SSI Sidemount Course

Why Sidemount Diving?

The SSI Sidemount Course has become increasingly popular. There’s many reasons to dive side mount but the most important reason is harder to define. It’s a feeling of freedom, of the ability to move and hang in all directions effortlessly. Learning to dive side mount requires much more than simply strapping two tanks on your sides, and it’s true that it’s a bit more complicated than back mount at the beginning.

But with proper training, using your side mount system to its full benefit quickly becomes second nature. Side mount is not a trend and it’s not just for tech divers anymore. It’s a new way of diving, and we love it!

There’s more to side mount than you might think, at least if you want to do it properly. During the theory portion of the course, we’ll cover topics such as gas management and tank configuration.

None of the solutions are complicated, but it’s definitely worth covering them in the confined water before ever taking your gear to a more difficult environment.

• Donning and removing side mount gear at the surface
• Pre dive checks and planning
• Proper side mount trim and kicking techniques
• Regulator switching
• Long hose air sharing and restoring the long hose
• Valve shut downs
• Managing free-flows and hose issues by feathering the tank
• Switching to back up buoyancy system
• Managing free flowing power inflator in a variety of ways
• Dealing with a hardware or clip failure
• Dealing with a bungee failure
• Removing and replacing a tank underwater

Open water dives under the supervision of an instructor will help you to practice boat entries in a realistic scenario and enjoy your first side mount dives in a safe manner. These dives will also give your instructors a chance to drill you on your new skills in a more realistic environment, but don’t stress, if you have perfected your skills in the shallow confined water, doing them at depth is a piece of cake!

Our SSI Sidemount Diver course will build up your skills and confidence. After all, diving with two tanks is much exciting than diving with only one tank.

We have brand new Xdeep Harnesses and Tecline Regulators to use on the course.

• The great thing about side mount gear is that it’s highly adjustable*
• The drawback of side mount equipment is that it must be adjusted to each diver
• The equipment workshop will help you achieve a custom fit, and ensure you understand how to make adjustments to your side mount system in the future
• During the workshop, we will also cover a variety of regulator configurations for different types of dive scenarios.

*There is an option to buy the harness from us at the end of your course.

We stock Xdeep equipment and Tecline in store for you to buy your very own set.