06/04/2026
Lately we've been playing with the KISS Sidewinder in a backmount single cylinder configuration. Thanks to a custom backplate from Crush Depth Diving (now available on the Flipper's Diving online store), we've been able to easily setup our sidewinders on a single cylinder with zero adjustments to our rigging on the CCR unit itself. Big bonus here so that we don't have to keep making changes as we go back and fourth from sidemount cave diving to single cylinder ocean diving. Aside from the backplate/harness setup it is pretty similar to a standard open circuit setup. The canisters clip easily to the sides of the backplate. The backplate design eliminates concern of the counterlungs getting pinched or restricted between the diver's back and a standard backplate. Diluent and bailout are combined in a single cylinder with a single regulator. Additional bailout could easily be carried in the form of a stage bottle. The oxygen cylinder is secured to the primary cylinder with a Highland Pony Mount and makes it easy to route your oxygen supply hose to your MAV. The Dive Rite Voyager XT wing makes hose routing super slick... the cutouts in the back o f the wing allow you to pass hoses through and route around to the front of the diver so that you eliminate having hoses wrap around the exterior of the wing. It looks much cleaner and you're not pinching the wing with these hoses. We decided to run a single 2nd stage regulator on a long hose and hung on a necklace for our bailout, which could also be donated to another diver if needed. The intent of this setup is to be able to dive CCR throughout the summer season while diving offshore locally. Keeping it simple, shorter, no decompression limit dives and the ease of doing repetitive dives on a single cylinder with minimal gas use. Is it the best option for a backmount CCR? No. But if your primary use for CCR is cave diving and you want the best sidemount CCR out there (in my humble opinion), it's a good short term fix to keep you from blowing bubbles while you wash your gear with salt water.