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Adv. Cave - Sidemount Diver in worldwide: 24 dive centres on TecDiveTools, with agencies, courses taught and a summary of what students say. 12 publish course prices.
TecDiveTools lists 24 dive centres teaching Adv. Cave - Sidemount Diver worldwide. 12 of them publish course prices, in the currency the shop advertises and with the date each was checked — not converted, and not estimated.
Listings are ordered by how much evidence exists about their technical diving, not by a star rating, with any paid Featured listing shown first and marked as such (how rankings work). 15 of these 24 carry reviews we have read and classified as being about technical or overhead training. The count excludes recreational certifications by name, so a busy resort does not outrank a one-instructor cave operation on the volume of its reef trips. Separately, 12 have at least one instructor whose reviews we have read and summarised — a dive centre carries no synthesis of its own. How we read and count reviews.
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About the course
This specialized cave course teaches divers already qualified as Technical Cave Divers to master sidemount cylinder configuration within cave systems, where streamlined tank placement improves profile and navigability through tight passages. The focus is on sidemount-specific trim and buoyancy control, gas management across multiple independent sidemount cylinders, and stage abandonment from the sidemount position. Sidemount cave diving unlocks exploration of restricted passages and technical sumps that would be hazardous with back-mounted tanks, and is a prerequisite for the Advanced Cave - No Mount specialization.
24 dive centres on TecDiveTools teach IANTD Adv. Cave - Sidemount Diver worldwide: Mexico (18), Thailand (3), Indonesia (2) and United States (1). Each is listed above.
One centre in the TecDiveTools directory publishes a whole-course price for IANTD Adv. Cave - Sidemount Diver worldwide: Advanced Diver Mexico, at $900. 1 centre charges by the day instead, which is not comparable with a course total. Prices differ mainly in what they include, so compare the inclusions before comparing the numbers. Prices were last checked in September 2026.
3 days, based on the durations 2 centres publish for it worldwide. The time depends on the centre's schedule, weather, and how quickly the required skills are demonstrated — agencies set a minimum number of dives, not a fixed number of days.
At the same tier in TecDiveTools' cross-agency comparison, dive centres worldwide also teach TDI Cave Sidemount (28). They are comparable rather than interchangeable — each agency sets its own standards and card, so check which one your next course accepts.
