There are 6 pictures shown above, they show all the modifications I made to a diverite nomad sidemount expedition harness. My changes address and fix some common problems that many sidemount divers have.

One problem is when using aluminum cylinders, they become positively buoyant around 100 BAR, this directly affects the cylinders trim and caused them to look like the sidemounter in (picture 5), you can fix this by attaching cylinders to hip d-rings to start the dive and when they hit approx 100 BAR you can re-clip closer to the waist buckle on another d-ring, this maintains trim, clips are shown (picture 3) and sidemount diver with correct trimming shown in (picture 6)

The other question to ask is do we really need the butt plate..? Take a look at (pictures 1 to 4) they show all adjustments. I find with this particular harness there are plenty of attachment points already on the rear for reels and safety equipment, so prefer to keep the harness minimal and remove the butt plate altogether. A lot of the modifications which I made to the nomad came from looking at what worked on my current harness, the Steve Bogaerts - Razor.

There is more to it than just altering the harness, the cylinders and regulator setup are other key parts. The true art of sidemount diving is greatly dependent on the mastery of essential skills e.g. correct weighting, buoyancy /breathing control and propulsion techniques. This information is not designed to teach you how to set up your equipment, it is to show you that maybe there are more efficient ways and those you can only get through training.

Below is my experience using a friend’s nomad after learning to sidemount with the razor harness.

I was using the older model of nomad with 50lbs lift. I believe the latest version has 60lbs an extra 10 lbs of lift. I found that whilst using the nomad, I hardly ever needed much air in the BCD. I have had upto x4 Aluminum 80’s on at one time. I put a few breaths into the BCD and it supported me just fine, once I had used some air in the cylinders I found myself letting the air out that I put in and the BCD was completely empty at the end of the dives.

The key I have found is to wear just the right amount of weight needed to make your exposure suit neutrally buoyant at the surface. I was using a 7/5mm (semi dry) wetsuit while I was trying the Nomad, the suit required me to wear approx 4.5 kilos (9 pounds) of weight. So for the type of cylinders I was using the amount of lift this sidemount harness offered in my opinion was too much. If you where diving (multiple) steel cylinders with a drysuit then the lift may be required, should the drysuit fail etc...

I am sharing the changes I made, as I have seen quite a few sidemount divers who are sidemounting using various harnesses with the butt plate and “door handles” bars (same as on nomad pictured in the first two pics). This is where you clip the base of the sidemount cylinder too. With sidemounting you want to trim the cylinder so they are in line with your body, the divers I see generally have the trim okay at the start of the dive; the cylinders swing a little but are in line. I then have seen the same diver mentioned returning after a dive with anywhere between 70 and 100 bar left and the cylinders are now almost inverted; see the (5th picture) and the difference in the (6th picture)

You can see a more accurate demonstration of the cylinder trimming in this short video. (click here)

Please do not get the wrong idea about the nomad harness – I think it is a good sidemount system and with some modifications it can be great for many people. My friend currently still dives his, after these and some other modifications the problems he used to have went away.

Visit my sidemount equipment page to see which manufacturers are producing sidemounting equipment