SIDEMOUNT S-DRILLS (DETAILED VIDEO FOOTAGE)

Decades ago, cave divers realized that in case of a catastrophic failure or an out of gas scenario they had to travel through possible restrictions and further than in openwater.
It became the norm to practice S drills before any dive.
Aside of practicing for an OOG emergency, divers would also practice touch contact, light management and positioning but were also checking if all regulators were functional and the longhose (was) available and deployable before the actual dive.

The S drill mimics reality, it is good way to prepare divers to respond efficiently to an unfortunate event such as running out of gas.
Apart from the way and sequence how to perform these S drills you can also observe the 2 divers using a repertoire of finkicks including the helicopter turn and the backkick, necessary to perform this skill properly.
Things like changing the light from one hand to the other, switching regs without losing neutral buoyancy, clipping off regulators, positioning yourself adequately and team awareness are all being practiced during this skill.

We decided to put this video online in order to give sidemount divers detailed information about how to perform and practice an S drill.
We hope that this will contribute towards making SM divers even more aware, skilled and reliable divers.

MOVEMENTS AND POSITIONING IN THIS VIDEO ARE EXAGGERATED IN ORDER TO SHOW BOTH DIVERS ON YOUR SCREEN, SHOW THE ROUTING OF THE HOSES AND TO SHOW YOU THE IMPORTANCE OF A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH OF THIS SKILL.

We have 2 divers in which one diver acts as the RECEIVER and the second one as the DONOR.
Each diver should practice the skill being a receiver and a donor

In order to memorize each part and sequence the S drills are divided in :

3 phases and in this video 4 exit strategies.
The exit strategies are based on the type of environment and amount of gas available.

Phase 1 is the actual emergency – STARTS with OOG signalling and ENDS with the OK signal
phase 2 is the evaluation – STARTS with deploying the longhose ENDS with a directional signal
Phase 3 is the exit – STARTS with 2 divers positioning ENDS with the 2 divers exiting.

4 exits with a donor on the left, on the right, single file and an ascent face to face.

NOTE : We can also observe the divers exiting single file in SM configuration, There are still divers out there that insist that a single file exit on a 2 meter longhose on sidemount is not possible.
Another myth in the diving community seems to be that it is very difficult and dangerous to use a helmet due to the fact the longhose might get stuck behind the helmet.
We performed these S dills many times and until the day of today we have not encountered this problem.

S drills are not easy, they are a challenge but good fun to practice.

We enjoyed it ;-)
Mike van Splunteren and Tomasz ""Michur Michura