What is Sidemount Diving?
In contrast to the conventional backmount diving, with Sidemount Diving you do not carry the tank on the back but on the sides of your body.
It began as a configuration popular with advanced cave divers as smaller sections of cave can be penetrated and tanks can be changed with greater ease. Sidemount diving is a further development of this approach and will be used today for scuba diving (Special Training).
Why Sidemount?
- A much more streamlined profile means less water resistance at the same time, which in turn means less air consumption.
- It protects the back since the bottles are worn individually or transported and first created in the water. At the same time it facilitates entry and exit.
- Another advantage is the use two redundant air supply systems. You have access to the valves and the first stages.
- The Air Management can be rearranged quickly and effective in all situations.
- One more important advantage for most divers is swiching to sidemount. The two bottles simply offer twice the air supply
This results in a significantly extended divetime. The diver can enjoy the Underwaterworld very calmly. Especially for divers with a little bit more air consumption it’s a big advantage.
Education
Training Level 1 (Recreational or Basic Sidemount)
It is aimed to develop initial equipment familiarity and operation.
- At this Level students are taught to adjust, fit and operate the sidemount rig, whilst diving maximum with one or two cylinders.
- These training cours then develop to immersion your diving skills that are specifically relevant to sidemount namely:
- Trim
- Buoyancy
- Dive fins technic
- Cylinder handling in the water
Cours Informationen
- Courseduration min. 2 days
- 4 Openwater dives
- included renting (sidemount Equipment)
Conditions
- min. 15 age
- min. OWD or an equivalent certification
Cost
- Basic Sidemount – from 350 Euro + Certificate and Material (Digital)
- TDI Sidemount – from 500 Euro + Certificate and Material (Digital)
more info for TDI Sidemount