Tec Sidemount Instructor

Sidemount diving has gone from a niche technical configuration to one of the most requested setups in diving, and the Tec Sidemount Instructor course is how experienced tec instructors get properly qualified to teach it. As a Tec Sidemount Instructor, you'll be equipped to teach the advantages of sidemount configuration to existing technical divers, and equally to introduce recreational divers to technical diving for the first time through the Tec Sidemount Diver course.

The course focuses on the instructional and technical judgement needed to teach sidemount safely across a genuine range of student backgrounds - from streamlining and gas management with multiple cylinders through to the trim and buoyancy habits that make sidemount diving efficient rather than a wrestling match. Because sidemount is often a diver's introduction to tec thinking generally, teaching it well means being able to build good technical habits from the ground up.

This is one of our more demanding instructor courses in terms of prerequisites, reflecting the depth of experience genuinely needed to teach it responsibly. You'll need renewed PADI Instructor status, PADI Enriched Air Diver and Enriched Air Instructor certification, PADI Deep Specialty Instructor certification, and Tec 45 Diver, with the application itself requiring PADI Tec Instructor or higher alongside PADI Tec Sidemount Diver. On the diving side, you'll need a minimum of 100 logged dives including at least 20 enriched air dives, 25 dives deeper than 18 metres or 60 feet and 15 deeper than 30 metres or 100 feet, plus at least 20 technical sidemount dives, 10 of them using three or more cylinders.

For tec instructors who already live in sidemount kit, this course is the natural way to start passing that experience on properly.