Advanced Sidemount Diver

Course Description

At one time we considered using sidemount an advanced cave diving activity. Now at least as many students learn to cave dive in sidemount as in backmount. In fact, sidemount is so mainstream, the CDS no longer offers a “regular” Sidemount Cave Diver specialty course.

Still, there is a form of sidemount cave diving which goes far beyond simply using sidemount equipment. To do it, you must be able to answer questions such as:

• How do you deal with restrictions so tight you must drop one or both sidemount bottles to get through them?

• What do you do if you discover you can’t back out of a particular passageway due to the “ratchet effect?”

• You and a buddy are negotiating a long passageway so tight you can only go through single-file. Now one of you gets stuck. What do you do?

• Does advanced sidemount cave diving require a different approach to gas management? (Hint: The answer is not “Yes.” It’s “Hell Yes!”)

If any of these questions gave you pause to think, you understand why proper training is essential for this sort of sidemount diving. The Advanced Sidemount Diver course is where you get it.

Course Equipment Requirements

For all NSS-CDS courses, other than Cavern Diver, in which students and instructors are using open-circuit equipment, each participant must have:

• Mask and fins

• Adequate exposure protection for depth, time and water temperature

• Sidemount/backmount harness and air cell with sufficient lift to support cylinders used

• Two sidemount cylinders or set of manifolded doubles capable of providing a starting gas volume of at least 4,200 L/150 ft3

• Two regulator first-stages, each with a single second stage. At least one first stage must have a 2.0 m/7.0 ft second-stage hose.

• At least one dive computer capable of monitoring exposure to all gas mixtures used

• At least two cutting tools capable of dealing with guideline entanglement

• Primary dive light with a rated burn time of 150 percent of expect dive time

• Two backup dive lights

• One primary reel per team with minimum of 75 m/250 ft of guideline

• Two safety reels/spools per diver, each with least 30 m/100 ft of guideline

• At least two directional and two nondirectional line markers

Course Prerequisites

• Be at least 18

• Be certified to the full Cave Diver level or equivalent by a widely recognized training organization

• Have at least 50 non-training-related cave dives past initial Cave Diver certification

• Have logged several sidemount cave dives

How long will this take?

This course generally takes two days encompassing three or more dives.