PADI Sidemount Diver Instructor – Teach Streamlined, Balanced, and Versatile Diving at Diving Academy

At Diving Academy, we help dive professionals lead with innovation and expertise. The PADI Sidemount Diver Instructor course gives you the skills and confidence to teach divers how to experience a new, efficient, and streamlined way of diving.

Sidemount diving changes everything. It offers better balance, easier equipment handling, and greater flexibility—especially in tight environments like wrecks or caves. But the benefits aren’t limited to tech divers. More recreational divers now seek sidemount training for comfort, customisation, and air redundancy.

As a PADI Sidemount Diver Instructor, you’ll guide students through proper rigging, buoyancy control, and dive planning while helping them discover the freedom of sidemount diving.

Why Add Sidemount to Your Instructor Toolkit?

Sidemount diving is no longer a niche skill—it’s a growing trend in both recreational and technical diving communities. By teaching this specialty, you’ll open doors to a wider audience, from experienced divers looking for a new challenge to beginners aiming for better trim and comfort.

Additionally, this course pairs perfectly with specialties like Deep Diver, Wreck Diver, and Tec 40, giving you the chance to build attractive course bundles and increase enrolments.

Teach the Essentials with Practical, Standards-Based Training

You’ll learn to deliver PADI’s sidemount curriculum with a hands-on approach. From fitting and configuring sidemount harnesses to air management and trim adjustment, you’ll train your students with confidence.

We also focus on safety protocols, cylinder switching, and problem-solving underwater—ensuring every diver leaves the course prepared and empowered.

Build Confidence Through Focused Instructor Workshops

At Diving Academy, we believe in preparing instructors through practice. That’s why your training includes:

Sidemount course outline and dive planning
Knowledge development and student briefings
Equipment fitting and adjustment demonstrations
Marketing and student targeting strategies
Open water sidemount session leadership

By the end, you’ll teach with confidence and give your students an unforgettable upgrade to their diving style.

Join Diving Academy today and become a PADI Sidemount Diver Instructor who leads with versatility, precision, and style.

👉 Contact us to book your course.

Prerequisites

Medical Requirements

Scuba diving requires a minimum level of health and fitness. Chronic health conditions, certain medications and/or recent surgery may require you to get written approval from a physician before diving.

Avoid disappointment, download and review the Diver Medical form to ensure you won’t need a physician’s approval to dive before enrolling in a scuba course. Instructors, divemasters and dive shop staff are not physicians and should not be asked for medical advice; only medical professionals can give medical clearance to dive.

If you (or your physician) have questions about medical fitness to dive, contact the experts at Divers Alert Network (DAN).

Your Medical Statement must be signed by a physician within the last 12 months or full HSE Medical. Under the Diving at Work Regulations 1997, all divers at work must have a valid certificate of HSE fitness to dive issued by an Approved Medical Examiner of Divers (AMED), please Contact Us for more information.

All Specialties

PADI Instructor (Scuba, Tec, Mermaid & Freediving), or you are currently participating in or have completed an IDC/OWSI Program within the past 12 months. IDC/OWSI candidates may apply for Specialty Instructor certification only after successfully completing an IE.

Specialties Without Dives

PADI Assistant Instructor
PADI Divemaster for these courses: Emergency Oxygen Provider, Equipment
Specialist, Coral Reef Conservation, Project AWARE Specialist and PADI
Distinctive Specialty Diver (approved).

Exception: Both Divemasters and Assistant Instructors may attend Digital Underwater Photographer specialty instructor training courses.

Prerequisites

The PADI SIdemount Diver Course prerequisites:

PADI Open Water Diver (or qualifying certification)
Must be 15 years old

Course Medical Requirements:

If you (or your physician) have questions about medical fitness to dive, contact the experts at Divers Alert Network (DAN).

Next Steps

Study

Step 1 – PADI eLearning

PADI eLearning makes it easy to fit scuba lessons into a busy schedule. Complete the independent study part of your course whenever, wherever it’s convenient for you.

Work at your own pace, online or offline, using a computer or mobile device. Connect with your instructor for inwater training, or whenever you have a question.

eLearning time commitment: 2-4 hours

At The Diving Academy

Step 2 – With Your Instructor

First, you’ll make a confined water dive to become familiar with sidemount diving equipment. Your PADI Instructor will also teach you sidemount diving skills including: frog kicking, attaching and removing scuba tanks as you enter and exit the water, unclipping a scuba tank and swimming with the tank in front of you, and how to switch second stages and manage your breathing gas when wearing two scuba tanks. When you’re comfortable with these skills, you’ll make three open water dives where you’ll practice your new skills, buoyancy control and problem solving.

Meet Our Course Directors

Course Locations

Dive Centre

Diving Academy – Dive Centre, Sunfield Business Park, New Mill Road, Wokingham, RG40 4QT

Pool Training Sites

Wokingham – The Forest School, Robin Hood Lane, Winnersh, Wokingham, RG41 5NE

Yateley – Yateley School, School Lane, GU46 6NW

Hagbourne – Hagbourne School Pool, Main Road, East Hagbourne, OX11 9LR

Swindon – Halo Highworth Recreation Centre, The Elms, Highworth, Swindon SN6 7DD

Open Water Training Sites:

London – Wraysbury Diving Lake, Station Road, Wraysbury, Berkshire, TW19 5ND

Radstock – Vobster Quay, Upper Vobster, Radstock, BA3 5SD

Leicester – Stoney Cove, Sapcote Road, Stoney Stanton, Leicester, LE9 4DW

Need help? Call us:

PADI Sidemount Diver Instructor

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