Side Mount Bicker Battle...

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I do not believe your amount of dives. You state 6-10 years of diving, so you are not sure about how many years you have been diving? and you also state on you profile that you have 1000-2499 dives. So you are doing 167/250 dives a year? BS! I'm done!

I don't understand this comment. It's not hard to do that many dives a year, if you live somewhere you can dive year-round. I've been diving for 15 years, and have over 3,700 dives ... and I live in a cold climate and have a full-time job outside of the diving industry. I know several people locally who average that many dives per year who are just basic recreational divers, including former students and dive buddies.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
Sidemount is nothing new, people have been diving it for over half a century. Lately it's been more common.

... and yet there are those who still call it a "fad" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
I don't understand this comment. It's not hard to do that many dives a year, if you live somewhere you can dive year-round.

Most of his dives are in a 10' shallow ponds and in his favorite indoor dive center. I'm sure in the indoor dive center he logs multiple dives per day too.
In technical diving and advanced cave diving, about a dive per day is the maximum to expect. So his numbers really mean little to nothing.
 
Most of his dives are in a 10' shallow ponds and in his favorite indoor dive center. I'm sure in the indoor dive center he logs multiple dives per day too.
In technical diving and advanced cave diving, about a dive per day is the maximum to expect. So his numbers really mean little to nothing.

I get the concept ... there's a difference between doing 1,000 dives and doing 1 dive 1,000 times ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
... but the requirement for a PADI instructor to teach sidemount is ridiculously low, something like four dives in a sidemount rig and pass a written test. Whether the majority of sidemount divers are certified isn't the issue ... the quality of training provided is. And the majority of PADI instructors (or any other recreational agency, for that matter) teaching sidemount barely know anything outside of the syllabus.
At least for PADI, the requirements take two forms: 1) Complete a Specialty Instructor Training Course, with a PADI Course Director; or 2) make direct application to PADI, showing proof of experience, which can be either a) training as a sidemount diver, and at least 20 dives using a sidemount configuration, or b) proof of 50 dives using a sidemount configuration. I honestly do not know a) how many PADI Sidemount instructors are out there, or b) among, those how many did a training course, versus direct application. So, I can't offer informed comment on the assertion that the 'majority barely know anything outside of the syllabus'. Frankly, I don't see that many SM instructors - PADI or otherwise - in the water in NC. The ones I have seen appear to be pretty squared away as SM divers (gear, trim, etc.). But that is rather subjective.

The Specialty Instructor Training Course could require as few as 4 dives (per Bob's comment). And, I actually completed a SITC, after I had been diving SM for a year or so. Included in the 'students' in the course were two of us with a background of ~50+ SM dives after ~300+ BM doubles dives, and two instructors with no (apparent) previous SM or BM doubles experience. I guess that is referred to as 'diversity'.

It is an issue of some concern, at least for me. And, this is not a criticism of PADI, or any other agency - I also have no idea what any other agency requires for an instructor to teach SM (and would be very interested to learn from other posters). But, I am not altogether sure that someone with (only) 4 dives in a set of doubles - SM or BM - is necessarily in an optimal position to teach others, effectively. I certainly would not have been. The PADI Sidemount Diver course is a recreational, open water course, by intent. The pre-requisites for the student are a) OW certification and b) minimum age (15 yo). So, I can understand that the perhaps modest SM instructor requirements might mirror the instructor requirements for basic OW. And, I am pleased that PADI, and presumably some other agencies, are making an effort to offer recreational divers the opportunity to expand their horizons, early in their diving career. I would like to see an expansion of the requirements both in the SITC and for direct application. But, that is more of a visceral feeling, and I don't have a particular 'agenda' with regard to what that expansion should be.
 
I don't understand this comment. It's not hard to do that many dives a year, if you live somewhere you can dive year-round. I've been diving for 15 years, and have over 3,700 dives ... and I live in a cold climate and have a full-time job outside of the diving industry. I know several people locally who average that many dives per year who are just basic recreational divers, including former students and dive buddies.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
I see what you are saying but notice that you said you have been diving 15 years. You did not say 15-19 years. Hell, everybody knows when they started diving. Someone might be off a month or two but never 4 years difference. So if someone cannot even remember when he started diving I really don't believe much else they have to say.
 
I see what you are saying but notice that you said you have been diving 15 years. You did not say 15-19 years. Hell, everybody knows when they started diving. Someone might be off a month or two but never 4 years difference. So if someone cannot even remember when he started diving I really don't believe much else they have to say.

Are you sure he's not just selecting the options offered by available menus in the SB Profile information? Mine, for example, says 2500-4999 dives ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
I never said 6-10 years, that's Tony's interpretation.
Precisely I got certified in August 2008.
 
In my opinion you can have a challenging dive at any site and a boring one at the most challenging sites :wink:
 
Razorista, from your own profile page:

Home Page:
Razorista
Location:
Germany
Gender:
Male
Certification Level:
Basic Sidemount Diver
# of Logged Dives:
1,000 - 2,499
Dive Classification:
Dork Diver
Years Certified:
Six - Ten Years

Now if that was just an item offered when you signed up then I apologize.
 
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