PADI: Would I be able to take my AOW in my sidemount rig?

[The Chairman]

I've taught students in sidemount... ît's just no big deal. As for getting "qualified" in sidemount, that's entirely up to you. It makes about as much sense as getting qualified for doubles or even single backmount. Go play in a pool. You'll figure it out. That's what I did.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

My students can take any class in sidemount if they choose to. Including open water. If they know what they want for sure (rare), are willing to spend the money on a sidemount rig (even rarer), and are willing to take some extra time (not so rare for the people I generally get ) I am willing to do it. OW students already get introduced to jackets, back inflates, and bpw's in the pool. We talk about sidemount briefly in the ow classroom portion.
For anything beyond that they are welcome to show up in sidemount, singles, or doubles. I do offer ow sidemount classes and for some people it seriously reduces the learning curve. Helps them to get things set up so the look like sidemount divers and not side slingers like you see in some of the you tube videos.
For me personally I probably could have figured it out since I had over 500 dives when I started and got a dozen or so in with only videos and reading to help. However there were some things that were not quite right and so I took a class from Steve Lewis. Then got a bunch of dives in. Then did adv nitrox, deco procedures, and adv wreck instructor courses with him in sidemount.
I look at it like I did early on when I wanted to start using a pony bottle. Kinda worked it out to start, but then a good intro to tech and helitrox course showed me the better ways to manage a slung bottle.

 

[Neilwood]

My students can take any class in sidemount if they choose to. Including open water. If they know what they want for sure (rare), are willing to spend the money on a sidemount rig (even rarer), and are willing to take some extra time (not so rare for the people I generally get ) I am willing to do it. OW students already get introduced to jackets, back inflates, and bpw's in the pool. We talk about sidemount briefly in the ow classroom portion.
For anything beyond that they are welcome to show up in sidemount, singles, or doubles. I do offer ow sidemount classes and for some people it seriously reduces the learning curve. Helps them to get things set up so the look like sidemount divers and not side slingers like you see in some of the you tube videos.
For me personally I probably could have figured it out since I had over 500 dives when I started and got a dozen or so in with only videos and reading to help. However there were some things that were not quite right and so I took a class from Steve Lewis. Then got a bunch of dives in. Then did adv nitrox, deco procedures, and adv wreck instructor courses with him in sidemount.
I look at it like I did early on when I wanted to start using a pony bottle. Kinda worked it out to start, but then a good intro to tech and helitrox course showed me the better ways to manage a slung bottle.

Good to have an instructor who is willing to teach different approaches to gear and configuration - it lets people know there are other ways to do things instead of the "jacket BC, short hose, single tank" that gets churned out in most classes.

I liked the fact that the instructor I did my OW course had a BP&W set up with long hose - most people don't get to see different set ups or ask about them.

 

[DevonDiver]

My own training was a mixture of PADI and SSI. Under SSI, one does not receive the AOW card until completion of four specialty programs (which may include Stress & Rescue) and at least 24 dives. I actually switched to SSI mid-stream because I preferred their approach.

That's because the SSI AOW isn't the direct equivalent of the PADI AOW. Don't compare apples with oranges... just because SSI copied the name AOW...

SSI AOW is equivalent to PADI Master Scuba Diver.

The SSI equivalent of PADI AOW is the 'Advanced Adventurer' course.

---------- Post added November 6th, 2015 at 03:02 AM ----------

I've taught students in sidemount... ît's just no big deal. As for getting "qualified" in sidemount, that's entirely up to you. It makes about as much sense as getting qualified for doubles or even single backmount. Go play in a pool. You'll figure it out. That's what I did.

There might be issues with course standards, if a student turned up to dive with sidemount, but didn't hold a qualification in it.

As for 'teaching yourself', I've yet to see any diver set-set-up, configure, tweak a rig properly... or achieve an excellent skill-set.. in any reasonable timescale, when making it up as they went along.

It's an area of diving where the are real, tangible, benefits from getting expert guidance. There's an art to getting it optimized... and that's not something you can do by reading a few Web articles...

Note: I said expert guidance.... not some drone instructor who was gifted a sidemount instructor rating after only a half-dozen sidemount dives...

Sidemount, backmount... Singles.. Doubles... SCR, CCR.... if qualified, then you can take training in it. But,... a prudent, ethical instructor will want to assess your competency in that configuration as a requirement for the training. That ensures both safety, and that your training experience is not degraded by equipment unfamiliarity or weak skill-set

 

[abscuba]

As it has been said repeatedly find an instructor that will take you begging to end. Ideal and instructor that personally does the kind of diving you want to do and knows the best route to take you there. Most of us here have certs from lots of agencies, some were good others a wast of time. A person that knows the route to go can help as well as advise you on setting up your kit. I say do your AOW side mount and start diving it. The more comfortable you are in your kit the more enjoyment you will get out of your future training and future dives.

 

[Reku]

So here's an update -

I now have a sms 75 and have logged 35 dives since a week ago. I'm taking AOW in the spring - I should have over 100 sidemount dives logged by then. I think I've found my calling guys. I was able to learn sidemount+drysuit at the same time by reading and practicing in a pool without an instructor. Honestly I like the extra task loading - it gives me something to do other then look around, checking my guages, dumping drysuit air, switching regulators, and my trim is automatic now. It seems practice makes perfect after all. I dive cave filled LP85's and carry an al80 for bail out gas under my main gas just to get used to it.

During my drysuit pool sessions I've tried to get into a head down feet up position to practice inverting. Even using just my drysuit as my buoyancy device and not using my bcd doesn't do anything - I just stay completely horizontal, the air in my drysuit doesn't pool at my feet at all no matter how hard I try. I mean I guess that's a good thing but what if I'm asked to show the skill - that I can't even do because I can't even get into the situation where you use the skill....I really don't want to get marked down for not being able to float away.

I use a fusion bullet drysuit with negatively buoyant hollis F1 fins with a weight plate (16lb of soft weight) mounted to the back of my sms75. I have the weight plate mounted upsidedown so I can ditch weight from it easily. When my tanks get low if they start to rise up I added 4 low profile d rings to my waist - 2 where the wing and harness meet and 2 where the shoulder straps meet the waist belt - I move the tanks from the rails to the d rings as needed to maintain trim. If I use al80's they start on the farthest d ring and move to the hip d rings by the end of the dive. I do not use trim pockets on my tanks - weight is solely contained on my back in 6 pockets. I use the bcd for buoyancy and only use enough drysuit air to remove squeeze. I carry 2 400' reels and 3 100' spools and 2 canister lights and 2 flash lights mounted to my shoulder straps for backup, 2 smb, 1 50lb lift bag.My slate, compass, analog depth guage and petrel are mounted to left arm and another petrel on right arm. I cut my own tables using multi deco on computer with VBM-B algorithm on my petrels - then I dive the plan.

I've done some land eyes shut reel line following on land and in the water to practice silt out conditions. You guys probably think I am insane but I just want to know how to use my gear and be comfortable in it before doing any training. Also - I know that gear (I have tons of it) is not a replacement for good teaching - don't worry I'm not going inside any caves/wrecks without proper training. I wont become a statistic, or maybe I'll die on my next dive - who knows, anything can happen. You can't stop death - only delay it by becoming informed and taking precautions.

By the way - I hate my snorkel, it got caught on a invisible fishing line - very annoying. So I bought a cool silicone snorkel that folds up in my pocket !! it's great

TL;DR: went sidemount - had fun.