How To Become A Sidemount Technical Scuba Diver Manager

Sidemount PCB can answer your questions regarding medical fitness to dive.

Technical diving is fun, but not for those who want to dive deeper. Cave and decompression diving carry a greater risk. Dive planning and training are key to reducing this risk. These divers are held to a higher standard. To become a skilled diver, it will take practice. It is not possible to replace the time spent in water, no matter how much research you do. Divers will see that minimum standards are often exceeded by instructors during training courses. Technical training teaches diver redundancy. This allows problems to be solved at 1500ft in a cave, and then an exit can be made to the surface. Although it sounds scary and complicated, this is an essential aspect of diving in such an environment. Technical training is challenging, but also fun. The diver will have a golden ticket that opens up new areas of the world.

One of the big risks for a technical diver is decompression sickness. It occurs when nitrogen gas cannot exit the body thru respiration on ascent as the ambient pressure decreases. Therefore stops have to be executed on ascent in order to avoid a pressure difference too big so nitrogen bubbles can be formed. Buoyancy control is very important to control the stops on ascent and increase efficiency for off-gassing of nitrogen. Another important skill is proper breathing which makes metabolism efficient. Trim, which we call a proper tech diving position such as horizontal with a slight arch in the back, looking forward and knees at a 90 degree angle with fins pointing back. Trim prevents stirring up sediments on the bottom as well as most efficient movement in the water. And of course proper finning techniques to avoid overexertion are mandatory to make a diver achieve maximum performance. Now you might say, we want to have fun when we go diving and not be a machine.

Because of the difficulties with single orifice doubles and backmounted independents, doubles were introduced to backmounted diving. Independents are two cylinders that are strapped to one's chest with separate regulators. A 1st stage failure would result in only one cylinder being used by the diver. A single orifice double was two cylinders connected together by a valve and one regulator. All gas would be lost if the first stage of a single orifice twice set failed. Today, both problems are eliminated by the isolated manifold doubles. Each cylinder can be operated independently. However, the diver can still inhale gas from both cylinders using one regulator. The doubles are usually held together by metal bands. The valves are connected with an isolation manifold so they can be separated if necessary. Doubles diving with backmounted doubles is similar to a regular single-cylinder backmount. It offers a vertical profile that is the same.

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.

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.