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Seeing the various pictures on the various diving Facebook groups I belong to, I keep thinking: I wanna do that.
Dive below 130 feet, dive in caves, dive in wrecks, the list goes on.
I have my AOW. I know I can do more certifications, but, I want to know; Is there something higher than AOW that covers caves and deeper, but does not force me to wear and use the exact same things as everyone else?
I am guessing that means going Tech, but I don't dive enough.
Fairly typical reactions for someone at your experience level who's enthusiastic about diving. There's plenty of options higher than AOW, but if you want to go into caves or go below recreational depths, chances are that unless you chose specific types of equipment, it's going to force you to purchase and learn how to use different types of gear. In caves, or below recreational depths, "everyone else" uses backplates, rebreathers, or sidemount rigs designed specifically for that type of diving. They require multiple regulators ... depending on how many bailout, deco and stage bottles their dive requires. And those regs need to be higher end regs, for both performance and reliability reasons.
If you "don't dive enough", then tech isn't for you ... one of the most important things about diving tech is to dive often enough to keep your skills current. There are no short-cuts to that kind of diving, if your objective is to stay alive.
I am not saying it is a bad thing, but I have my own equipment that I like. I have gotten rid of some equipment I did not like. I think GUI require you own the exact same set up as everyone.
When I say "Deep", I mean well over 200 feet. Cave, I mean, those really long caves.
I think you're a bit misinformed ... GUE does require fairly specific configuration, but it's not functionally different than what every other tech agency out there will require. There are reasons why they require that type of equipment, and those reasons are well covered in the class. I've taken tech classes from several different agencies ... GUE, IANTD, NAUI and NSS-CDS ... and I did so in the same gear each time.
Also ... GUI means "graphic user interface" and has nothing to do with scuba diving ... GUE means "Global Underwater Explorers" and is just one of many agencies that can train you to go into caves or below 200 feet. If their program doesn't suit you, there are lots of alternatives to choose from. None of them are going to accept you into their tech program with gear that's not designed to handle multiple tanks, and accommodate the types of emergency skills that are required in overhead environments.
FWIW - tech diving is "cost is no object" diving ... if your desire is to go below 200 feet, start by getting used to the idea that you're going to be spending thou$and$ for training, more thou$and$ for equipment, and hundred$ just for the gas you'll breathe on a dive to those depths. That's irrespective of the agency you choose to get you there ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
---------- Post added December 14th, 2014 at 06:43 AM ----------
Commercial diving school will train you far better then every sport diving certification you can get put together and you will not be using the same equipment as sport divers. But once you are done with that training you will probably not be looking at your current objectives in the same way.
Commercial diving doesn't teach you much about scuba diving ... very different missions. There's no way a commercial school will train a diver to do certain types of tech dives ... caves, for example. They simply aren't equipped to deal with those environments. Our local commercial school (DIT) has a scuba diving component, as I'd guess they all do ... but it doesn't even pretend to train people to tech dive on scuba equipment. The one time I remember one of the DIT guys trying to go to 200 feet on scuba gear he ended up killing himself, because the idiot tried it in the same recreational equipment he trained it ... wetsuit, stab jacket, and a single AL80. He made it to 200 feet just fine ... he didn't even come close to making it back to the surface, though.
Those guys are trained to use surface supplied air ... the jack-ass didn't even have a clue how to manage his gas on scuba, except to "watch your gauge" ... and he watched it go all the way to zero, no doubt ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)