You might consider continuing to Tec Sidemount Diver, where you will learn additional skills that are specific to tec diving in sidemount like switching deco cylinders and staging.
1. Your personal informations (name, email, etc). 2. Choose the date that you prefer. 3. Send an email to Submit your question/inquiry.
There are three parts of certification: knowledge, skill practice, and open water diving. You can either complete them all locally, while on holiday, or divide them.
Skills (specific): Throughout tech programs, the dive skills specific to that category are practiced until they become flawless. Line skills and navigation are perfected for overhead diving. Decompression divers can execute stops and manage gas without blinking an ear. Rebreather divers take great care in building, testing and disassembling their equipment to ensure its optimal functionality. The first level of certification lays the foundation for each course, with further training as necessary. Each step takes you deeper, or makes these skills more difficult. It is a way to become a better diver.
You may also be interested in the PADI tec Sidemount Diving Course.
The next day was technical sidemount. This means that we added our deco 50 and 100 percent oxygen tanks on either side. This can increase your profile underwater. It is important that you keep your tanks as small as possible. The clips can be found on each side. As your tanks become buoyant, you will adjust your tank position to fit the second clip. Here, the goal is to be as efficient as possible. Each few minutes, you switch your breathing between the tanks. By doing this, the pressure in each of the tanks will decrease at roughly the exact same rate. In the event that a tank or regulator fails you will still be able to breathe. It is important to gain experience with any new thing. I spent the next few nights doing deco dives with the sidemount rig. I was buddied with Evolution coowner David Joyce who is a very experienced Tec diver as well as a Trimix instructor. One dive saw us visit the Japanese Mogami Japanese Mogami sank at 164 feet. It was here that I was seduced by old gas masks and uniforms as well as a few bones.
I'm not certain when or why I decided on Sidemount. As with many of my diving choices, it was likely a case of "oh that looks cool, could prove useful", so I decided to take the Sidemount course. It would be a useful certification that I could build on in the future. Sidemount would allow me to dive in caves, something I always wanted.
There are three parts to certification. Knowledge development, skill practice and open-water diving. You can do all three on your own, or take a break to complete one of them.
Decompression divers can use all sorts of oxygen mixtures to extend their time looking at reefs and wrecks on the sea floor. While the sport diver may only have two 15-minute bottom time dives at 100ft, the decompression diver is able to cruise for up 60 minutes. This allows them to get the most bang possible.
Sidemount rigs were created originally for cave diving.
Each PADI Specialty that you complete will bring you closer to the Master Scuba Diver(tm).
I’ve just arrived on Malapascua Island in the Philippines, where over the next two months I’ll work my way up to becoming a Tec diving instructor. I’ve been a recreational instructor in Bali for the last two years and want to expand my experience and professional dive résumé. My first taste of technical diving was at Sidemount PCB, where PADI course director and Tec instructor-trainer Tom West molded me into a Tec-50 diver.
Many agencies offer the option to choose between technical Sidemount and recreational Sidemount. For example, SDI and TDI have the same prerequisites but the tec Course will require you to have more skills. They will require more skill to master the course - you must be precise in trimming your hair and staying level while performing your skills.
2nd stage regulator; exposure suit with side pockets, BCD-sidemount, SMB cutting tool, diving spool. Jet fins. Mask and spare mask. Technical diving equipments. 1 long hose (2.10m-7ft), hogarthian, or cave harness.
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.