While I still haven’t mastered this art quite yet, I am proud to say that after 20 Sidemount dives I am excited to call myself a Sidemount diver and think it is the most comfortable way to dive!
Sidemount mounting for cylinders was originally used in cave diving. Since then, they have grown to be more popular in all types of technical diving. The dual cylinders are separated with a 1st stage for each cylinder. They then mount them on either one side of the diver's bodies. However, this does not allow the diver access to any valves and allows him to only breathe from one cylinder in the unlikely event of a regulator failing. Sidemount diving offers a divers a wider horizontal profile, but smaller vertical profile.
Scuba Sidemount SetupI 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.
Sidemount PCB can answer your questions regarding medical fitness to dive.
Your Sidemount rig also includes clips and tank bands. These clips will attach to your harness. Again, their location is crucial for the positioning of your tanks.
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.
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International Training, the parent organization for Scuba Diving International (SDI) and Technical Diving International (TDI) offers both SDI and TDI versions of their Sidemount Diver course. Both courses are very similar. Both use the same learning materials (which, by the way, we wrote). So what’s the difference?
1. Your personal informations (name, email, etc). 2. Choose the date that you prefer. 3. Send an email to Submit your question/inquiry.
Consider continuing on to Tec Sidemount Diver course in which you’ll learn additional skills specific to tec diving in sidemount, such as staging and switching deco cylinders.
Although I'm still learning, Sidemount diving is something I feel confident in. I have done 20 Sidemount dives and I can proudly say I'm a Sidemount diver.
What are you waiting to do? Find a TDI instructor near you today: https://www.tdisdi.com/search/?area=instructors
If you worry now about how this will all come together, don’t – a big part of the course is learning how to set up your Sidemount equipment as well as to measure and adjust bungees and clips to make sure your tanks are in trim next to your legs. And of course, your instructor will help you with all of it!
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.
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).