My focus
You practise unclipping and clipping cylinders and gas switches mid-water until you can do them without losing trim or your place in the team.
The TDI course is for divers who want to use sidemount in technical diving as well. After the course you may dive sidemount with safety and decompression stops, as far as your other certifications allow. Compared with the SDI course it adds advanced skills and drills: different propulsion techniques, unclipping and clipping cylinders underwater, and gas switches with and without a mask. Carrying additional cylinders is optional. Theory covers problem solving and tight spaces, among other topics. All dives take place in open water. I do not offer the TDI course called Advanced Sidemount: despite the name it is an overhead course for caves and says nothing about how well someone dives sidemount.
Format: at least 2 days and 3 open water dives with a total bottom time of at least 90 minutes. 4 hours of classroom and briefings are suggested. Can be combined with Advanced Nitrox (4 dives in total) and with Decompression Procedures.
Prerequisites: SDI Open Water Scuba Diver or equivalent, minimum age 18.
TDI standard Sidemount Diver (PDF)
What participants say
“…without him I might never have found how much I love sidemount!”
Chris K. · technical fundamentals & tdi sidemount
“He understands the mindset and the standards you bring from GUE training, and builds on them when you switch to a sidemount configuration.”
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Further reading on the blog