Sidemount Diver

Description

 LEARN TO DIVE USING A SIDEMOUNT

Sidemount refers to a different orientation of the tank which is used in Technical Diving for its practical position, control and safety. The advantages/benefits are obvious: it enables divers to carry more air tanks & the orientation can be changed to access small entries and facilitate staged activities – where tanks may be deposited for later use.  This has increased backup incase of punctures or other unplanned events. With time, the Sidemount orientation has become more interesting to divers & a transfer of techniques and configurations to recreational diving has taken place, creating the necessity for a specialist PADI Sidemount Diver course.

The benefits of this type of orientation for a recreational diver are mainly:

• Liberating the back from the tank’s weight, now that two lighter tanks will hang on either sides of the diver.
• Bouyancy improvement and position control.
• Improves security using two individual tanks with their correspondent stages. If one were to fail, there’ll always be a another one.
• The bouyancy compensator jackets, which are speific for this type of orientation, are lighter and more comfortable than the usual.
• Comfortable transport to the diving point, as the tanks are lighter and aren’t attached to the bouyancy compensator jacket up until the last momento.
• It is possible to monitor the entire gear due to the front position, being able to prevent any possible problems in a more efficient way.

 

Requirements

Minimun age: 15 years old.

Open Water Diver certification (or equivalent).

A medical statement signed by a physician within the last 12 months.

 

Contents

Theory modules where you’ll learn about safety relating to this specialty.

A practical dive in confined water and three open water dives (in Almuñecar and La Herradura).