How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Images

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Apart from the Sidemount equipment you will need your normal wetsuit, fins mask, computer, compass, DSMB, and other accessories.

Sidemount diving is also very popular, even in open water. Why? Because diving sidemount is very comfortable and easy to learn.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Report —

Do you want to become a Sidemount diver. You've come to the right spot, as this article will cover all the details!

I just arrived on Malapascua Island (Philippines) and will soon be working my path to becoming a Tec instructor. I've been working as a recreational instructor at Bali for the past two-years and would love to grow my professional experience. Sidemount PCB gave me my first taste in technical diving. Tom West was the PADI course director, and Tec instructor-trainer. He made me into a PADI Tec-50 diver.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Guide

Gear – While the gear is fundamentally identical, divers in their intro tech class (Intro, Tech, Sidemount or the CCR-Air diluent), may notice some fundamental configuration changes. They now have two second stages, each with a separate start stage. Gas planning becomes a detailed, thorough process. The harnesses also have more chrome.

Technical diving is growing in popularity and it didn't take long until it grabbed our attention here at Girls that Scuba HQ! But we had a lot of questions first and a few nerves so we headed to the woman in the know - one of the only female tech instructors in Asia - Theresia Gollner - who is working at Blue Marlin in Gili T, Lombok. She gave us an intro course to twin sets and let us into the wonderful world of technical diving. Here's what she taught us:

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Guide
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Time

I took my first sidemount and technical sidesmount courses. Sidemount diving, like the name implies, requires you to place your tank on your hands. My hands and knuckles were completely covered by cuts at the end. The idea behind sidemount diving is to unclip your tanks and then place them in front you, Superman style. This will streamline your workflow. After making some adjustments to my harness size, the afternoon dive went more smoothly. I was now comfortable unclipping my harness and "Superman-ing” with the tanks. Sidemount gives you an amazing level of freedom, even if you have doubles on your back. Matt put up obstacle courses. We were soon flying through them with tanks in front, barrel-rolling, swimming upside down and tanks at the rear.

Learn our SSI technical sidemount diver course and get the opportunity to dive with four+ tanks (cylinders) for extended dives. The technical sidemount diver course is an excellent way to get yourself into technical diving as it will train you to handle multiple cylinders on a single dive. Learn also on configuring your sidemount gear and setting up a tec sidemount harness as well as adjusting the sling tanks (cylinders) on your body.

Scuba Tanks

The choice of equipment is very individual and different divers will recommend different styles. In general to go with a well known brand is useful as they stand for quality, performance and configurability. Some of the best brands are Apeks, Diverite, Halcyon, OMS, Scubapro, Hollis and some newer brands like xDeep or Tecline. The preferred divecomputers for tech divers at the moment are Shearwater products, whether it be the Petrel 2 or Perdix, the flexibility of the algorithm, handling and display.

There is a wide variety of equipment that is used by technical divers the biggest impact on the decision is the environment a diver is exposed to. Many cave divers prefer to use Sidemount which means, independent single tanks are mount to the side of the divers’ body and attached by clips on a D-Ring on the waist band on the harness and on the shoulder. This allows the diver to detach and don tanks to fit thru tiny restrictions and have a lower overall profile to go to places unreachable for divers who chose backmount. During multiple trips, additional tanks can be placed in a cave or a wreck to allow the diver deeper penetration dives and to pick up tanks when leaving the cave or wreck.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Images
Thailand
Thailand

Technical diving is a combination of passion, training, and experience. Technical diving is not for those who lack any of these three.

I'm not sure when or why I chose to take my Sidemount course. It was, as with many of my diving decisions. I think it was a case where I thought, "Oh, that looks cool. Could be useful. I'm going for it!" I knew Sidemount would be useful and something I could continue to use and improve on. Sidemount certification would be useful for me if I ever wanted to cave dive.

Padi Sidemount Manual Pdf

Technical diving can be defined as being exposed to a ceiling that prevents a diver from ascending to the surface during a dive. This could be caused by a ceiling (in terms of a cave, a wreck, etc.) or a virtual ceiling that is created by a decompression duty. To avoid decompression sickness, it is necessary to perform mandatory decompression stops on ascent if you exceed the NDL. This requires special equipment such as a Twinset or Sidemount. Special equipment such as Twinsets and Sidemounts, gas mixtures with special properties, and additional training are required to be able perform the stops on ascent accurately to maximize Nitrogen off-gassing.

The Sidemount diving setup is a little different from the setup when diving backmount and so is the equipment.

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Frequently Asked Questions

2-3 hours
Even with small cylinders, you can usually dive for 2-3 hours (rebreathers typically have two 2/3l cylinders or one 3/5l cylinder).

Have a PADI Deep Specialty Instructor certification or have completed a PADI Deep Specialty Instructor course. Have at least 100 logged dives, including at least 20 enriched air dives, 25 dives deeper than 18 meters/60 feet, and 15 dives deeper than 30 meters/100 feet. You can become a Tec 45 diver.
 

5-6 days
Rebreather training classes are typically 5-6 days long, but can be longer depending on a variety of factors such as the training agency, your local conditions, your instructor, and your ability to meet the class standards.