Side Mount Scuba Configuration

Padi

Each PADI Specialty that you complete will bring you closer to the Master Scuba Diver(tm).

Television, magazines, stories from a friend – it doesn’t matter the source, exploring the underwater world and escaping the surface is enticing and exciting. So how do we keep exploring? What exactly is technical diving?

Do you want to share the experience? PADI eLearning (r) can be purchased online and shared with a person of your choice. You can purchase the course for a gift or assign it to family members. It's easy!

Gear - While the gear remains the same, divers taking an introductory tech class, such as Sidemount, Intro to Tech or CCR air diluent, will notice some configuration differences. Instead of two second stages on one cylindrical, they're divided between two with a separate initial stage for each. The gas planning becomes a more in-depth process, and the harnesses appear to have more chrome.

Side Mount Scuba Configuration

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Octopus Attack

The next day it was on to technical sidemount, which means adding our deco 50-percent oxygen and 100-percent oxygen tanks on either side. This increases your profile underwater so you must keep the tanks as trim as possible against your body. You have a couple of clips on each side of your waist. As you breathe down your tanks and they become positively buoyant, you adjust your tank position to the second clip position. The aim here is to be as streamlined as possible. Every few minutes you also switch your breathing from one tank to the other. That way the pressure in each tank runs down at roughly the same rate, and if there is a failure with either tank or regulator, you’ll still have gas to breathe. As with all new things, building up experience is key to comfort and enjoyment. I spent the next few days doing deco dives with the sidemount rig, buddied up with Evolution co-owner David Joyce — a hugely experienced Tec diver and Trimix instructor. On one dive we visited the Japanese Mogami wreck down at 164 feet, where I was beguiled by the bits of old gas masks, uniforms and even a few bones we saw.

We offer the TDI course as an option, although we can also teach the SDI course if asked. This course can be taken on its own, or with the Apprentice Cave Diver course.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Octopus Attack
Tec

Tec

If you plan to go sidemount, particularly if you are a tec diver already, you will need to learn about your new rig. How to adjust it, how it can be used to enter the water, and more.

Computer-aided instruction is an integral part of nearly every course we teach. The Why? is simple: eLearning helps get our students in the water sooner and spend more time there. It’s why we include the cost of any applicable eLearning programs — usually a $140 value — in our courses at no extra charge. This translates directly into an extra day of in-water training. The value of that? Priceless.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver 800m

To make dives beyond 130ft, decompression divers will add Helium to the cylinders. Then they can explore the realm of the uncommon. Their experiences at wrecks and reefs are often less frequent than those of astronauts who visit the moon.

You will need your standard wetsuit, fins and mask as well as a computer, compass and DSMB.

Scuba
Scuba

The sidemount rig was originally invented for cave diving as it allows the diver to pass thru cracks and restrictions (tiny holes) easier than the classic back mount rig.

‘Shadow Divers’ by Robert Kurson is about the identification of a German submarine that was tried to be identified by John Chatterton and his crew during almost a decade.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver 400

And then there are the rebreathers…a rebreather is a machine that recycles exhaled gas and is the preferred method for ‘very’ deep dives in order to use the gas carried more efficiently. In this case the exhaled gas is going thru a canister filled with a chemical which is called Sofnolime or scrubber to remove CO2 from the breathing loop and the remaining gas will be inhaled again by the diver. Metabolised oxygen is replaced into the loop to keep the oxygen content in the divers’ body at the desired pressure.

Skills (specific). Throughout the tech program, specific diving skills are practiced until they are perfect. Overhead diving navigation and line skills can be honed until they are automatic. Decompression divers know how to manage the gas and plan stops. Rebreather divers meticulously construct, test and tear down their equipment to ensure that it is functional. The skills required for each course are mastered at the beginning level. As you progress, they can be further developed. Each level takes these skills further and creates new challenges that make you a more knowledgeable, competent and well-rounded diver.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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.

- 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.

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).