While diving, especially in caverns, divers encounter very narrow horizontal openings which they must pass in order to continue in the cave system. Unhooking the tank from the B.C. and pushing it a head of you is not always the safest way to go through an opening where you don't quite fit. There is a new system that allows divers to

carry tanks with them and not effect their hand availability or their vertical size. This method is called side mounting. Side mounting places the diver's tanks at the side of the body and under the arms, thus reducing the diver's front-to-back profile to less than a foot

for most divers. British sump divers were among the first to perfect the side-mounting system. To reach the submerged and deep portions of a cave, known as sumps, the diver is often required to waddle or clamber over slick or jagged rock

double sized tanks on their back this could be very dangerous. So the divers would carry the tanks through the dry portions of the cave and just attach it to their weight belt when they get to the dangerous portion of the cave. The next phase in the side-mounting

they do not provide a single, common air supply, the rule of thirds still appies. Typically, a diver will breathe no more than a third of one tank, then switch to the alternate tank. The dive is turned or over when both tanks are at least two-thirds full, allowing enough

reserve gas for delays or for buddy rescue. A plus of side mounting, is that, instead of buddy breathing, or sharing a regulator, with your partner in an emergency, you can just give your buddy another tank from your side. This is safer when the divers are deep in a

history came when Americans began using side-mounted tanks to squeeze into low or narrow underwater cave passages too confined for tr

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jim Fishback, Sport Diver, Dive Rite, carry tanks, Hoover Pierce, portions cave, cave system, divers carry tanks, reserve gas, divers carry, buddy rescue, divers water, side-mounted tanks, rule thirds,
Approximate Word count = 632
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)