You are a tough sell Frank. Lol.
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If they are different, why isn't the technique being taught in OW class and rescue classes? Is the requirement valid to send OW divers back through sidemount training so they can be a proper buddy? How can we expect a instabuddy pair to take care of one another if everyone isn't getting this training?
Hi Bob,
Here is a synopsis of the skills required in the PADI OW Sidemount class (after a classroom session covering fit, configuration, hose routing, procedures, etc.):
Confined Water
Shallow Entry, Don Cylinders while standing
Buoyancy Check, Descent, Read SPGS
Make Reg Switches, Swim w/ Flutter & Frog Kick
Reg Recovery, Hover 1 Minute, 50 ft. OOG Swim
Valve Drill
3-minute Safety Stop (Hover)
Deep Water Exit, Removing Cylinders in Water
Helicopter Turn & Back Kick
Disconnect One Cylinder at Back, Swim 60 ft. & Reconnect
Exit Water, Deep Water Entry wearing Cylinders
Dive 1: (20-60 ft.)
Entry, Buoyancy Check
Flutter & Frog Kick, Reg Recovery
Valve Drill, Safety Stop, Tired Diver Tow 80 ft., Exit
Dive 2: (20-60 ft.)
Entry, 50 ft. OOG Swim, Hover 1 minute, Valve Drill
Disconnect One Cylinder at Back, Swim 60 ft. & Reconnect
Safety Stop, Exit
Dive 3: (20-100 ft.)
Entry, 50 ft. OOG Swim, Hover 1 minute
Safety Stop, Exit
How about those hoses? Should there be some standardization on what we teach or is it OK to just tell something about few options and then mainly teach what we prefer.
I like to tell them few options but in the end a tell them more about my preferred configuration. I use long hose on the left, down the tank, back up, behind the neck, clipped on d-ring while not in use - short on right side bungeed on neck, straight from 1st to mouth. Valves pointing towards my nipples and spgs down.
Why I question this is that I recently got two ow sidemount students who went to cave training in Mexico and the instructor (IANTD I think) forced them to change the longhose left. I am yet to find any good arguments on why this more traditional way would be better. However should there exist some industry standard for basic training configuration that the students then can modify on their own preference but all the courses would be in the same, at least someway familiar hose routing?
- Mikko Laakkonen -
I love diving and teaching others to dive.
Thanks for the info. The impetus for this with me right now is that I've recently rejoined a shop I used to teach at ... and they are a Halcyon and Hollis dealer. So I'll be teaching in those rigs. I currently own the Nomad, as you probably remember from our Great Lakes trip. But given the shop situation I'll probably be teaching in a Halcyon rig. Back when I was looking for my own rig I tried the Hollis, but the webbing was a bit too flimsy for my taste. I understand they've corrected that situation, so I'd like to give it another look too.The only configuration difference regularly covered in my class is the difference between the ring bungee system, the standard bungees, and the old school bungee loops. I have only been teaching students in Hollis and Dive Rite rigs, because those are the ones that we sell and/or rent for the class. I consider these two rigs interchangeable, and don't try to steer students toward one or the other, though I will mention my preference for the Hollis based on very minor differences. I sometimes mention the Razor if my students are pondering tropical SM or Mexican caves, which is very rare; we are predominantly cold water, drysuit, steel tank divers. I will only address the nightmare by UTD if I have an internet research diver who has come across it and asks about it--extremely rare.
I do discuss a great deal of hose routing options. My preference as a method is to teach them using the same routing I have come to prefer, but also illustrating many variations and urging them to consider and try other options once through the class. If they come to class predisposed to a different routing method they have read about I am all for them starting that way, as long as it includes a long hose on at least one of the regs. The majority of my students have been local divers whom I will continue to dive with or at least run across from time to time, so the cert class is a starting point from which we continue to compare notes as we all evolve our rigs.
theskull
Hey Bob,
When I began teaching Sidemount it was a distinctive specialty for PADI, designed by Jeff Loflin, and only available through his blessing. Of course it is a mainstream standard specialty now. Does NAUI have the possibility of proposing a distinctive specialty class?
theskull
Good question, and I suspect that, for most, the answer is the latter option. If we have a good reason, be it logic, experience, or just habit, for what we do, we will have a tendency to emphasize that approach, and there really isn't anything wrong with doing that.How about those hoses? Should there be some standardization on what we teach or is it OK to just tell something about few options and then mainly teach what we prefer.
A number of sidemount divers who came from backmount diving adopted the more traditional 'long hose on the right post' approach for sidemount, as rjack321 points out. I certainly did. And, although i have subsequently tried different configurations (5' hose on both cylinders; or, 7' on the left, 33" on the right, etc), I have gone back to that for the sake of consistency - internally, as I dive both BM and SM at times, and externally, to match other (BM) divers that I dive with.I use long hose on the left, down the tank, back up, behind the neck, clipped on d-ring while not in use - short on right side bungeed on neck, straight from 1st to mouth. Valves pointing towards my nipples and spgs down. . . . Why I question this is that I recently got two ow sidemount students who went to cave training in Mexico and the instructor (IANTD I think) forced them to change the longhose left. I am yet to find any good arguments on why this more traditional way would be better.