Why? You want ultimate freedom and/or you're getting ready for cave diving.
Many rec or tec scuba divers have discovered the joy of mounting cylinders on their sides. Sidemount diving gives you flexibility and awesome streamlining options. Plus, you don’t have to walk with heavy cylinders on your back – just enter the water, clip them on and go.
Our Sidemount Diver certification course is the perfect course for any diver wishing to use this increasingly popular equipment configuration. It teaches divers how to safely utilize side-mounted primary cylinders as an alternative to the traditional back-mounted method.
Along with learning about the many benefits of diving with a sidemount configuration, during one confined water and three open water scuba dives you’ll learn how to:
- Properly assemble and configure sidemount scuba diving equipment.
- Trim your weight system and sidemount gear so you’re perfectly balanced in the water.
- Manage gas by switching second stages as planned
- Respond correctly to potential problems when sidemount diving
- Equipment considerations
- Attaching cylinders
- Deployment of surface marker buoy / lift bag
- Different water entries
- Video feedback on trim and positioning
What can you expect?
We will start off by customizing your sidemount rig to your body and your style of diving (overhead vs open water). While there are some great sidemount rigs on the market today, none of them are perfect out of the box. We’ll make several adjustments and modifications based on your diving needs.
We will then spend the rest of the time working on several skills in the water. We start out in the pool to get oriented with the gear configuration. We then move into open water to do 3 ocean dives. During the open water dives we will continue to run skills and drills until you’ve mastered them.
Course Prerequisites: Open Water Diver certified with any agency AND an active diver.
Required Equipment (ask for deals and sale):
- Two single cylinders configured for sidemount (rental tanks included, if needed)
- Two primary regulators, each with its own dedicated submersible pressure gauge and inflator hose.
- A primary sidemount BCD such as the Hollis Katana 2 or the XDeep Stealth
- Dive computer (Shearwater Perdix, Teric, Sunnto Eon Core, or similar unit capable of gas switching)
Course includes:
- PADI or SDI Sidemount Student Study Materials
- PADI or SDI Certification Diver Card
- One weekend format - pool, classroom and ocean.
- Quality, fun and safe instruction by professional instructors with good reputation.
- AL80 rental tanks with DIN valves.
- FREE course (minus boat & study materials) and discounts with purchase of Side-mount BC, dual regs sets, tanks with valves, SPG's, trim-weights and hardware.
