PADI TEC REC DAY: My Experience

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Selchie in LB

Contributor
Messages
485
Reaction score
66
Location
Wakefield, RI USA
# of dives
100 - 199
Let me preface my comments again, I am not a spokesperson for PADI. These are my opinions. Also, I am not affiliated with any of the vendors mentioned. To these vendors, I apologize for not remembering your names. My bad, boo.

I am placing this thread in basic scuba because I am not advocating TecRec over general scuba. I think it it gives divers an additional perspective to our sport. Plus these events give anyone a chance to explore TecRec configurations in a fun environment.

I attended the TecRec day at PADI headquarters in Rancho Santa Margarita Monday the 7th. Unfortunately I missed the seminars, so I can't comment on them. I did arrive just in time for lunch! What better lunch than tacos! I found my friends Jeanne and David. I grabbed a quick bite then got changed to go play in the pool.

I was interested in trying side mount. The interesting thing about side mount is you are carrying two cylinders but they are independent. Each cylinder requires a 1st stage with a gauge. The left one has the low pressure for the wing and your alternate reg. The right has the primary reg. I did not ask about diving dry, just occurred to me, I assume the dry suit hose would attach to the right. The big difference between side mount & doubles, no connecting manifold. As a result you have to be aware of your SAC to change regs to balance air depletion in the tanks.

I started out trying Hollis's gear configuration for side mount. Pretty straight forward set up for SM (remember I've never seen a configuration.) Hollis had three BP/Ws: all rigid plates, one travel wing, and two others with different wing capacity. Donning was easy. The cylinders have a strap used to position the snap bolts used to attached the Hollis uses a bungie cord the snug the cylinder under your arm. I should have checked closer to see if there were weight pockets built into the soft backplate, but I needed to have a weight belt because of my 7mm suit! Off I went!

Next I went to Dive Rite to try side mount. The BP/W were pretty similar to Hollis. I am sure there are distinctive differences, but I am relying on my memory. Since I need extra weight they showed me a soft plate that can be attached which has 4 pockets for additional weight. This was attached easily with screws. This makes up for the weight of a steel back plate. Dive Rite uses a ring/snapclip system to hold the tanks under the arms. The tanks have what looks like carrier straps on them (they can be used for that) which are positioned and adjusted for hooking to the BP and harness.

Both setups seemed pretty similar to me. I would definitely do more in-depth research before purchasing any system. This day was strictly about getting a chance to try the gear.

Would I consider side mount for diving? Yes! I did try getting out of the pool with tanks strapped on. Keep doing the leg presses! Everyone around said you won't have to get onto a boat like that because you simply unclip your tanks and hand it up. Same for going in. Someone can lower your tanks or clip them off a line. Doubles divers haul tanks on their backs. I know a woman that dives double 120's! Yes I am a wimp compared to her!

I was pretty happy with trying side mount. I happened to be hanging around the pool and listening in on a rebreather demo. They had taken the backside off and were explaining the redundancy of two canisters. This happened to be the rEvo rebreather. I hadn't planned on trying a rebreather for two reasons: First, the reputation of "your dead when things go wrong" and second, cost.

Well I was there and so was the rebreather so why not. I got an intro to the unit and the integrated computer. This unit uses one oxygen tank and one diluent tank. The integrated wrist computer monitors the PO2. There is a separate monitor for PO2 as well. When you purchase a unit it comes with complete training. I am not going to try to give any more info here on the working.

The weight of the unit felt similar to an aluminum doubles setup. Donning was easy. The double hose was heavier than a regulator hose but there is a strap that secures the mouth piece inplace. This eliminated the tugging I felt. This is also a safety feature to hold the mouth piece in place should the diver get kicked or lose consciousness. Breathing was well breathing! There was no effort! Under water it was quiet. I felt weird at first like something was not right, but air was almost being forced into my lungs. I didn't feel like I had to suck in air. The strap held the mouth piece in place and I found I didn't have to clamp my jaws around it or lose it. If money were no object I would definitely invest in this system.

Overall I had a great experience. PADI staff were helpful. They provided the vendors with tanks, air, weights etc. I encourage anyone to attend a TecRec day if you have the slightest interest in trying the equipment. Thank you PADI for bringing the vendors to one place which allowed interested divers an opportunity to try these various configurations.
 
Sounds like you had a good time, and that is what it is all about.

PADI kills me though with their SM ads. They really need to find a better picture then
padi-americas-1.jpg

I saw this in an ad for PADI SM training today in a magazine. SMH
 
Hahaha they could have photoshopped it!
 
Sounds like you had a good time, and that is what it is all about.

PADI kills me though with their SM ads. They really need to find a better picture then
View attachment 123696

I saw this in an ad for PADI SM training today in a magazine. SMH
As someone who's not done any sidemount training, why is this funny? Other than being in a pool, what makes this a bad picture?
 
As someone who's not done any sidemount training, why is this funny? Other than being in a pool, what makes this a bad picture?

In the ad they actually photoshopped a background in, and got rid of the pool. However, what I notice is the horrible trim of the tanks. The tanks on the diver on our right ar sitting at nearly a 45 degree angle. This puts the butt of the tanks almost a foot above their profile. This also points their gauges down at a 45 degree angle and after the valve, the 6" hose and the SPG, puts tose approx 10-12" below them. If you loot at my avatar, you can see my tank butts do not go above my thighs. The valves are also tucked more up in my armpits. Now I was using a Dive Rite Ring Bungee setup at the time which lowers my tank valves, and no longer use that. My tanks sit slightly different now and are more inline with my body. With AL tanks, the butts get very floaty, and you have to account for that in clipping off your tanks.

If you look at theis picture below, courtesy of Steve Martin Sidemount Diving - Course Director PADI TecRec Side Mount Scuba Diving Instructor Technical Recreational Training > Home , you can see what I mean.
DSCF1016.jpg
 
So....pardon my ignorance but, what happens if someone is handing you a tank or you are handing one up and it slips from your grip while still being negatively buoyant?
 
So....pardon my ignorance but, what happens if someone is handing you a tank or you are handing one up and it slips from your grip while still being negatively buoyant?

It sinks! :wink:
 
@ Fjpatrum my bad for saying PADI could have photoshopped the background. I was thinking that it would make a better photo showing divers in the ocean or on a wreck!

As for the trim and tank position that is actually more important to the message of learning side mount and/or TecRec diving in general.

@ DiveNav I talked with NetDoc & Mselanaous too. No pics though :( He actually encouraged me to write about demo day and my opinion of ScubaBoard. A funny aside that happened as I was gearing up with Hollis. I was in the pool and it came time to put my fins on. I have Hollis F1's. Naturally the Hollis reps were happy to see I had their fins. They asked which dealer I purchased them from? ScubaBoard! I proudly stated. It was then that the guy standing next to me in the pool introduced himself to me: NetDoc of ScubaBoard :cool:
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom