Sidemount
A better way to dive
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.
The
details
Prereq: Open Water Diver
Gear required: Mask & Fins
Price: $785
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.
Classroom
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.
Pool
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.
Lake
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.
Click here to create your free SDI account, on which I will assign you the agency elearning after you register for the course.
This is your required reading for my course. It is far more descriptive of Sidemount tank mechanics than the e-learning. Read it and and special attention to the diagrams.
This is by far the best online scuba instruction available, AND IT IS ALL ABOUT SIDEMOUNT DIVING! The sidemount course is a yearly subscription because it is constantly updated, but for the cost you get access to 30 hours of narrated video going into every detail. If you purchase and complete this before the course, Andy Davis’s book is not required.
Sidemounting.com
Do you want to be a sidemount diver? Take an in-water class from an Instructor that dives sidemount religiously. It is a delicate equipment configuration that only offers its stability to the well-equipped and well-trained.
Whether as a supplement to prior speedy training, or an adjunct to already excellent performance, we recommend, not highly enough, Steve Martin’s incredible Sidemounting.com Video Training Series.
