About Sidemount Authority
Creator of the AXIS Method. RAID Tech Trimix Sidemount Instructor. Crossover Instructor Trainer. RAID T.A.G. member. This is what the credentials mean — and what they cost to earn.
Certifications & Recognition
T.A.G. Member
RAID Training Advisory Group — contributing to creating and updating training standards for Dive RAID International
Tech Trimix Sidemount Instructor
60m/200 feet technical trimix instructor in sidemount configuration
Crossover Instructor Trainer
Authorized to crossover existing instructors from other agencies.
Podcast - Episode 89
Featured guest discussing sidemount training philosophy and configuration principles
Hypoxic CCR Diver
Trained on three units to the normoxic level and on one to the hypoxic level
Brand & Customer Experience Manager
Leading brand strategy and customer experience for Deep 6 Expedition Gear, a U.S.-based technical and expedition dive equipment manufacturer.
More Than a Configuration
Sidemount is a discipline that demands precision — in setup, in buoyancy, in mindset. I've spent years refining both my own skills and my ability to pass them on to others, from first-time sidemount divers through to experienced tech sidemount divers.
As the creator of the AXIS Method, a RAID Tech Trimix Sidemount Instructor and RAID Crossover Instructor Trainer, I work with divers who are serious about doing it right. Not fashionably — correctly. There's a difference, and I care about that difference.
The gear reviews and tips here are by-products of that commitment: honest assessments written after real dives on real kit, not after a briefing from a PR team. I will never recommend gear or brands that I do not fully believe in and/or use personally.
Get in TouchTeaching Philosophy
Sidemount is not a shortcut, a trend, or a style choice. It is a configuration with logic behind it — and that logic only reveals itself when the system is aligned properly, and the diver understands why every piece of kit is exactly where it is.
From Bali to Cave Country
Growing up landlocked in the Midwest, the closest I ever got to the ocean was late-night television — losing myself in The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and falling in love with a world that felt entirely alien. It would take decades, a move to Huntington Beach, California, and a life-threatening illness before I finally did something about it.
In 2016, I became a certified Open Water Diver through PADI. I was hooked from the first breath underwater. Within a year I'd relocated to the United Arab Emirates with one goal: become an instructor. That dream became real in late 2018, while I was also managing a dive center in the UAE.
From there, the ocean took me to Bali. For four years, I served as Managing Partner at Prana Dive, a boutique full-service dive center in Amed. At Prana I was teaching everyone from first-time Try Dive students to advanced technical divers, and obsessing over the discipline I love most: sidemount diving. I even got to talk shop on the Speaking Sidemount podcast, where host Steve Davis and I went through what it really takes to be good at sidemount, from soup to nuts.
My credentials span multiple agencies and disciplines: I was a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, Specialty Instructor, and Emergency First Response / CPR with Care for Children Instructor. Now I am a RAID Crossover Instructor Trainer a technical open circuit instructor, a Normoxic CCR diver on the Poseidon, and a factory instructor on the Trident Chest Mount CCR
On June 1, 2026, I came home. I moved back to the United States to take on the role of Brand and Customer Experience Manager at Deep 6 Expedition Gear, where I get to bring the same obsession with safety, performance, and the diver experience to the equipment that makes deep exploration possible.
I'm also chasing a long-time goal of my own: becoming a full cave diver in the limestone labyrinths of Florida cave country — training in some of the most demanding and rewarding environments diving has to offer. And outside the water, I've been building something I'm just as passionate about: the AXIS Method, a systems-engineering diagnostic framework I founded on one core principle — when alignment is restored, complexity collapses. It's a way of thinking I apply to diving, teaching, and pretty much every complicated system I run into, and it's become as core to how I work as any C-card I hold.
Whether you're a complete beginner taking your first breath underwater, a tech diver pushing into cave country, or a brand looking to build gear divers can trust their lives to — I'm here for all of it. Let's go deeper.
— Turk Vangel | Brand & Customer Experience Manager, Deep 6 Expedition Gear | Founder, AXIS Method | Current Cave 1 Diver | RAID XO Instructor Trainer
Speaking Sidemount — Episode 89
Featured on the Speaking Sidemount podcast, discussing sidemount training philosophy, configuration principles, and what separates good technique from great technique.
Watch Episode 89 →