PADI Sidemount Course

PADI Sidemount is one of the more recent PADI Specialty Courses and is a whole new way of diving. You learn to dive with either one or two tanks attached to your side as opposed to one tank on your back! 

Some of the techniques and procedures used in Sidemount are the basics of Tec Diving so Sidemount is a great way to get a taster for Tec Diving while still within the limits of recreational diving.

Sidemount Diving - two tanks on the side not one on the back

Having scuba tanks on your back isn’t a requirement for exploring the underwater world. Many scuba divers have discovered the joy of mounting cylinders on their sides. Sidemount diving gives you flexibility and streamlining options plus, you don’t have to walk with heavy cylinders on your back – just enter the water, clip them on and go.

The Dive Academy offer both the PADI Recreational Sidemount Course and the Recreational Sidemount Instructor Course.

The Recreational Sidemount Course takes two days to complete. You complete the theory by independent learning then have a short theory review session where we make sure you understand the concepts and differences of Sidemount diving, such as slightly more complex gas management. You then go to the swimming pool where you get to try out the gear used for Sidemount and get used to the different configuration of the equipment and the different way of doing certain skills compared to diving with a tank on your back. As a diver already there aren't many new skills for you to learn just previously learnt skills conducted in a different way to allow for the different equipment set-up. The second day is where you get to make 3 dives in the sea with the Sidemount gear, getting used to the difference in buoyancy, gas management and just generally get used to a different way of diving. Many who have tried Sidemount say they much prefer it to diving with a normal BCD.

If you are a PADI Instructor or are taking an Instructor Development Course and already a PADI Recreational Sidemount diver, the Sidemount Instructor Course can be completed in one day with only 1 dive needed plus a classroom presentation, although we do prefer to have a short theory and pool session the day before. If you are not a Sidemount Diver already the Sidemount Instructor Course can be completed at the same time as the Sidemount Diver Course.

For more information on PADI Sidemount Specialty take a look at our website: http://www.thediveacademysamui.com

and for information about PADI Professional level training:

http://www.idc-thediveacademysamui.com

or contact us by email: info@thediveacademysamui.com

Diving Koh Samui: Sail Rock

Sail Rock is approximately 50 minutes speedboat journey north from Koh Samui, between Koh Phangan and Koh Tao and is a pinnacle shaped like an iceberg that rises out of the water creating a fantastic wall dive.

Sail Rock is stunning at depths of 5 metres and down to a maximum depth of 40 metres, so it is ideal for beginners and experienced divers alike. There are sometimes relatively strong currents on parts of the site, but the site is big enough for you to dive and avoid the current.

Sail Rock is famous for the vertical "Chimney", which begins at around 16m and opens at the top around 6m and is great fun to ascend through. Sail Rock is one of the main sites in the area for sightings of Whale Sharks, but if they aren't around there are always schools of Barracuda, large schools of Yellow Fusiliers, many schooling Trevally, Giant Morays, Large Groupers, Batfish and a great variety of other fish.

Whale Shark @ Sail Rock

Today we had a trip to the fantastic Sail Rock and it turned out to be even more spectacular than usual.

We got the shout that there was a Whale Shark around just as we were about to eat lunch after our first dive. A few dinner plates quickly got discarded as we jumped off our boat "Midnight Blue" to see if we could spot the big fish, but we didn't manage to see it until........ Around 5 minutes into our second dive the beautiful 4-5m shark came alongside the rock where we and a few other divers were swimming. It was calm and relaxed and swam among the divers. Fortunately it happened to turn and swim directly towards us and came within a metre of us so we managed to get a few nice pictures fairly close up of the Shark filtering water through it's gills and smiling for the camera. Most of these pictures are untouched as the shark was so close we didn't need to zoom or crop!!