The TDI Sidemount Diver course teaches a particular form of Scuba Diving where you wear your tanks on your body’s sides rather than on your back. Depending on the Sidemount Gear, divers can use this configuration for Recreational Open Water, Cave Diving, and Technical Decompression Diving.

Sidemount Diving is very popular among cave divers here in Mexico and is becoming the new way of Diving worldwide. In the Riviera Maya, Divers UnderGround prefer this configuration as it allows squeezing through tiny passages. Sidemount diver training is of great help to cave divers who want to be more streamlined and to Open Water Divers wishing to extend their bottom time.

Photo: Robert Stansfield

Sidemount Diving Benefits Include:

• Versatility: Optimized trim and improved control.
• Accessibility: Easy access to the regulator’s first stages and tank valves.
• Comfort: Tanks carried on your side let your body move freely.
• Dive Time: Additional breathing gas supply for safety and extended bottom time. Especially useful when diving with Enriched Air Nitrox, in Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Dives.
• Redundancy: In the unlikely event of a regulator failure, you can easily switch to your other tank. When divers follow the proper procedures, out-of-gas scenarios in this type of gear configuration are virtually impossible.

All technical diving courses start in a shallow open water Cenote!