How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Gear

Skills (generally applicable) - The introductory tech dive will practice their buoyancy and trim with the new equipment configuration. This will help you to dive efficiently. Once this foundation has been established, students can practice locomotion to improve their skills.

Sidemount Diver is one of the most challenging courses that I have ever completed. It was because Big Blue Tech, my trusted dive shop in Koh Tai, and Fiona my instructor included many more skills and dives to my course than necessary. Although we made sure my task load was manageable, we still practiced skills. These included tank removal underwater, mask removable, out-of air drills, SMB deployment, and many other things while maintaining (or trying to maintain) perfect trim.

You can learn the SSI technical diver course and dive with up to four tanks (cylinders), for extended dives. The technical sidemount diver class is a great way for you to start technical diving. You will learn how to manage multiple cylinders during one dive. Also, learn how to configure your sidemount gear and set up a tec harness.

The very general definition of technical diving is to be exposed to a ceiling that does not allow a diver to ascend to the surface at any moment of the dive. This might be due to a real ceiling, in terms of a cave or a wreck, or a virtual ceiling created by a decompression obligation. In this case, by exceeding the NDL’s, mandatory decompression stops have to be performed on ascent in order to avoid any case of decompression sickness. In most cases this requires the use of special equipment, e.g. Twinsets or Sidemount, special gas mixes and of course additional training to be able to perform those stops accurately on ascent to optimize off-gassing of Nitrogen.

New gear means new techniques. Diving sidemount, if it's easy, require some new skills (easy to learn).

Dive sidemount has become a popular sport in open waters. While it looks more sleek than having a tank strapped to your back, it doesn't hurt your back.