I purchased an Armadillo sidemount rig this year and have been diving it for about six months now. I found a pretty good deal on a used model and jumped on it mainly out of curiosity. The rig I bought is an original Armadillo, not the A2, so this review is on that model. I haven’t been in the water with an A2 or even seen one in person so can’t comment on it.

The original Armadillo sidemount rig, in my opinion, is the best commercial sidemount rig available. It is simple, low profiled, streamlined, and robust. It is also the only sidemount rig I’ve seen that has not, or would not, require any modifications for it to work for me.

The Armadillo comes with the inflator hose already coming off the bottom of the wing and the dump on the top. It was like that when they were first introduced to the market in 2002 and continue to be sold that way today. The Armadillo also comes with adjustable shoulder straps. They can be located anywhere on the waist strap that works for the diver. They are a simple, single piece webbing with no padding. The material used is heavy duty and robust. The rig is reinforced with heavy duty 2-inch webbing along the center and butt plate. The bars used on the butt plate are curved rather than squared. I thought this might be an issue when I first got it because I was in the habit of “locking” my snap bolts along the top of the bars. This hasn’t been an issue with the Armadillo. I still pull my cylinders up toward my shoulders and they stay where I want them just fine.

Even though the rig I bought was used there were no modifications made to it by the previous owners. I have made a total of two modifications to my Armadillo. I added a chest strap, which I only need when I’m carrying stages (most dives), and I fixed the pull dump to the shoulder harness a little more permanently than how it’s shown in the owner’s manual.

The Armadillo does have some drawbacks. The lift is only 33 pounds. So I’m still using my Nomad for my trimix dives because my trimix cylinders are 108s and 121s. My Nomad barely has enough lift for those. The Armadillo definitely doesn’t have the lift for those. That being said, I have been able to dive my Armadillo with 2 Faber LP95s, 2 AL80 stage cylinders, and an AL40 deco cylinder. The other drawback is I can’t use it as a backmount rig so when I’m teaching students in backmount I have to use my Nomad. I suppose I could drill some holes in the center of the back to accommodate backmount but I don’t really see a need for it. Other than that I haven’t found any other drawbacks with the Armadillo for me. And even those two drawbacks aren’t a big deal because I have another rig I can use with larger cylinders and when diving backmount.

While the Armadillo runs a little more than most of the other sidemount rigs on the market, but by the time you get done adding the usual modifications being done on some of the other rigs, you’re paying almost as much for one of those as you are for an Armadillo. The Armadillo isn’t for everyone, but I do encourage anyone in the market for a sidemount rig to try it out before making a commitment.

A common question asked by new sidemount divers is what hose lengths are needed. While at first glance this appears like a simple question there are some things to consider when choosing the correct hose lengths for your new rig.  Hose lengths will depend on the types of first stages and second stages you will use with your sidemount rig, how you want to route your hoses, and the type of sidemount diving you plan on doing.

Here’s a list of standard hose lengths you will want to consider.  You will need two of each.

Low pressure regulator hoses – 5′ or 7′ if you decide to use a long hose, 15- to 34-inch depending on how you plan on routing short hoses.

Low pressure inflator hoses – 12- to 15-inches long, most common length is 15-inches.  (Only one needed if you do not dive in a dry suit.)

High pressure hoses – 6- to 9-inches long.

Let’s look at your first stages and second stages first.  Some regulators are better suited to certain positions and hose routings than others.  Diaphragm first stages similar to the HOG or Dive Rite models work well in any position.  They do work better in some positions because of the angle of the high pressure ports.  Piston first stages similar to Scubapro and Atomic Aquatic models tend to work better in certain positions.  Make sure you discuss the differences with your instructor or mentor.

You will need to decide whether you want to use a long hose with your set up.  If you plan on diving with others and want to be able to donate air, a long hose is recommended.  While there are some that advocate trading cylinders in an out of air situation, that is not practical.  A long hose is a better option.  If you plan on diving smaller passages in which you and your team members must pass in single file, you should consider a 7′ hose as a 5′ hose will not be long enough to allow single file exits.

The more difficult hose lengths to determine are the short hoses.  Lengths depend on how you plan on routing the hoses.  The options are to route them directly from the first stage to second stage or around the neck.  Some second stage regulators can also have the hose come off of either side.  This will also have an effect on the hose length.  Finally, if you use rotating or fixed angle swivels, you will be able to shorten your hose length by another inch.  For hoses that route directly to your mouth, you will need 15- to 22-inch long hoses.  The exact length depends on the options just discussed.  For hoses that you will route around your neck, you will need 31- to 34-inch long hoses.

The low pressure inflator hose lengths are largely dependent on 1st stage regulator type and which port you choose to use for the inflator hose.  As state previously, the most common hose length is 15-inches.  This length works well with standards first stages and most any low pressure port.  If you have first stages with low pressure ports located on the end of the regulator you will be able to use a 12-inch long hose.

The most common high pressure hose length is 6-inches.  This length works well with the SPG positioned in any direction.  The 9-inch long hose allows for the SPG to be pulled back a little farther from your face if that is necessary for reading the gauge.  It also works better when positioning the SPGs down alongside the cylinders.

If you have a large stock of hoses at home (like many of us do after several years of diving), be sure to bring all the hoses you have in the range listed above.  This may save you some money, and room in your dive storage locker, when setting up your sidemount regulators.  Make sure you discuss the different options with your sidemount instructor or mentor.

This is what you can be capable of day 2 of my sidemount class (that is if you’re already cave trained).

Sidemount seems a good first topic to start off with since it’s our primary choice in gear configuration. We began playing around with sidemount a few months before moving to North Florida in 2007 and immediately saw and felt the benefits of diving sidemount over diving backmount. Shortly after moving we took a couple of Dive Rite Nomads for test dives and came back with big grins on our faces and left with less money in our wallets!

At the time the Nomad and the Armadillo were the only two manufactured sidemount systems available. We had researched both and decided to go with the Nomad for a couple of different reasons. The first was the lift. The Nomad ( at that time) had a lift capacity of 50 pounds while the Armadillo’s lift capacity was and is only in the mid 30 pound range. Diving the North Florida caves with steel cylinders, more lift seemed like the best decision. Another issue was the lack of availability of the Armadillo. There weren’t as many dealers carrying the Armadillo, and at some point (I can’t remember whether it was then or sometime later), no one was making or selling the Armadillo. Today it isn’t as readily available as many of the other models.

Three years later and sidemount systems have flooded the market. We now have several different sidemount rigs available to divers. They all have advantages and disadvantages. Some are well suited to cave diving, some are not. In my opinion, none of them is perfect out of the box. But that’s just the nature of sidemount. The current systems widely available to divers are Dive Rite Nomad, Hollis SMS100, Hollis SMS50, OMS Profile, Oxycheq Recon. The Armadillo can still be found in some locations. There are also some privately made harnesses, such as the Razor, but wing choice and attachment is left to the diver. The BAT wing has recently been developed and is being marketed as a wing for the Razor harness system.

As I stated previously, none of these systems is perfect out of the box. I’ve made several modifications to my Nomad and have other modifications I want to make, but have been too busy diving to bother making them yet. While the modifications I’ve made on my rig work for me, they may not work for everyone. There’s a saying, “Get 10 sidemount divers together at a dive site and you’ll see 11 different ways to rig up your gear.” You need to choose what works for you and your type of diving.

One of the things I teach in my sidemount course is all of the possible ways to rig gear and why. I have tried several of them myself. For example, I’ve pointed my SPGs in every direction possible. There are advantages and disadvantages to each of them. One of the key factors in which way you point your SPGs is your valve orientation. I’ve tried a few different valve orientations, too. I finally have things set up in a way that work for me…right now. In six months it may be different. This is what makes choosing a sidemount instructor that has experience sidemount so important.

Over the past year there has been a surge in the number of sidemount instructors. Many of these instructors became sidemount divers and sidemount instructors the same weekend. They have very little experience diving sidemount and may not even dive sidemount outside of classes. Even fewer dive sidemount in caves, the original environment sidemount was conceived for. (I’ll add a blog on the history of sidemount diving in the coming weeks.) Sidemount diving is more than just strapping cylinders to your sides and getting in the water to complete drills. A big part of the course should be setting up the gear before ever getting in the water and then tweaking it between dives to work for you. An instructor who has very little experience diving sidemount isn’t going to be able to help you do this. If that’s all you want the course for, just buy a book and read it. You’ll probably get more out of that. However, if you want to learn how to set up your gear so it works for you and you want to save yourself several dozen dives in trials, find an instructor who has experience and dives sidemount to it’s fullest capabilities. Don’t only ask the instructor, but talk to other divers about the instructor. Unfortunately, there are too many instructors out there that will misrepresent their experience just to get students.

There’s a common misconception by many divers that sidemount divers only go into small spaces. While that is one of the reasons for diving sidemount, it’s not the only one. It’s also not the most common reason for diving sidemount. Many divers choose to dive sidemount because the advantages of the system appeal to them or because of health related issues. And, yes, some even do it because of the cool factor.

Sidemount was originally created as a way for cavers to get past sumps they encountered in dry caves. The first sidemount rig was very different from the rigs we currently see being commercially produced by dive equipment manufacturers. It consisted of a simple belt with a loop on each side to hold the cylinders on the body of the diver. The tanks were positioned low on the body. The main advantage of this configuration was the simplicity of it. Cave explorers were more easily able to carry single tanks, rather than manifolded tanks, into the caves to the sumps where they would be needed. The harness system was also small enough to either be worn or carried in a small pack.

As cave diving in the UK progressed, cave diving was also experiencing its beginnings in the United States. Florida, well known for the thousands of fresh water springs, was the center of cave diving activity. Quite a bit of cave exploration had taken place in many of the known springs. But the passage that was explored was mainly large passage that could only be negotiated by divers wearing backmounted double tanks. This left miles of passage unexplored. Some divers began experimenting with the harness systems being used in the UK. The need for an air cell for buoyancy control was more of a factor in the Florida systems so divers began modifying jacket BCs for sidemount configurations.

Rather than bore you with more history of sidemount, we’ll fast forward to today. In the early 2000s, the first couple of commercially available sidemount systems were produced and placed on the market – the Dive Rite Nomad and the Golem Gear Armadillo. While they shared many similar features, they also differed from each other in many ways, namely in the harness and the lift capacity of the wing. Today, we have over half a dozen commercially produced sidemount systems available to divers. Some of these systems are suited to cave diving, some are better suited to open water diving, and some are marketed for both cave divers and open water divers. While there are many divers who dive these systems unchanged out of the box, many also make modifications to suit their diving to these systems (more on modifications in a later post).

Sidemount systems continue to evolve as more and more divers experiment with it. Unlike traditional backmount systems, there will likely not ever be a standard sidemount configuration. While most divers begin diving manifolded backmounted double tanks for a specific purpose, such as technical diving, as stated earlier, divers begin sidemount diving for different purposes. As long as this holds true, a standard rig will not develop.

One of the original reasons divers started diving sidemount was to get into smaller passages. Not all passages are passable with backmounted cylinders. While the passage may be pretty wide, the floor to ceiling height doesn’t allow passage of a backmounted diver. There are several passages located in the caves of North Florida that are only passable by lower profile sidemount divers. There are even several passages and caves that have significant size passages, but the opening to them is only large enough for a low profile sidemount diver. While backmounted divers have tried to pass through these openings, many fail, and the damage they are causing to the system is very evident. In this case, sidemount is using the right tool for the dive.

Some people dive sidemount for health related reasons. Whether it’s a bad back or bad knees or ankles, removing 100 pounds of steel from your back can be an orthopedic miracle! Dissenters will argue that this requires more trips to the water and sidemount divers still need to carry tanks, but that’s not necessarily the case. With a $40 truck cart from Wal-mart, tanks are easily rolled to the water from your vehicle in one trip. The second trip is one without any heavy tanks, or you can leave your truck cart at the water and get in (well, that is if you’re not at Ginnie otherwise the cart might not be there after the dive). Once in the water, the tanks are much lighter and easier to handle. In the water, sidemount is also a lot easier on the diver’s back. Moving the tanks to the side gets the weight mass off the spine. Moving the tanks down also allows a different body position in the water. While many backmount divers must arch their backs to maintain a horizontal position in the water, this isn’t the case in sidemount.

Finally, there’s the cool factor. I’m not going to elaborate on this type of sidemount diver. They are pretty easy to pick out. Fortunately, at least in my experience, there aren’t too many of these, not in Jackson County anyway.

“What sidemount system should I buy?”

This is one of the most common questions we hear from our students. While it appears to be a simple question at first glance, it’s not quite that easy to answer. In fact, our initial response is always, “What type of diving do you plan on doing in sidemount?” No single system on the market, or even homemade, is perfect for every type of diving. The first thing a diver considering purchasing a sidemount system needs to do is consider the type of cylinders that will be used with the system.

At this time there are several commercial systems available to divers. However, not all systems are equal. While most can easily accommodate heavier steel cylinders, there are some that cannot. Our experience has been that anything less than a wing with 50 pounds of lift isn’t very suitable for larger steel cylinders or smaller steel cylinders with stage cylinders, especially for divers who only dive wet. While there are modifications that can be done to counteract the extra weight of steel cylinders, they tend to add more bulk and complication to the system. There are enough commercial systems available with 50 pounds of lift or more that purchasing a system with less lift or one that requires the addition of an air bladder doesn’t make much sense.

If a diver is planning on primarily diving aluminum cylinders, then the commercial lower lift systems or simple harness systems with an air bladder as an addition will work fine. Divers may also consider building their own sidemount system. These systems are simple enough, and with the minimal amount of lift needed, allow for a wide variety of choice for air bladders. While building a system can be done by most anyone, building a good system requires some knowledge of sidemount diving or conferring with an experienced sidemount diver.

Trying to make a sidemount system with 50 pounds of lift or more can be a little more challenging. Using one of the current commercial air bladders available can help simplify this process. However, if a diver wishes to build a system using a different air bladder, this will likely involve some modifications such as sewing additional material onto the outer fabric.

Once the type of cylinder is determined, the next question a diver needs to ask is what type of diving will be done in sidemount. There are several reasons to dive sidemount:
• to get into smaller cave passages
• medical issues
• added redundancy of independent cylinders and the ability to see the valves and first stages
• the increased stability of moving the cylinders closer to the center of gravity of the body
• the cool factor
If it’s for any of the last four reasons, then there’s really no issue as to what system is purchase except for the comfort of the harness. If the reason for diving sidemount is to get into smaller cave passages, then the attributes that must be considered are the profile of the system and the snag factor of the system.

The systems with less lift are, of course, the lowest profile systems available. But with that, divers are giving up the ability to use heavier cylinders. This is fine for some locations, but most of the cave systems in North Florida are in the 60-100′ depth range, or more, and smaller cylinders won’t allow for much penetration. With heavier cylinders, the profile must be a little higher, but you still want to keep it as low as possible. This is not the case with all of the commercial systems. So, be careful, and compare the profiles when shopping. One particular commercial system appears to be made specifically for the open water market than for cave divers.

Some sidemount systems have incorporated flexible webbing to help retract the air bladder when air is exhausted. While this appears to be a great idea, the webbing does present some issues. We have gotten caught up in the ceiling of very low passages and bedding plains by limestone formations jutting out from the ceiling in a standard system that does not have any webbing on the back. For the purpose of getting through really low passage, having anything on the back of the wing that can catch on formations sticking down from the ceiling can be counterproductive. A clean system without the add-ons appears better suited to this type of diving.

Finally, the comfort of the system needs to be assessed. Standard harness systems with shoulder straps that route to the rear of the system, in our opinion, aren’t as comfortable as a harness with shoulder straps that route directly down to the waist strap. Many divers choose to mount backup lights on their shoulder straps. When the shoulder straps route to the rear of the system, it makes it difficult to mount lights in this location because the lights would be positioned under the cylinders making them difficult to deploy, and also uncomfortable because the cylinders would be pressing them into the diver’s torso. Having shoulder straps that route directly down to the waist strap also makes the system more stable. With rear routed straps, the waist strap has two attachment points – the rear of the harness. With waist strap routed shoulder straps, the waist strap now attaches at the rear and is further stabilized a few inches apart from the center where the crotch strap attaches creating more stability in the harness.