Although I don't know how to do this yet, I am happy to say that I am a Sidemount diver. It is my favorite way to dive and it has been 20 of my best dives!
While technical diving is still fun, it's not for people who wish to go deeper. Cave and decompression dives carry more risk. The best way to reduce the risk is to plan your dives and train well. This is why divers who take these dives must be held to a higher standard. It takes practice to become a competent diver. There is no substitute for the practice and time in the water. Divers will be able to see that the minimum standards are frequently exceeded during training courses. Individual technical instructors sometimes do this. Technical training teaches divers how to redundancy. It enables them to solve problems at 1500 feet inside a cave. It's not easy and it's scary, but it's an important aspect of diving within that environment. Technical training can be challenging, but it can also be fun. At the end of it, the diver will have the ability to see areas that are completely closed off to the rest of the world.
Television, magazines and stories from friends - no matter what source, the idea of exploring the underwater world is captivating and thrilling. What can we do to keep exploring the underwater world? What is technical diving exactly?
This course will teach you how to set up and operate the equipment that you will use in your training as a cave diver or tech diver. This includes:
The goal of this course is to teach you the basics of how to use the equipment in your cave or tech diver training. You will also need the same equipment for the course. This includes:
There are three components to certification: skill practice, knowledge development and open water diving. All three parts can be completed locally or on vacation, or you can split them.
Academics – The academic portions of a technical course are very similar to any other scuba class. Students will do some self study and bring the new knowledge to a discussion with their instructor. The dive planning aspects for a technical course are significantly extended from what most individuals are used to but a vital part of executing a successful dive. In overhead and decompression diving, the gas management portions of the planning discussion will take longer than most divers are used to. They even utilize a computer program to calculate their gas volumes and reserves required for the dive.
Sidemount diving originated in cave diving, but it has made its way to recreational and non-overhead diving in recent years. You will now wear your tanks side-by-side, instead of having one or two tanks attached to your back. You can attach the tanks to your Sidemount BCD using clips or bungee cords. This allows for extreme flexibility. This flexibility was initially what allowed cave divers to remove their tanks underwater in order to fit into narrow spaces and make their profile smaller.
Technical divers can explore wrecks and reefs down to depths of 40 meters/130 feet. They can dive in underwater caves or other areas that are not accessible to recreational divers.
Backmounted doubles came into use in part because of the problems with backmounted independents and single orifice doubles, neither of which are as common in modern diving. Independents are two cylinders strapped to one’s back with independent regulators on each one. If a 1st stage was to fail the diver was down to one cylinder. Single orifice doubles were two cylinders linked together with a valve, and one 1st stage regulator. If a first stage failed on a single orifice doubles set all the gas would be lost. The isolated manifold doubles used today eliminate both of those problems. Each cylinder can be worked independently, but the diver can also breathe gas from both cylinders out of one regulator. This form of doubles is typically held together with metal bands and the valves are linked with an isolation manifold, allowing the two to be separate if needed. Backmounted doubles diving is similar to regular single cylinder backmount, offering a profile that is vertically the same.
Take a look at these three options if diving classes and lessons are not what you desire or you need to decide where to go next.
Our SSI technical diving sidemount diver course will allow you to use up to four tanks (cylinders), and make extended dives. The technical sidemount dive course is a great way of getting into technical diving. This will allow you to safely handle multiple cylinders in a single dive. Additionally, you will learn how to configure your sidemount gear as well as how to set up a tec sidemount harness.
It is becoming more popular to do technical diving and we were immediately drawn to it at Girls that ScubaHQ! We had many questions and nerves, so we went to Theresia Gollner, who is working at Blue Marlin Gili T in Lombok. We were given an introduction to twin sets by her and then she let us in on the amazing world of technical diving. Here are the lessons she gave us:
As your goal in taking this course is to learn the basic set up and operation of the equipment you will use as part of your cave and/or tech diver training, you will need that same equipment for this course. This includes:
- Increased Bottom Time A Closed Circuit diver is not concerned with running out of gas because they are only limited by decompression. This can also be reduced by selecting an oxygen partial pressure that provides the diver with virtually limitless bottom times in 60 feet or less of water.
To begin a technical diving course, you must have completed the following prerequisites: a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certificate or equivalent, a PADI Enriched Air Diver certificate or equivalent, and a PADI Deep Diver certificate or proof of at least 10 dives to 30 metres/100 feet.
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).