Sidemount Update - PADI Standardised Sidemount Specialty

PADI is currently in the process of releasing its own standardised PADI Sidemount Diver specialty course.

This course, conducted over at least 2 days, features knowledge development, a hands on practical application session, and at least one confined water dive and three open water dives. Divers learn to use a sidemount configuration for recreational diving purposes. This will be a great adjunct to Enriched Air Diving for divers wanting to get more bottom time on a single dive.

As this is a standardised PADI specialty, there is an Adventure Dive option as part of the PADI Adventures in Diving program (which leads to either the PADI Adventure Diver or PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certifications). Only certified PADI Sidemount Instructors can offer and conduct the Sidemount Adventure Dive.

Until now, I have been teaching a distinctive specialty in Sidemount Diving, but with the release of this standardised specialty, I am re-focusing my training onto this great specialty.

PADI has also announced the imminent release of the PADI Tec Sidemount Diver course. I plan to offer this program shortly to divers interested in pursuing Sidemount as an option for recreational and tec diving. More information when it is available.

 

PADI Sidemount Instructor Training Now Available

As a long time Tec Diver and proponent of Self-Reliant diving (not necessarily without a buddy), I've been watching with interest the development of Sidemount Diving for open water recreational and tec diving applications. Developed in cave divng to negotiate sumps and low overhead environments, Sidemount diving offers the opportunity to have a streamlined, comfortable rig with gas redundancy and great equipment flexibility.

With the advent of commercially available Sidemount BCD systems such as the Hollis SMS100 and the DiveRite Nomad EXP, among others, the benefits of Sidemount diving are now accessible to all divers. These benefits include gas supply, safety, comfort and flexibility.

For recreational divers, Sidemount Diving (perhaps using smaller cylinders) offers some great benefits, including:

• True gas redundancy - although your overall gas supply might be about the same (depending on tanks used), you have redundancy in the event that you have a first stage or valve failure
• Gas supply - for people who "like their air", sidemount is a great way of having more gas available for a dive.
• Versatility - sidemount harnesses like the Hollis SMS100 are capable of being used for both traditional single tank backmount and double tank sidemount setups.
• Comfort - for those with back or knee issues that find walking around with backmount single or double tanks difficult, sidemount diving offers an approach where the tanks are carried without significantly changing your centre of gravity

For tec divers, Sidemount Diving offers several key advantages over backmount doubles, including:

• Streamlining - the tanks are at the diver's sides, not behind your back, out of sight. For trained penetration divers, this goes one step further, allowing you to enter low overhead environments
• Safety - with the tank valves in front of you, its much easier to diagnose issues with valves and/or regulator first stages. A gas shut-down drill is greatly simplified with Sidemount
• Convenience and flexibility - for the traveling tec diver, its generally easier to obtain two single tanks in remote locations than it is to arrange doubles with a isolator manifold. For occasional tec divers, sidemount allows you to have cylinders available for both single tank and sidemount usage

Sidemount is one of the appropriate configurations for those interested in Self-Reliant Diving, as it provides complete first stage and tank valve redundancy. PADI TecRec Instructors who are also Sidemount Instructors can teach PADI TecRec courses using Sidemount rather than the traditional backmount doubles configuration.

In order to learn all that I could about Sidemount Diving, I have taken 2 instructor courses with leadning instructor trainers - Grant Graves and Jeff Loflin. Grant is a long time tec and cave diver, PADI Course Director and innovator of the Precision Diving concept, and has been sidemount diving primarily in caves for many years. Jeff is also a PADI Course Director, and is a driving force behind the adoption of open water sidemount diving, globally. Jeff is also a design consultant for the Hollis SMS100 sidemount buoyancy system. I have also read and watched everything I have been able to about sidemount diving (including the wonderful Sidemount Profiles book by Brian Kakuk and Jill Heinerth), and of course, I've done as many sidemount dives as I have been able.

I am pleased now to be able to offer the PADI Sidemount Instructor Course (as well as PADI diver level sidemount training), and look forward to introducing people to this wonderful way of diving.

Become a PADI Self-Reliant Diver Instructor

I am pleased to advise that I am now offering the PADI Self-Reliant Diver Specialty Instructor Course.

The PADI Self-Reliant Diver course aims to recognise and accept the role of the buddy system and its contributions to diver safety while identifying and developing self-reliance and independence while diving. There are two reasons for an experienced diver to take the Self-Reliant diver course:

• To develop the skills of planning and carrying out dives without a partner when preferred or necessary.
• To sharpen skills of diving self-reliance, making the diver a stronger partner in a dive pair or team.

This course covers when diving alone may be applicable, and the need to compensate for those situations, including dive planning, life support system readiness, adaptive training, equipment and responsibility.

PADI Announces Upcoming Launch of "eCard"

According to the PADI Islands blog PADI is set to launch a new eCard for diver and pro level certifications.

It appears that this new offering will be the first major innovation in certification cards since the launch of the Positive Identification Card bearing a diver's photo many years back.

The new eCard will be integrated into the PADI smartphone app, and will initially be available for Apple iOS, Android and BlackBerry users, with other platforms to follow.

It will have built in security using QR codes, making it very easy to validate the diver and their PADI qualifications.

This will be a huge step forward as holders of a PADI eCard should never have to deal again with the situation of leaving a card at home, and not being able to prove their diving qualifications. It will also reduce the number of small pieces of plastic that we carry in our wallets, and will also be much better for the planet as we move away from plastic to virtual. From a customer point of view, it will speed up the time it takes to receive a certification following successful completion of a course.

I'll post again when I hear any updates about this innovation.

Cross-posted from the DiveViews Blog.

United Divers Moves

This news is a bit old, but I thought I should advise that United Divers Wollongong has moved to new premises at 22 Princes Highway, Fairy Meadow.

The new store is conveniently located right next door to Leisure Coast Marine. There is parking at the store for several vehicles, with ample on-street parking available.

Drop in and visit Suzanne and Leon and discover diving in the Illawarra.

PADI IDC at Frog Dive Willoughby

Congratulations to Mick, Nicolas and Bruce who today completed their PADI Instructor Exam in Sydney, and are amongst the newest PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors.

Nic, Bruce and Mick completed their PADI Instructor Development Course at Frog Dive Willoughby on a part-time basis over 4 weekends (1 for the EFR Instructor Course and 3 for the IDC) in April and May. They are worked hard, mixing in their professional jobs with their love for diving.

Bruce, Mick and Nicolas also complete the PADI UW Naturalist Specialty Instructor that comes as a part of the PADI IDCs we offer at Frog Dive, and will shortly complete the PADI Emergency Oxygen Instructor course that is a bonus for those who complete both a PADI IDC and an EFR Instructor Course at the same location in the same year.

Good luck to these new instructors in their future endeavours as dive instructors, and many thanks for the opportunity to work with you guys!

PADI IDC at Jetty Dive Coffs Harbour

I spent a fantastic 2 weeks up at Jetty Dive in Coffs Harbour, conducting an EFR Instructor Course, a PADI Instructor Development Course and several specialty instructor training courses.

(Pictured to the left are Mike Davey, owner of Jetty Diver, Andrew, Nathan, Jack and Chris with PADI Course Director Des Paroz).

We had four candidates - Jack, Nathan, Andrew and Chris - who each successfully completed both the IDC and the EFRI programs, and who each went on to successfully complete the PADI Instructor Examination held in Sydney on 28-30 January 2011.

The programs went really well with great diving off Jetty Dive's brand new dive boat Wild Fin off the fantastic dive sites of South Solitary and Split Solitary Islands. Conditions weren't brilliant, following recent flooding at Grafton, just north of Coffs, but we still had some great dives.

During the programs, the candidates also completed a PADI UW Naturalist Specialty Instructor Course and a PADI Emergency Oxygen Specialty Instructor Course.

Jetty Dive is a fantastic dive operator. Lead by Mike and Debbie Davey, the Jetty Dive team put a lot of thought into providing a fantastic diving experience for their customers of all levels.

EFR Instructor Course at United Divers

Congratulations to John Chichkan and Stephen Molyneux who completed the first EFR Instructor Course for 2011 at United Divers Wollongong on Saturday 15 January.

John and Stephen can now teach a comprehensive range of EFR first aid & CPR courses that meet the international guidelines of ILCOR.

PADI Announces Revised Divemaster Course

PADI has announced a major, and important, overhaul of the Divemaster Course.

The gateway program for dive professionals (and thus a prerequisite for the PADI Instructor Development Course), the preliminary information I've seen suggests that there will be an increase in the emphasis on practical workshops during the program, which are being broadened to further prepare the candidate for real world dive leadership.

Some of the key changes include:

• Prerequisite for the course (not certification) have been increased from 20 to 40 logged dives.
  • Candidates who hold PADI Deep Diver or PADI Search & Recovery Diver certifications can get credit towards one or both of two new workshops in the Divemaster Course
• Knowledge Development has three options that can be undertaken separately or in combination - PADI Divemaster Online, independent study with the manual and video, or instructor-led knowledge development sessions
• Dive Theory requirements are now stepped to be less than the instructor level previously required, and more of a graduated step process from Rescue Diver to Divemaster, and then Divemaster to IDC.
• Increased performance requirements on the Dive Skills Workshop, and additional skin diving skills (big kudos for this addition)
• Revised Practical Application Skills to cover a broader range of Divemaster activities, including new workshops in Deep Diving Safety and Search & Recovery
• New materials, including:
  • Divemaster Course Online (eLearning)
  • Revised Divemaster Manual
  • Divemaster Video - now includes role-model demonstrations of scuba and skin diving skills (another great inclusion)
  • Divemaster Course Lesson Guides - includes both traditional and prescriptive lesson guides in a single product
  • Instructor Cue Cards for DM Course
  • DM slates (revised)
  • DM Final Exam

The new program can be phased in as new materials become available, and implementation will be required no later than 1 July 2011.

I am excited about this new program, and look forward to introducing it as soon as possible when the new materials are available in Australia, which should be by early 2011. I will add further information as it becomes available into forthcoming PADI IDC programs.

Amazing Footage of Manta Ray Stealing and Returning a Canon 5d Mk II

Thanks to PetaPixel for this blogging about this incredible footage of a manta ray swooping in and stealing a photographers camera gear, and returning it.

I know that if a manta ray stole my gear like this I'd be really upset. Its a lot of gear to lose. I know I'd be happy to get it back, and I reckon I'd be even happier that the video recording was running.