Discover Sidemount
This Sunday I will be joining for a session on Discover Sidemount at UCSI swimming pool. Begone with the roadblocks to interdistrict travel, and I don't have to worry about the roadblocks in Cheras!
In short, what is Sidemount?
Well, not all scuba tanks are placed on the back, some well, like the name suggest, is placed on the side, below the arms. The setup is different from a normal backmount scuba tank.
But why?
The most "useful" reasons I can think of is when we dive in caves or wrecks where there's low head clearance for us to swim through. Since the scuba tanks are under the arms, there is little to no obstruction.
As someone who is very interested in wreck and cave diving, I am very keen to have a first hand look at the setup and things like that. I only have a couple of wreck swimthrough dives and one cave dive plus one rock formation swimthrough so I cannot say I have been in tight spaces.
PADI Sidemount is a specialty course, which means it's a full course by itself and count towards attaining Master Scuba Diver certification. Will I take up the full course? Well, I might in the near future, depends on what I want to do later with my dive journey. Right now, being a rescue diver with so little dives is all I want to focus on right now. Collecting certification cards is not my goal.
To be a better diver, it's not about having how many cards - it's about what you do in the sea. Simply put it, more dives more dives and more dives will make you a better diver.
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| Tom Chan PADI Master Instructor, Scuba Dobedo Divers |
Scuba Dobedo Divers have been very proactive in reaching out to divers, new and experienced alike, throughout the MCO since March 2020 with webinars sessions thrice weekly, and with a Whatsapp chat group for all diving-related chats.
They are based in Cheras and regularly go for dive trips in lakes around Selangor and in the seas around the region. In between the MCOs, they also organised tryout sessions, like equipment tryouts and courses tryouts, one of which I am taking this Sunday. I have participated before in equipment tryouts trying out different fins, different BCDs, different regulators, mixing and matching them to get the best combo that suit my body.
They also have a fully equipped store where you can buy dive gears, and is also a service center for various manufacturers. As a PADI 5-star center, they teach all levels of PADI courses from pre-beginner to instructor.
It was from Tom, the Master Instructor, that I learnt more about sea creatures like coelacanths, bobbit worms, the haunted wrecks in Brunei etc.
I owe many thanks to Scuba Dobedo Divers for their passion and proactiveness to keep us divers sane during the MCOs, and the friendship built over the past year and half will certainly go beyond the lockdowns.
If you would like to connect with them, you can find them on various social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scuba.dobedo.divers
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scubadobedodivers
PS: This post is not sponsored by Scuba Dobedo Divers!
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