How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Equipment

Rentals are available for items such as primary lights and cylinders that can be hard to transport. If you require any of these items, please let us know.

Technical diving is defined by being exposed at the ceiling, which prohibits the diver from reaching the surface at any time during the dive. This can be due either to a literal ceiling (a cave, wreck, or virtual ceiling) or a decompression obligation. In such cases, mandatory decompression stops are required on ascent for anyone who exceeds the NDL. This may require the use of special equipment (e.g. Twinsets, Sidemount, special gas mixtures, and more training are needed to perform those stops as well as other tasks on ascent. This will optimize Nitrogen offgassing.

While technical diving is still for fun they aren’t for people wanting to go deeper, just because. There is a higher risk associated with cave and decompression diving. This risk is mitigated, in part, by thorough dive planning and training. As such, divers doing these dives are held towards a higher standard. It will take practice to become a technical diver. No amount of research and reading can supplement that in water time. Divers will notice that the minimum standards are often exceeded during training courses and individual technical instructors often do this. Technical training teaches a diver redundancy so that problems can be successfully solved 1500ft inside a flooded cave and an exit to the surface can be executed. While that sounds complex and scary it’s a necessary aspect of diving in that environment. Technical training is not only challenging but it’s fun and at the end of it the diver has a golden ticket to see parts of the world that are totally closed off to other people.

I just arrived on Malapascua Island, Philippines. I will be working my way up to become a Tec diving instructor over the next two-months. Since the past two years, I have been a recreational instructor in Bali. Now I want to increase my professional diving experience. Sidemount PCB was where I got my first taste of technical diving. Tom West, Tec instructor-trainer and course director at PADI, made me a Tec-50 diver.

SDI/TDIIncludes Two Open Water DivingsMinimum Age 18 Years, Minimum 15 Years with Parental Consent.

Overhead divers who have been trained in overhead diving are entitled to cave passages created over millions of year of water erosion. These passages can stretch thousands of yards from the entrance. They offer tranquility and beauty that is unmatched by the amazing time they took to form.