Sidemount course really necessary?

[bl6394]

@DevonDiver - Agreed. All your points are spot on.

 

[dleewo]

Instructor doesn't want the tec sidemount course. He just wants the intro sidemount course. Doesn't really make sense to me.

I recently did Tec40 last month. Prior to that I had done Rec Sidemount.

For Tec40, my instructor did both Tec40 and Tec Sidemount together and he didn't charge me for the Tec Sidemount class. I only had to pay for the certification card so at the end of the course, I got two certifications. He incorporated the Tec Sidemount skills into the Tec40 class.

The main new Sidemount skill I had to learn was dealing with a 3rd tank (the deco) tank while in sidemount.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I have taught the TDI Adv Nitrox and Deco class for students in SM and BM. I did my Instructor ratings for those in sidemount.
I would first do an evaluation to see if you do indeed have SM skills sufficient to start the class. At no charge if you came to me. If you were squared away then we'd start the class. Over the course of a week or so there should be no problem getting you squared away with a deco bottle.
If your SM skills needed sharpened then I'd do a workshop rather than the full course. Unless you actually needed the full course. I would not just flat out make that a requirement without doing an in-water assessment.

 

[decompression]

And that's the unfortunate part there Jim, PADI doesn't allow the instructor to evaluate skills, it must be a card in the hand.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Wow. Just wow.

 

[Doppler]

Welcome

call Steve, he will sort you out. He is north of Toronto in Lake Rosseau, travels wherever, is a good instructor for technical and cave, literally wrote the book on many of the major subjects in technical diving, and won't have a frankly BS requirement for you to take a sidemount course if you don't need it, take tech40 which you don't need if you completed cavern/intro, and sort you out to get decompression.

edit: tagging him so he sees it. @Doppler

Hey: thanks.

For the OP, I do not teach PADI and I do not "work for" a shop / LDS, but operate as an independent. THEREFORE, I can't help you with your quest for a PADI cert. All that aside, I am certainly willing to chat, and suggest an alternative.

 

[abnfrog]

I do teach padi plus 3 other side mount agencies let know if I can help ......

 

[decompression]

Recommend abnfrog......

 

[Ozwald]

Smells wrong in so many ways. Sounds like, and i may be wrong, but it sounds like poor protocol on the instructors part and an unwillingness on the students part to accept that proper training is by no means inexpensive. Sad part is there are hundreds of divers who probably had the same thought process that aren't diving anymore. Just my opinion.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The elephant in the room here is that quite frankly I've seen more than a few side mount instructors that don't know beans about side mount and turn out really poor side mount divers - even by OW standards - turning out "low mounted" divers with horrible hose configuration, poor trim, etc.

A class offered by an instructor of that caliber is probably worse than useless.

I would not personally even consider a side mount class from an instructor who did not dive and teach that configuration on a regular basis in a cave environment.