How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Book Pdf

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Driver

To become a technical diver, you need to have passion, experience and training. Technical diving can be dangerous if one or more of these factors is lacking.

Academics: The academic sections of a technical class are the same as any other scuba class. Students will complete some self-study, and then bring their knowledge to the instructor for a discussion. While the technical course's dive planning is more complicated than what most people are familiar with it is an essential part of performing a successful dive. Decompression and overhead diving require gas management discussions that will take much longer than normal. To calculate the required gas volumes for the dive, they use a computer program.

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Although the gear selection is important, entry level tech divers will learn how to streamline their equipment and prevent drag. This maximizes propulsion efficiency and awareness.

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.

Tec Diving Equipment

Apart from the Sidemount equipment you will need your normal wetsuit, fins mask, computer, compass, DSMB, and other accessories.

When or why I decided to do my Sidemount course I don’t remember. As with most of my diving decisions, it was probably a case of – oh that looks cool, could be useful, I’m going to try it!I knew that Sidemount was going to be a useful certification and something that I could use in the future and build on. I also knew that I eventually wanted to do some proper cave diving and that a Sidemount certification would come in handy for that.

Tec Diving Equipment
How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Holder

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Holder

Give the gift of adventure and share the experience. PADI eLearning can now be purchased and shared with a chosen recipient. It doesn’t matter if the course is being purchased as a present or you wish to make it available to family members.

Academics – The academic parts of technical courses are similar to any other class in scuba diving. Students will learn from their instructors and do some self-study. Technical courses require a lot more planning than most people are familiar with, but they are crucial to a successful dive. Gas management will be a more involved part of overhead and decompression dives than many divers are used. The computer program calculates the required gas volumes and reserves for each dive.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Book Pdf

Padi Sidemount Course Cost

TDI is an American tech diving organization that was found in 1994 and has instructors all around the world. The prerequisite to start technical diving with a TDI instructor are the Advanced Open Water certification of any organization, Nitrox certified and a minimum of 25 dives. The first technical diving courses are TDI Sidemount (within No deco limits) and Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures allowing to dive to 45m, using oxygen mixes up to 100% of oxygen and doing staged decompression stops. The course contents include theory, pool work, and a minimum of 6 dives depending on your level of comfort in the water in order to be able to complete all open water requirements safely and efficiently and to understand planning and preparation of a technical dive.

Different depths require the use of different gas mixes. The maximum partial pressure of oxygen a diver wants to dive at is 1.4 which is reached on air at 56m. Due to the water pressure the pressure of each individual gas increases and therefore we need to use appropriate mixes if we choose to go deeper. In general, the more oxygen a gas mix has the less deep we can go. A tech diver will use low oxygen mixes at depth and high oxygen mixes coming up shallower to off-gas Nitrogen faster and decrease the mandatory decompression time overall.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Octopus
How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Octopus

Technical diving is great fun, but it isn't recommended for anyone looking to dive deeper. Cave and deep diving pose a higher risk. It is possible to mitigate this risk through careful dive planning and training. Divemasters performing these dives will be held to a high standard. It will take practice and hard work to become a technical diver. The only way to improve your water time is through research and reading. Divers will often notice that the minimum standards of diving are often exceeded in training courses. Technical instructors can often exceed these minimum standards. Technical training helps to teach diver redundancy. While it may sound scary and difficult, it is necessary to dive in such an environment. Technical training is fun, challenging and gives you the chance to see places in the world that are closed to others.

So if you want to dive sidemount, especially if you are already a tec diver, you need to learn your new rig, how to adjust it, how to enter into the water with it (yes it is very different, more relax too, though), and so much more.

How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Salary

Rebreathers offer an extension of diving abilities by forgoing large cylinders in favor of recycling the gas exhaled by the diver, scrubbing the CO2 exhaled, and injecting prescriptive amounts of gas from smaller cylinders. This can drastically increase the dive time compared to carrying double cylinders of the same generate size/weight, especially for deeper dives. Rebreathers can be back or sidemounted, and the profile they create is dependent on the configuration.

Cave passages formed over millions years of water erosion and extending thousands of feet from their entrance are reserved only for overhead divers. They are stunning in their beauty and peacefulness, but only because they were formed so long ago.

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Frequently Asked Questions

To begin a technical diving course, you must have completed the following prerequisites: a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certificate or equivalent, a PADI Enriched Air Diver certificate or equivalent, and a PADI Deep Diver certificate or proof of at least 10 dives to 30 metres/100 feet.
 

The depth range of oxygen rebreathers (simple closed circuit) is limited to approximately 6 m, beyond which the risk of acute oxygen toxicity rises to unacceptable levels very quickly.

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).