A better way to dive
Sidemount
Sidemount lends itself to stability naturally, but we will fine-tune your kit and skills so that you are unwavering in the water.
Using two sidemounted tanks reduces the risk of running out of air on a dive, but sidemount is also scalable, meaning you can bring one, two, three or more tanks, of any size, on a dive using the same gear.
This flexibility not only enhances your current diving but also sets you up for future technical courses if you decide to take your skills further.
Quality training separates the comfortable and competent sidemount diver from the self-taught "experts" boat captains ban. Pay for training, not cards. Learn from experts.
The details
Sidemount Diver: $950. Prerequisite: Open Water Diver. Gear required: mask and fins; call me if you don't have these or need stiffer fins.
Classroom
We will meet in Florida's first dive shop to fill out paperwork and orient to the week. In the classroom, we will review agency learning and then real sidemount theory and gear. Once you can describe the basics and we build your rigging kits (included in the price of the course), we will make our way to the pool.
Pool
We fit the BCD (personal or rental) to you on land, but in the pool, we will make those tiny adjustments that make sidemount feel good. In a perfectly fitting system, you will learn the basics so on day two we can review higher-level skills.
Lake
We need a full day at the lake to have time for all of the skills. Most are tactile personal skills, but some are culmination tasks to build situational awareness. During this session, we will decide on our training location for day 3: a boat of your choice or the lake again.
After passing the agency's test, reviewing Eric SCUBA's required reading, perfectly fitting your equipment on land and in water, building sidemount rigging, learning all skills in shallow water, and finally proving those skills over the course of at least 5 dives, you will be a certified, confident, competent sidemount diver.
Before the course
- Create your free SDI account, on which I will assign you the agency e-learning after you register for the course.
- Andy Davis's e-book is your required reading for my course. It is far more descriptive of sidemount tank mechanics than the e-learning. Read it and pay special attention to the diagrams.
- By far the best online scuba instruction available is Sidemounting.com, all about sidemount diving: 30 hours of narrated video going into every detail. If you complete it before the course, Andy Davis's book is not required.