I am curious what training those of you who dive sidemount have taken, if any?
ANDI Sidemount Level 2. I will hopefully complete the ANDI Advanced Sidemount course later this year - 4-6 cylinders w/penetration & restrictions.
I qualified to teach PADI Sidemount and Tec Sidemount on the basis of experience, not the short 'instructor familiarization' course.
Is there a need for sidemount training for open water type diving?
I think the benefits of training are significant enough to almost merit it being a 'need'.
Of course, there are people who can/will self-teach themselves sidemount. However, the process is likely to be extremely inefficient and long-winded; as having someone experienced and competent (
and not all sidemount instructors are...) to provide accurate and insightful feedback and direction when you are tweaking and refining the rig is invaluable.
Open Water sidemount training is pretty simplistic. It's basic OW stuff practiced in the context of a new rig. Getting the rig fitted, streamlined and achieving proper diver/cylinder trim are the aspects hardest to quantify. That's where most divers go wrong... or, at least, take a long time struggling to get it perfected.
Actually
diving sidemount is pretty intuitive. I've seen students come to grips with it very quickly - much quicker than the transition would be to back-mounted doubles. All of that is under-pinned by proper set-up and configuration though. Without that foundation, it's a struggle for them. I've found that 4 training dives is quite sufficient to get the student's rig comfortable and effective. Most still want to tweak and fiddle afterwards (and they have learnt how to do that...), but they've got their foundation sorted in the first couple of dives..
What did you learn from sidemount training and was it valuable?
I've dove indie doubles for many years, so the concept of balancing cylinders etc was nothing new. I also had clear understanding about proper trim, buoyancy and propulsion. Likewise, I was more than familiar with long-hose air-sharing etc. There weren't really any 'new' skills for me to master, other than the partial remove/forward cylinder/s.
What I learned was proper configuration and that fast-track refinement of my rig. Putting together a new rig and getting it working effectively can be a bit like a 'Rubik's Cube'. Changing X effects Y. Fixing Y makes A loose. Tightening A then over-tightens X... and back to the start again.. Having an instructor/mentor who is intimately familiar with the specific rig/concept the student is using is very beneficial.
I was taught by a very experienced cave/wreck instructor-trainer, so the emphasis of my training was always focused on overhead environment considerations. The ANDI Sidemount course is more of a 'conversion course', taught up to the level of the student's highest qualification, rather than being purely OW etc. The course was made more interesting because some drills were practiced in overhead environment context - inverted swim, inverted mask remove/replace, vertical/inverted shut-downs etc.
