Is this sidemount course over the top?
- Thread starter carono6333
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Definitely concur. If you bring your existing diving skills along then it's just a matter of setting up the kit -- which a decent instructor would save you a load of time -- then a few hours practising kitting up, some messing around in the water, and de-kitting.
The rest is practice. IMHO 2 days is stretching things for competent divers. Unless they bring in using multiple deco stages or suchlike.
Sidemount's a load of faffing around adjusting things. Once done, that's it. Go diving.
Question: when and why would you ever need a certification
for sidemount? If you're going on to caves, then the instructor would test you on your first dive.
You should know valve drill and out of gas drill and be relaxed and proficient at them.
People say that alot about their instructor/shop without having taking a class from someone else. I doubt that their instructors can do or know anything, other instructor don't.
Have you actually taking sidemount class or cave training from someone elso too?
People assume brand xyz is expensive because it's good. In reality, the price you can charge is really only dependant on one factor: Name/brand recognition aka how good their marketing is.
Sidemount isn't that big of a deal to learn. You're buying 500 dollar pants, IMHO.
Yes I took my SM class from an instructor in Puerto Aventuras. He was a good instructor. But I prefer Protec. Also one of the owners of Protec is also one of the key designers and testers of the XDeep rigs.
So what? It's a webbing harness with a pillow bungeed around your belly? It's not even a good design. What makes it great and a successful product line is that you can make it for >30 dollars, sell it for 10 times that to the dealer and stick money into marketing.
They also conveniently had the 'idea' of the harness right after the Razor released.
How any of this makes a sidemount class worth 1700 USD, I don't know.
Sometimes I wonder why I take the time to give my comments on this forum only to be criticized for my experience.
My sidemount class was 4 days. 2 days of classroom/pool because I will not do more than 2-3 hours in a pool session. Students get tired/cold and at that point the learning process stops. It would be 4 hours of classroom doing basic configuration and gas management followed by a pool session. 2nd day was refining the rig and going over options for tweaking it. Then another pool session to fine tune buoyancy and trim and go through a couple of rescue scenarios.
Then 2 days of open water dives. 4 dives total. More classroom between dives and critique of techniques and skills. 2nd day would be more drills with bottle handling. Donning and doffing with a drop line.
For some sm is easy. For others, they struggle and need the time.
The class was how I found it to benefit the most students. Cost was 375 per person and no gear or entry fees included.
So it could easily cost someone 500-600 once everything was added up.
If people thought that was too much or too long, I didn't want them as a student anyway.
I'll edit this to say also that I've seen a number of supposed sidemount instructors who shouldn't have a card. And some who I wonder how they even got an open water card.
Then 2 days of open water dives. 4 dives total. More classroom between dives and critique of techniques and skills. 2nd day would be more drills with bottle handling. Donning and doffing with a drop line.
For some sm is easy. For others, they struggle and need the time.
The class was how I found it to benefit the most students. Cost was 375 per person and no gear or entry fees included.
So it could easily cost someone 500-600 once everything was added up.
If people thought that was too much or too long, I didn't want them as a student anyway.
I'll edit this to say also that I've seen a number of supposed sidemount instructors who shouldn't have a card. And some who I wonder how they even got an open water card.
Underwater Tourist
Contributor
@carono6333 this thread will turn into a sht show like every other SB thread always does, bottom line for you is that 4 days is really the max you need for a sm course.
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