Video from our Advanced Sidemount course with ProtecPlaya

[gearhound]

Had a wonderful and rewarding course with Patrick and Nando at Protec. I learned so much about everything and how true the comment "you don't know what you don't know" really is. I've been squeezing through some tight passages in sidemount for a number of years, but this course really showed me how stupid I was. At one point during the course the only thought going through my head was that I had no business going into any restriction! I am much more confident after the course. I even had to apply the skills I learned when my second stage blew off in a restriction during a fun dive in Grand Cenote Downstream.

I honestly cannot thank Patrick and Nando enough for how much they helped us. Our rental car was robbed within an hour of us arriving in Mexico. Patrick and Nando helped us with the police reports and lent us enough gear to keep us going. They went above and beyond to make sure we still had fun on our trip.

The Stealth 2.0 really is that good! A lot of thought went into the design. We went down with UTD Z wings and Hollis SMS50s, but realized their limitations in tight caves. I couldn't justify buying a new BCD after getting robbed, but the Stealth 2.0 is a definite purchase in the near future.

Anyway, here is the link to the video:
Aqua Sport Mofo - YouTube

 

[JamesK]

I checked this out on another forum. Great video and sorry about what happened with the vehicle.

 

[sebaworld]

very nice video, thanks for sharing ... did you have a chance to try Stealth 2.0 sidemount system by xDeep ?

 

[SangP]

Sad to hear about the car however, knowing your limits is one of the best things you could have learned.

 

[rongoodman]

The Stealth is great--I got mine when I was down there this week and love it. Nando is already grinning about what he's going to do to me in my Adv SM course on my next trip down! Yesterday I was in Maya Blue in tunnels A and B and along with Calimba, I think B tunnel is my new favorite dive!

 

[decompression]

Fantastic, I'd love to get together with you guys and share ideas!

 

[gearhound]

very nice video, thanks for sharing ... did you have a chance to try Stealth 2.0 sidemount system by xDeep ?

The Stealth is definitely the way to go if you're going to be diving in tight caves. With the UTD Z wing and the Hollis version SMS50, the air would migrate to the top of the triangle. Which made it hard to dump. We were always getting stuck with those wings. The Stealth was just so much better!
I have an Armadillo, Nomad, UTD Alpha/Delta,UTD Z trim and a Hollis SMS50. Open water, they all will work. But if I'm going to be crawling around in tight passages like the ones that Patrick and Nando sent us into, It'll either be in a Razor type harness with a MSR bag, or the safer option, the Stealth 2.0.

 

[sebaworld]

The Stealth is definitely the way to go if you're going to be diving in tight caves. With the UTD Z wing and the Hollis version SMS50, the air would migrate to the top of the triangle. Which made it hard to dump. We were always getting stuck with those wings. The Stealth was just so much better!
I have an Armadillo, Nomad, UTD Alpha/Delta,UTD Z trim and a Hollis SMS50. Open water, they all will work. But if I'm going to be crawling around in tight passages like the ones that Patrick and Nando sent us into, It'll either be in a Razor type harness with a MSR bag, or the safer option, the Stealth 2.0.

that's awesome, I'm glad you like it and I totally share the values of that system you brought up, since the Mexican caves are not in our calendar this season we will introduce the Stealth sidemount system to the cave diving community in Florida at the beginning of the next year, thinking about few days of demo so some may try it and compare to other available on the market

If you have (will have) some pictures or videos with Stealth 2.0 in use please send them to us sales[at]tecdivegear.com, and as always any feedback or suggestion are very welcome for additional options and further improvements

Sebastian J.

 

[gearhound]

The Stealth is great--I got mine when I was down there this week and love it. Nando is already grinning about what he's going to do to me in my Adv SM course on my next trip down! Yesterday I was in Maya Blue in tunnels A and B and along with Calimba, I think B tunnel is my new favorite dive!

Better than Calimba??? Lol! It's just so hard to pick a favorite because there is just so much to dive down there. And once you do the course, there are even more possibilities opened up for you.
We had both Nando and Patrick, since they only allow 2 students per instructor. If you want to get picked apart, and aren't sensitive, take the course from Patrick. On our blindfolded exits we'd have about a dozen problems. And he has a memory like an elephant for the debriefings. He was hard on us, but I really appreciated it. I feel well prepared to deal with problems in small caves...just have to plan more trips down so that I can keep up with practice.

 

[sebaworld]

... Yesterday I was in Maya Blue in tunnels A and B and along with Calimba, I think B tunnel is my new favorite dive!

I'm assuming that you did plenty of cave dives in Florida, would you favor the Mexican ones over FL ? didn't have the chance to dive the Mexican ones yet but definitely addicted to Florida ones