ADVANCED CAVE SIDE MOUNT AT A GLANCE

• Course Duration: 4 Days Minimum
• Number of Dives: 6 Dives Minimum
• Certification Costs Included
• 32% Nitrox Fills Included
• Maximum Students: 2 Divers
• Equipment: Side Mount

PREREQUISITES

• Age: 18 Years Old
• Experience: 25 Side Mount Cave Dives After Certification
• Certification: Full Cave/Cave Side Mount, Nitrox
• Experience in the Side Mount Rig to be Used for the Course

WHAT CAN I DO WITH THIS CERTIFICATION?

The Advanced Cave Side Mount Certification allows divers to squeeze through restrictions impossible to pass without removing equipment. This includes partial and complete tank removal, as well as signficant contact with the environment. The extreme nature of tight caves means that buddy assistance is not always an option. Self rescue skills and confidence are built during this course (although it is not, technically speaking, a solo diving course).

RESERVATIONS & INQUIRIES

Temptation: The cave line ends, but there’s a small hole in the wall. Beyond the hole is a narrow tunnel and a cave line is just visible in the distance. It’s tight, but if you remove one tank, you can just squeeze through to the small passage on the other side. What could go wrong?

Actually, quite a lot. That’s why advanced side mount cave training is necessary. It’s not so hard to take off a tank and squish through a hole, but getting back out can be another story. There may not be space to turn around, visibility is likely to reduce or even drop to zero from contact with the environment, and the stability of caves in areas where few divers pass is definitely a consideration. The point isn’t getting in, it’s getting out; safely, with sufficient gas, and while dealing with any problems that arise.

We’ve definitely had our share of advanced side mount cave experience, and we learn from every dive. This course will get you better at tight caves then we were when we started, because you’ll benefit from learning through theory and carefully designed skill practice, instead of the hard way. It’s a tough course, but the first dive after certification, when you slide through pristine cave that only a handful of people on the planet have ever seen, makes it absolutely worth it. Your mental control and abilities will define your dives after this course. We’ll give you the tools. Where you go, after this, is limited only by yourself.

WHERE WILL I DIVE DURING THE COURSE?

It’s best to practice new skills in a forgiving environment. During the Advanced Side Mount Cave Course, skill practice is conducted in the open water of a local cenote. We’ve got some wonderful training sites for advanced side mount, where there’s small caves with easy access to the surface. Of course, the whole point is to cave dive, so once you are proficient with your new skills, you’ll build confidence through progressively tighter training caves, such as Minotauro and some of the lesser-known regions of our house cenote: Tajma Ha. On the last day of the course, we’ll put your new skills into practice as you plan and lead a serious advanced side mount dive – to a place you’re unlikey to have considered accessible only a few days before. 

WHAT WILL I LEARN DURING THE ADVANCED SIDE MOUNT CAVE COURSE?

The Advanced Side Mount Cave Course combines theory, equipment workshops, open water practice, and advanced side mount cave dives.

⇒ ADVANCED SIDE MOUNT CAVE THEORY

• Hazards of advanced side mount caves
• Streamlining equipment for tight environments
• Adapting propulsion technics to advanced side mount caves
• Safe gas management for serious restrictions
• Review of accident analysis
• In-depth theory about restrictions
• Physiological and psychological aspects of diving tight places
• Emergency procedures and self rescue in advanced caves

 

⇒ DIVES AND SKILL PRACTICE

• Equipment workshop
• Advanced side mount propulsion techniques such as low impact pull and glide, hand finning, and line walking in all orientations
• Standardized protocols for tank removal and replacement
• Passing restrictions with tanks on with and with out visibility
• Passing restrictions with tanks off and exiting in simulated zero visibility
• Exiting an advanced side mount cave in zero visibility, while maintaining discontinuous touch contact with your team
• Dealing with a gas hemorrhage in zero visibility
• Non-traditional options for accessing breathing gas
• Complex navigation in tight sidemount cave, including line and marker retrieval in zero visibility