Good for a laugh.....
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Sidemount_Stu
Contributor
Good for a laugh.... that is about all it's good for.... other than a cracking example of "how not to SM"...... shocking stuff.... sad that this kind of training is being conducted out there in the real world! 
a mix of bellymount and messmount, no reason to laugh, the section is not created here on the board, that's it. Too new.
DevonDiver
N/A
That video already took a roasting on various FB sidemount groups.
I think the biggest problem is that viewers are expecting some type of 'skill demo' video, but instead are confronted with a bunch of very unrefined students having fun on a course. It's a "memento" video... not a perfect demo.
Should we judge it? Hmmmm.....
Students are students.... we don't know what stage of training they had reached. Was it even the 'finished product' of training or not?
Students in training sometimes get task loaded....they forget to trim their tanks... they drop out of trim... it's usual. Did the instructor de-brief them on that? Did they improve? Or was the instructor happy with that level of performance and sign them off for it?
We don't know.... and because the video got uploaded.... we assume that it was a tacit pride in the finished product or student skill level. But we just don't know...
For me.... I upload two types of video. There's stuff that 'role-models'.... that's promotional stuff. And then there's the training videos that I upload for the student's posterity. That's students in training.... flawed stuff..... not stage-managed 'perfection'.
Also not that it was a PADI 'Tec Sidemount' course. No agency bash.... that course serves varied functions. It can be a cross-over for existing backmount technical divers.... or it can be a 'intro-to-tec sidemount' for divers as humbly qualified as AOW level...
So... we see divers with weak foundational skills. That happens. It's the bane of most technical instructors' existence. Competent technical instructors have to remedy it. Incompetent or lazy instructors hand out cards regardless.
But that's 'Tec Sidemount'.... so it might be just an 'intro-to-tec'.... and that level of refinement necessary for that qualification is low (the course itself doesn't qualify to dive deco or below the students' existing level.... and that can be AOW....)
All I see is that the instructor doesn't seem that concerned with personally "role-modelling" perfect trim etc... (and I have to guess who the instructor is.... because it's not massively apparent).
It's also a pretty unrefined sidemount approach.... not someone who 'lives and breathes' sidemount.... but probably an instructor who's done a 'short course' or cross-over... to teach sidemount. So the guy himself is also on a learning curve. Not a 'guru'... just a journey-man.
I think the biggest problem is that viewers are expecting some type of 'skill demo' video, but instead are confronted with a bunch of very unrefined students having fun on a course. It's a "memento" video... not a perfect demo.
Should we judge it? Hmmmm.....
Students are students.... we don't know what stage of training they had reached. Was it even the 'finished product' of training or not?
Students in training sometimes get task loaded....they forget to trim their tanks... they drop out of trim... it's usual. Did the instructor de-brief them on that? Did they improve? Or was the instructor happy with that level of performance and sign them off for it?
We don't know.... and because the video got uploaded.... we assume that it was a tacit pride in the finished product or student skill level. But we just don't know...
For me.... I upload two types of video. There's stuff that 'role-models'.... that's promotional stuff. And then there's the training videos that I upload for the student's posterity. That's students in training.... flawed stuff..... not stage-managed 'perfection'.
Also not that it was a PADI 'Tec Sidemount' course. No agency bash.... that course serves varied functions. It can be a cross-over for existing backmount technical divers.... or it can be a 'intro-to-tec sidemount' for divers as humbly qualified as AOW level...
So... we see divers with weak foundational skills. That happens. It's the bane of most technical instructors' existence. Competent technical instructors have to remedy it. Incompetent or lazy instructors hand out cards regardless.
But that's 'Tec Sidemount'.... so it might be just an 'intro-to-tec'.... and that level of refinement necessary for that qualification is low (the course itself doesn't qualify to dive deco or below the students' existing level.... and that can be AOW....)
All I see is that the instructor doesn't seem that concerned with personally "role-modelling" perfect trim etc... (and I have to guess who the instructor is.... because it's not massively apparent).
It's also a pretty unrefined sidemount approach.... not someone who 'lives and breathes' sidemount.... but probably an instructor who's done a 'short course' or cross-over... to teach sidemount. So the guy himself is also on a learning curve. Not a 'guru'... just a journey-man.
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