Sidemount Spain

10/06/2025

Another great Sidemount training day with Louise and Les today.

Today we had some more kit adjustments to do and introduced shut down procedures, stowing long hose and detaching cylinders

Both students had different challenges to work through which will be the focus on our next dives.

Are we perfect, no. Are we progressing, Yes and that's what training is all about 🙂

01/06/2025

When you get comfortable being uncomfortable your opportunities are endless 🤟

Its easy to fall into the trap of doing the same thing day in day out and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is not easy and most of us avoid it. Instructor Louise Bradley is taking on the challenge of learning a new way of diving and looking pretty awesome in the process!

Louise is rigged up here with Alu 7lt sidemount tanks which are perfect for her size and air consumption.

19/05/2025

This makes a very cool shot but what's the point?

It's actually vital to accurate sidemount set up here's why:

What we are doing here is purging the cylinders down to 50 bar whilst at 5 meters.

This fine tunes weighting and allows the diver to check that their sliders have the right amount of movement to bring in their tanks maintaining proper trim no matter what the gas pressure.
*note we are using Aluminium tanks which become positively buoyant*

Learning to dive sidemount is a journey, set up takes time, patience and skill, anyone who's been taught by me will know the mantra....Slower is Faster 🤟 there are no shortcuts just hard work and dedication 💪

12/04/2025

What's your diving colour combo? Tech diving doesn't have to be black,black,black!

Mine is Blue 💙 I love to personalise bits of my equipment, and it makes my kit easy to spot at a Cave site:

Blue Tech fins and Cookies from Fourth Element

Blue back up torches, D710 from Orcatorch

Blue miflex long hose and Blue mouthpieces on my Apeks regulators.

Grey/Blue Wing from XDEEP ...I didn't go full Blue on this one!

And for that little extra Blue loop bungee and silicone cover for my Shearwater.

22/12/2024

I first visited the cenotes 9 years ago before being Cave Certified and it inspired me to become a sidemount and Cave diver. Now coming back again and being able to witness the beauty under the jungle has been incredible.

This dive was to cenote Nicte Ha which has the most beautiful light effects as you swim past the pools.

16/11/2023

Climbing in and out of Cueva del Aqua is never easy, especially on days when taking multiple tanks. Today the trusty Fourth Element Expedition pack was put to good use to make the rock climbing a bit easier!

Although its not what it was designed for, 2 tanks fit nicely into the bag which means less trips up and down to the Cave which my legs are very greatful for!

28/10/2023

With temperatures dropping it was back to drysuit weather in open water this week, its still 29degrees in the Cave though so havent got to retire my wetsuit for the year🙂

10/09/2023

The end of a sidemound refresher this morning, not looking bad after a break of 5 years from sidemount diving 🤟

After having time out of water a safe, considerate diver will take a refresher to brush up on their skills to reduce the possibility of accidents or problems for themselves, the dive team and the environment.

Today we ensured correct equipment set up, practiced out of air drills, mask skills, shut downs and importantly Buoyancy and trim exercises. Scuba Murcia

25/04/2023

Stefan was back diving today proving how important it is to have an in depth knowledge and understanding about the importance of equipment set up.

Stefan did his course 8 months ago. In the course we spent a lot of time on land and in the water making sure his measurements and weighting were correct in order to achieve good trim and cylinder positions. Set up, dive, adjust, dive, adjust...repeat!

We logged everything at the end of each dive so today when he arrived we knew exactly the band heights, boltsnap positions, loop bungee length and where the integrated lead needed to be.

This video was taken at the start of our first dive today, after 8 months out of the water. Following exactly what we recorded his tanks were perfect. Moving forwards with his continued learning we need some more work on finning techniques and re building the muscle memory for shutdowns.

Videoing students is fundamental to achieving constructive feedback.

24/04/2023

Trying to decide if sidemount is the right choice for you? We've written a blog to try and help when deciding to take the step towards sidemount or back mount?

If you ask any Sidemount diver if Sidemount diving is better than back mounted twinset diving the inevitable answer will be YES! But why are the two sides divided? Can you enjoy both backmount and Sidemount diving? Is one actually better than the other? I write this as an instructor who teaches Side...