Rebreathers can increase your diving skills by using smaller cylinders. This can significantly increase the dive duration, especially when used for deeper dives. Rebreathers can be mounted sideways or back. It all depends on how they are configured.
The benefits of rebreathers include the ability to extend your diving time by avoiding large cylinders and instead recycling the gas exhaled from the diver. They also scrub the CO2 out of the air and inject prescriptive amounts gas from smaller cylinders. This can significantly increase your dive time, especially for deep dives. The configuration of the rebreathers will determine the shape they create. They can be either sidemounted or back.
The next day it was on to technical sidemount, which means adding our deco 50-percent oxygen and 100-percent oxygen tanks on either side. This increases your profile underwater so you must keep the tanks as trim as possible against your body. You have a couple of clips on each side of your waist. As you breathe down your tanks and they become positively buoyant, you adjust your tank position to the second clip position. The aim here is to be as streamlined as possible. Every few minutes you also switch your breathing from one tank to the other. That way the pressure in each tank runs down at roughly the same rate, and if there is a failure with either tank or regulator, you’ll still have gas to breathe. As with all new things, building up experience is key to comfort and enjoyment. I spent the next few days doing deco dives with the sidemount rig, buddied up with Evolution co-owner David Joyce — a hugely experienced Tec diver and Trimix instructor. On one dive we visited the Japanese Mogami wreck down at 164 feet, where I was beguiled by the bits of old gas masks, uniforms and even a few bones we saw.
I have just arrived in Malapascua Island on the Philippines. Over the next two months, I will work my way to becoming a Tec dive instructor. I've been a recreational dive instructor in Bali for two years. I would like to add more experience to my portfolio. Sidemount PCB was my first experience with technical diving. Tom West (PADI instructor-trainer) made me a certified Tec-50 diver.
Decompression divers can dive to depths of 130ft. They can add Helium to their cylinders, and then they will be able to explore the world of the rare. They often visit the wrecks and reefs less often than astronauts to Mars every year.
Each PADI Specialty you complete gets you one step closer to earning the elite Master Scuba Diver™ rating.
In general Sidemount is more task loading for a diver as the pressure in each tank needs to be balanced in order to have enough gas for an out of air diver and to be balanced on each side.
Television, magazines or stories from a close friend can all be used to explore the underwater world. It doesn't really matter which source you use, it is still exciting and very enticing. So what can we do to continue exploring? What is technical diving?
Sidemount Diver Specialty courses may count towards Advanced Open Water Diver certification. Ask your instructor.
Technical diving can be defined as being exposed to a ceiling that prevents a diver from ascending to the surface during a dive. This could be caused by a ceiling (in terms of a cave, a wreck, etc.) or a virtual ceiling that is created by a decompression duty. To avoid decompression sickness, it is necessary to perform mandatory decompression stops on ascent if you exceed the NDL. This requires special equipment such as a Twinset or Sidemount. Special equipment such as Twinsets and Sidemounts, gas mixtures with special properties, and additional training are required to be able perform the stops on ascent accurately to maximize Nitrogen off-gassing.
Sidemount divers tend to use two tanks. You can, however, use just one tank (I believe it's called the'monkey'), or use more than two tanks when doing deco dives.
Items such as cylinders and primary lights, which my be difficult to travel with, are available for rental. Be sure to alert us if you will need any of these.
Technical diving (also known as tec diving or tech diving) is non-professional scuba diving that exceeds the agency-specified limits of recreational diving.