Side-Mount Diving Classes and the Z-System.

Members

There have being a lot of questions and comments on the Z-System video's. I have answered some of them but thought this is something that all members should see, so I decided to blog about it.

Side-Mount diving is becoming more and more popular for those folks who have a specific need for taking the weight off their backs and putting the tanks on the side. There are many benefits even when recreational diving. We felt that the current side-mount configurations were not consistent with our UTD/DIR configuration and skill set and therefore last year we set out to develop a configuration that we could integrate into our diving philosophy and team but most importantly we needed it to be consistent and scalable at all levels of diving and all environments. We called this system the Z-System.

As we are a worldwide training agency we are also developing an educational structure for the use of the Z-System in a variety of side-mounting environments and conditions is at the top of our list for 2011. We are currently working very hard on the S&P, Palybook, skill video's and other classroom materials to support a side-mount diving class structure while using the something like the Z-System as the configuration. We have 5 programs including Essentials of Recreational Side-mount, Essentials of Technical Side-mount, Essentials of Cave Side-mount, Cave Side-mount 1 and Cave Side-mount 2. We am currently working very closely with our Instructor core on the different classes to develop the S&P, Playbook and materials. Each Instructor is focusing on their experience in their particular environment.

We were obviously able to release the Essentials of Recreational Side-Mount Diving class first as this class is the least complex when centered around the Z-System configuration for recreational side-mount diving. It focuses on fitting and setting up the Z-System, developing the recreational diver's skills while incorporating the tank on the side and learning how to manage any issues with the Z-System configuration.

Speaking of "Essentials classes" it is our hope that the community understands that all of our "Essentials classes" are based around a common "foundational" set of skills, that we believe are essential for all divers to develop, these include: Situational Awareness, Dive Planning, Setup, Propulsion, Basic 6, S-Drills, Valve drills, Ascent drills and Recuses skills. Then each of the essentials classes (rec, tech, overhead, rebreather, scientific diver and now side-mount rec/tec/cave ) add specific skills for specific environments or configurations. A foundational class or essentials class that prepares you for Cave Diving should not include unnecessary skills such as SMB Deploy. One's time is better served learning the basics of Reel Work (laying line and retrieving line) rather than smb deploy. So, with that in mind. we developed the Essentials of Overhead Protocols. It has the foundational skills plus line work on other skills needed to prepare you for cave classes but does not have unnecessary skills such smb deploy and so on, Bringing this back to the Essentials of Recreational Side-mount diving one will find all the class centered around situational awareness, dive planning including gas planning and logistics, setup of the system, development of the foundational skills as mentioned above plus other common issues such as balance with one tank, failed input and so on.

Stay tuned for an exciting 2011 as we release the Standard and Procedures, Playbook (Private For UTD Instructors only), Skill DVD's, PPT and Online classrooms for our Side-Mount class curricula. We are looking to have everthing completed by end of 1st Quarter 2011.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.