In addition to the Sidemount equipment, you will need your regular wetsuit and fins.
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While technical diving is still for fun they aren’t for people wanting to go deeper, just because. There is a higher risk associated with cave and decompression diving. This risk is mitigated, in part, by thorough dive planning and training. As such, divers doing these dives are held towards a higher standard. It will take practice to become a technical diver. No amount of research and reading can supplement that in water time. Divers will notice that the minimum standards are often exceeded during training courses and individual technical instructors often do this. Technical training teaches a diver redundancy so that problems can be successfully solved 1500ft inside a flooded cave and an exit to the surface can be executed. While that sounds complex and scary it’s a necessary aspect of diving in that environment. Technical training is not only challenging but it’s fun and at the end of it the diver has a golden ticket to see parts of the world that are totally closed off to other people.
Television, magazines, stories from a friend – it doesn’t matter the source, exploring the underwater world and escaping the surface is enticing and exciting. So how do we keep exploring? What exactly is technical diving?
With most agencies you can choose between recreational Sidemount and technical Sidemount. The prerequisites for example with SDI and TDI are the same but the tec Sidemount course will add more skills. It will also ask more of you in terms of mastering them – perfect trim and keeping still and leveled during your skills is a must!
Sidemount diving offers additional air sources, as you can dive with two tanks, each one with an SPG regulator and a first stage. Sidemount diving is safer and provides little air-hogs, like me, with more air. Sidemount diving is extremely comfortable. You can put tanks on the surface, and there is no pressure on your stomach.
After successful completion, the Tech Diver Level 1 can be started and allows a diver to dive to 51m using appropriate Trimix gas mixes beyond 30m. It is also possible to start Cave Diving Training after the Fundamental Tech Pass.
Items such as cylinders and primary lights, which my be difficult to travel with, are available for rental. Be sure to alert us if you will need any of these.
The SSI technical-sidemount diver course allows you to take extended dives with four+ tanks (cylinders). Technical diving is easy with the technical sidemount course. You can learn to operate multiple cylinders at once. Config your sidemount gear. Learn how to make a tec sidemount harness. Also learn how adjust the sling tanks on your body.
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.
You are interested in becoming Sidemount Diver? This article will provide all the information you need about what it takes to become a Sidemount diver.
Each PADI Specialty you take will help you get closer to becoming a Master Scuba Diver(tm).
Sidemount PCB has the expertise to answer any questions you or your doctor may have about your medical fitness to dive.
Technical diving (also known as tec diving or tech diving) is non-professional scuba diving that exceeds the agency-specified limits of recreational diving.
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.
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.