Tec Sidemount
Technical diving without a backplate on your spine — two independent cylinders, mounted at your sides.
- Free cancellation up to 24h before
- Confirmed within 3 hours
- Pay on arrival — cash or card
- All equipment included
- Duration
- 3 days
- Total dives
- 4
- Max depth
- 45 m
- Group size
- Max 3
- Min age
- 18+
- Languages
- English · Arabic · German
What Tec Sidemount actually involves
Sidemount rigs your cylinders on your hips instead of your back — independent gas supplies, superb trim, easy valve access and a lighter walk to the boat ladder. This technical sidemount course teaches the configuration, gas-management and failure-handling skills to run staged decompression dives in sidemount. Four dives with a technical instructor, sidemount rig and gases included — and it can be integrated with Tec 40 to earn both at once.
Your schedule
- 1 Day 1
Rig setup + confined skills
Building and trimming a sidemount harness to your body, hose routing, cylinder rigging, and the core drills: independent-cylinder gas management, valve access, and switching between sides.
- Personal rig fit
- Independent gas rules
- Valve access
- 2 Day 2
Training dives 1 & 2
Two open-water dives dialling in horizontal trim, cylinder swaps and buoyancy as gas is consumed, plus S-drills and team procedures in the sidemount configuration.
- Trim & buoyancy
- Cylinder swaps
- S-drills
- 3 Day 3
Training dives 3 & 4
Applying sidemount to staged decompression — deco-gas handling on the side, failure drills and controlled ascents — to certify you for technical sidemount diving.
- Deco in sidemount
- Failure drills
- Certification dive
What's included (and what isn't)
What's included
- Certified PADI Tec instructor, max ratio 1:3
- Complete sidemount rig (harness, bungees, regulators)
- Two independent cylinders + deco cylinder as required
- All tank fills and enriched-air / deco-gas blends
- PADI Tec Sidemount eLearning, materials & certification (PIC)
- 4 technical boat dives
- Hotel pickup and transfers
- Hot lunch and soft drinks on every dive day
- Dive accident insurance for the course
Not included
- Tips (optional)
- Diving camera rental (€20/day)
A 50% deposit secures your dates and unlocks the eLearning so you can complete the theory before you arrive.
What you'll be able to do
- Configuring and trimming a personal sidemount rig
- Independent twin-cylinder gas management
- Sidemount valve drills and S-drills
- Deco-gas handling in the sidemount configuration
- Trim, buoyancy and failure management on your sides
From the water
FAQ
Why dive sidemount instead of a backmounted twinset?
Sidemount gives you fully independent gas supplies, both regulators and valves within easy reach, excellent horizontal trim, and a much easier carry — you kit up in the water rather than lugging doubles on your back. It's also the foundation for cave and restricted-wreck diving.
Do I need any technical experience first?
No. This course starts from Advanced Open Water with solid buoyancy. If you want to combine it with your first decompression training, take the Tec Sidemount + Tec 40 combo and learn both together.
Is this the same as recreational sidemount?
It goes further. Recreational sidemount is about the configuration within no-stop limits; Tec Sidemount adds decompression, a deco cylinder and technical failure management so you can run staged deco dives in the rig.
Related courses
DPV / Scooter Diver
Cover more reef in a single dive than you ever thought possible — pilot your own underwater scooter.
PADI Tec 40
Your first real step into technical diving — cross the line from recreational limits into staged decompression.
PADI Tec 45
Full decompression diving to 45 metres — single stage and deco cylinders, real staged stops.
