SIDEMOUNT CAVE CROSSOVER AT A GLANCE

• Course Duration: 6 Days Minimum
• Certification Fees Included
• 32% Nitrox Fills Included

PREREQUISITES

• Full Cave Certification
• Proficiency with cave skills including primary reel placement, complex navigation, etc.
• Students requiring review of core cave skills will require more days.

WHAT CAN I DO WITH THIS CERTIFICATION?

TDI certified sidemount cave divers are qualified to do any of the following:
• Use sidemount in caves within the limits of their current certification
• Pass restrictions by adjusting body orientation
• No partial or complete tank removal (that’s advanced sidemount)

RESERVATIONS & INQUIRIES

COURSE PHILOSOPHY

As always, Under the Jungle’s instructional goal is to create excellent caves divers who are confident to dive with a similarly certified and skilled buddy. While we are happy to guide our former students at remote or difficult to access dive sites you can’t find on your own, if you feel you need a guide after our training, we have failed. It’s a lot more work for both the instructor and the student to teach to this standard, and not everyone passes our courses the first time. However, if you put in the effort and are patient with yourself, we will get you there!  For an instructor, nothing is more rewarding than sending our former students off in the morning to go do amazing cave dives without our help.

WHY IS SIDEMOUNT SO POPULAR?

Sidemount has become the configuration of choice for cave diving in Mexico. While both backmount and sidemount configurations are welcome in Mexican caves, you’re likely to see more sidemounters than backmounters in the cenotes. It’s easy to see why! Sidemount is a more flexible configuration, allowing direct visual and physical access to regulators and valves, true redundancy, and access to tighter caves. While it’s a more complex configuration to learn, the comfort and stability in the water, and the greater range of options for problem management make mastering sidemount well worth the effort. So strap on your helmet and learn how it feels to fly effortlessly through the caves.

WHERE WILL I DIVE DURING THE SIDEMOUNT CROSSOVER COURSE?

There’s a great deal of dive theory to learn when switching from backmount to sidemount, so the sidemount cave crossover course starts at the classroom at Under the Jungle. We’ll review gear and configuration at the shop, before hitting the water. The open water sessions of the course are conducted at local cenotes, such as Ponderosa and Chikin Ha, warm up cave dives take place at nearby training caves, such as Ponderosa and Chikin Ha, and we finish up the course with serious sidemount cave dives at places like Minotauro and Abejas.

WHAT WILL I LEARN DURING THE SIDEMOUNT CAVE CROSSOVER COURSE

The sidemount crossover course for certified cave divers combines theory, confined water skills practice, cave dives, and practice scenarios

⇒ SIDEMOUNT CAVE THEORY

• Fundamentals of regulator and equipment set up
• Applying the rule of thirds to side mount diving
• Gas management and cylinder balancing
• Emergency situations and side mount specific problem management
• Light management in side mount
• Predive checks for side mount diving
• Limitations and advantages of side mount in the cave environment
• Considerations for aluminum and steel cylinders
• Trim management in side mount

⇒ CAVE SIDEMOUNT SKILLS

• Donning and removing clyinders
• Air sharing in sidemount
• Valve shuts downs for sidemount
• Dealing with leaks and regulator failures by feathering the valve
• Gear hardware failures
• Bungee failures
• Wing failures
• Helmet and light management
• Sidemount specific propulsion techniques
• Zero visibility protocols in side mount
• Reel use in sidemount
• Cylinder swapping and ditching
• Restriction protocols
• Scenario practice covering the above techniques during cave dives