How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Model

How To Become A Scuba Equipment Technician

Being a technical diver requires a lot of training, experience, and passion. The added risks of technical diving are not worth the risk if any one of these is missing.

Sidemount diving is also very popular, even in open water. Why? Because diving sidemount is very comfortable and easy to learn.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver On Youtube —

The next day was technical sidemount. This means that we added our deco 50 and 100 percent oxygen tanks on either side. This can increase your profile underwater. It is important that you keep your tanks as small as possible. The clips can be found on each side. As your tanks become buoyant, you will adjust your tank position to fit the second clip. Here, the goal is to be as efficient as possible. Each few minutes, you switch your breathing between the tanks. By doing this, the pressure in each of the tanks will decrease at roughly the exact same rate. In the event that a tank or regulator fails you will still be able to breathe. It is important to gain experience with any new thing. I spent the next few nights doing deco dives with the sidemount rig. I was buddied with Evolution coowner David Joyce who is a very experienced Tec diver as well as a Trimix instructor. One dive saw us visit the Japanese Mogami Japanese Mogami sank at 164 feet. It was here that I was seduced by old gas masks and uniforms as well as a few bones.

I’ve just arrived on Malapascua Island in the Philippines, where over the next two months I’ll work my way up to becoming a Tec diving instructor. I’ve been a recreational instructor in Bali for the last two years and want to expand my experience and professional dive résumé. My first taste of technical diving was at Sidemount PCB, where PADI course director and Tec instructor-trainer Tom West molded me into a Tec-50 diver.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Model

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Harness

All our Tec diving lessons (open circuit or closed circuit rebreather) and technical scuba diving classes are given at our Scotty's dive center headquarters facility, located in the Shangri-la hotel in Mactan, Cebu province. If you are not a guest of the Shangri-la hotel, you can always walk in, or we can pick you up at your hotel.

Technical diving means that a diver is not allowed to reach the surface from any point during the dive. It could be due to a ceiling in the form of a cave/wreck or virtual ceilings created by decompression obligations. To avoid decompression sickness, you must perform mandatory stops on ascent when the NDL's are exceeded. This usually requires the use special equipment like Sidemounts and Twinsets. Twinsets and Sidemounts require special gas mixes, additional training, and twinsets/sidemounts to ensure that you can perform these stops correctly on ascent in order to maximize Nitrogen offgassing.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Harness
How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Silhouette

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Silhouette

You will also find tank bands, clips and possibly some additional bungees in your Sidemount rig to store your regs. Your harness will have clips that attach to it. Their position is critical for your tanks.

Sidemount is a great option for cave diving, as it can offer many benefits to divers. Sidemount was invented by cave divers. These are just a few of the many benefits.

Demand Valve
Demand Valve

Sidemount regulators will also be covered. You will usually have one regulator for a long hose and one for a shorter hose with a necklace. Sidemount regs are marked, so that you can identify which tank you are using. This included a swivel joint to allow me to regulate my short hose. You will also receive 2 SPGs, one for each stage.

Depending on the environment and type of diving each configuration has its advantage and disadvantage. Diving in caves or wrecks the preferred way to dive for sure is either Sidemount or rebreathers. There is also an option for a Sidemount rebreather which makes the diver more streamlined to fit through narrow restrictions. Sidemount also gives the diver the advantage to leave tanks behind that will be picked up upon exiting the cave or wreck. To fit through narrow bedding planes unclipping the tanks makes the profile of the diver even smaller and places that are not available to a backmounted twinset diver become accessible.

Sidemount Configuration

Our Scotty’s diving center headquarters facility is where all our Tec diving and technical scuba diving lessons are offered. It's located at the Shangri-la Hotel in Mactan. If you don't belong to the Shangri–la hotel, we can either pick you up at home or you can walk in.

Even though the gear choice is important, the entry-level tech diver can learn to streamline their equipment to minimize drag and dangling items. This optimizes the profile of the diver's equipment for optimal propulsion and awareness.

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Frequently Asked Questions

from 170 to 350 feet
While conventional scuba diving has a recommended maximum depth of 130 feet, technical divers may work at depths ranging from 170 feet to 350 feet, and sometimes even deeper.