may further enhance their own diving.Every book has weaknesses and this book is no exception. In my evaluation (5 stars), the positive far outweigh the negatives, but they are pointed out for future reference and completeness. There are a number of typos (and a repeated phrase) that can be fixed in a second edition. This is common for a first edition book, and, most importantly, the typos are few and obvious (some can change meaning/add confusion) so that they are not distracting. The photographs are in color but some (especially those that help explicate the text) will benefit from better resolution. There is always a trade-off with print cost, but an issue to be considered. A kindle edition may provide an easy fix for an electronic version. One of the strengths of the book is that it is focused and brief (about 120 pages), but invariably some relevant topics are not included as alluded in the subtitle of the book. One of them, under rigging, is the choice of fins which tends to be more of an issue for sidemount than backmount diving. Another is selection cylinder valves. Not major issues but ones that may benefit from being included in an "almost comprehensive guide." Lastly, some of the text describing issues/solutions may be further clarified by including additional pictures/illustrations.In summary, in this reviewer's opinion, this is the best book on sidemount diving currently available, well-written and informative, that fills a void left by more generic sidemount books and that serves as a reference point for "expert" opinion on the Internet.

Neto is correct, it's almost comprehensive as a book. Of course, there is no way to learn sidemount from a book. This book merely offers information on configuration and some fundamentals of diving in sidemount. I found that for me, trial and error is the best way. I already have all the DIR techniques for backmount, am very comfortable in either singles or doubles, so the transition to sidemount was mainly about configuration. Once I figured out how everything should work (and why it works - which this book helped with) I just went out and spent about 1/2 hour messing around before I went underwater. Once I went underwater, I felt at home, and sidemount became quite natural for me. I believe in the UTD concept of keeping DIR the same for backmount and sidemount - long and short hoses, maybe a manifold for twins. I don't know if any of the information in this book helped me as I am already a dive instructor and as I said, quite proficient in DIR diving. However, Neto offers some nice tips worth thinking about and trying. And he always says that each diver is different and has to try different things. My feeling is that if you are not a competent DIR diver already, get instruction from a good instructor in DIR skills first (GUE, UTD, etc.) Sidemount is somewhat different, but very easy to pick up if you already have the DIR skills. If not, the skills are the key.

Good description for owners of sidemount scuba gear on the essentials. While reading this book, several questions were covered and discussed in technical detail. And, this makes it a useful reading for scuba divers to become successful using this configuration. I am reading a borrowed copy, and have on order to by personal copy, for reference. This book puts readers ahead of the game, when it comes to diving with sidemounts. For example, the book covers equipment selection. Difference harness choices, and applications of large versus small. Weight significance between steel tanks and aluminum tanks, and when buoyancy plays a critical role when diving overhead environments. The author also shares his experiences with rig set-up and some good tips on redundancy. I found the book surprisingly easy to read and follow step by step. There were a few points in the discussion over the top of my understanding, but that makes it all the more interesting.

I enjoyed reading this and garnered a few tips. I've been SM diving for several years but am far from an expert and enjoy learning how others are rigging and diving so I can try other "proven" techniques. My biggest complaint is the pics are too small to be able to see the, usually, small details that make a difference in your rigging.

A little advanced for me at first read...after a few goes with my kit in front of me it all started to make sense. Very useful for someone starting out in sidemount.

A comprehensive survey of sidemount gear and techniques. The author is a cave diver, so the book leans in a cave-centric direction, but he also covers open-water and boat diving in sidemount configuration. One thing that could improve the next edition would be diagrams of hose routing options in addition to the text descriptions, but all in all, this is an excellent resource.

Good comprehensive review of sidemount. Lots of information.

Nice book, got some nice information in it, especially explains that Sidemount is personal, there are only guidelines, no right or wrong way.

I am relatively new to sidemount. I only sidemount my bailout cylinder for rebreather diving. I found it an informative book into this style of diving.

und ein fast mit Spannung zu lesendes Buch. Rob umschreibt mit viel Liebe zum Detail das Sidemounttauchen.Von der Auswahl des Rigs über Flaschenwahl bis hin zu Gaswechselprozeduren, Schlauchkonfiguration usw.Alles ohne verbissen zu sein und vor allem angenehm wertungsfrei.Es gibt nicht DIE EINE Konfi an der sich alle zu halten haben, sondern er veranschaulicht alle Vor- und Nachteile.Schön auch, das Rob bei Größenangaben von Tanks oder Boltsnaps auch die metrischen Angaben macht.Viele Tips sind echt Gold wert.Einige Bilder hätte ich mir qualitativ besser gewünscht was aber keinen Punktabzug ausmacht.Ein sehr wertvolles Nachschlagewerk welches auch in vielen Jahren noch wertvoll sein wird!

Leider nicht über Amazon bekommen, aber nun doch endlich da.Hervorragend geschrieben, denn der Autor behauptet nicht, dass er der einzige wäre, der Ahnung hat.Vielmehr zeigt er immer wieder verschiedene Wege und erklärt, dass jeder für sich die optimale Lösung und den möglichen Methoden finden muss.Diesen Stil sollten sich andere Autoren mal anschauen - absolut vorbildlich!

Livre instructif sur le matériel, les techniques et astuces de chacun glanées un peu partout. Je m'attendais néanmoins à plus de détails et d'explications, peut-être plus de photos et croquis pour illustrer le tout. La partie du choix des bouteilles est également pauvre à mon goût, même si elle aborde l'essentiel.

Sarebbe un 5 stelle per la volontà di pubblicare qualcosa in ambiente Sidemount. Ma la qualità delle immagini è davvero troppo bassa. Le spiegazioni non supportate da adeguate immagini o grafica risultano spesso confuse. Non molto aggiornato a livello di attrezzature considerate. È giusto che un appassionato sidemounter lo abbia, ma in generale non è imperdibile. I video online di Steve Martin sono di un altro livello, ovviamente ad un altro costo.