ANDP drills to practice in sidemount

[Tigerpaw]

As somebody that teaches this course, I would recommend you go the other way. Part of the course is how to carry and work with a deco bottle. Practicing with it before hand isn't going to help if you are practicing it incorrectly.
Practice diving in the rig you will use. Practice the various kicks, work on motionless stability. These are all pre requisites to that course.
Showing up to an advanced level course without the prerequisite skills will turn your ANDP course into an intro to tec course. Being able to carry stages and deco cylinders isn't something you need to demonstrate on the first day.

I did a rec dive with my instructor prior to signing up for his course, so he has seen me dive (albeit in back mount). When I was looking for an ANDP instructor to do the open water portion, I remembered the card he gave me and discovered he was a TDI instructor, so I shot him an e-mail. I have dug up my sidemount kit and will be diving that until my class in January. It took me about two dives to get my buoyancy and finning. That being said I'm still practicing to fine tune it in.

 

[kensuf]

As somebody that teaches this course, I would recommend you go the other way. Part of the course is how to carry and work with a deco bottle. Practicing with it before hand isn't going to help if you are practicing it incorrectly.
Practice diving in the rig you will use. Practice the various kicks, work on motionless stability. These are all pre requisites to that course.
Showing up to an advanced level course without the prerequisite skills will turn your ANDP course into an intro to tec course. Being able to carry stages and deco cylinders isn't something you need to demonstrate on the first day.

Just quoting Tracy because he's 100% spot on and this needs to be repeated for emphasis. Coming from the viewpoint of someone that trains instructors to teach this course, listen to and follow Tracy's recommendation.

 

[Tracy]

Just quoting Tracy because he's 100% spot on and this needs to be repeated for emphasis. Coming from the viewpoint of someone that trains instructors to teach this course, listen to and follow Tracy's recommendation.

Just quoting because Ken has never before recommended someone listen to me.

 

[kensuf]

Just quoting because Ken has never before recommended someone listen to me.

I think once before I did, but it may have been Matthew and well...