Looking for Advice for training progression.

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One specialty that you might consider is sidemount diving. The extended-range classes will require redundant air sources (i.e., two tanks) and switching regulators; sidemount training will help you get a leg up on those skills.
 
Rescue (or Stress and Rescue as I guess SSI calls it) is a useful course no matter what kind of diving you choose to pursue--every diver should take it. But there's no reason it has to be first in your "training progression." Both that and a course that teaches you the fundamentals of buoyancy, trim, propulsion and control are important to any kind of diving, and you can take either first. Like some others here, I took GUE Fundamentals. Take it sooner rather than later, because after taking the class you will then be able to spend many many hours using what you learned to improve your diving, before going further in your training. You could spend a year after Fundies just diving and dialing in what you learned before making any other decisions about a next course. That might be a good time during which to take Rescue.
 
Thanks that is a really helpful comment. How proficient should i be before starting intro to tech? Are there any common specialty classes i should take? Will i just learn those specialty skills when learning tech anyway?

Well, the answer is pretty much, "it depends."

Most technical agencies will have those types of programs that are specifically geared to taking recreational divers and teaching them the skills they will need to have in order to progress onto actual technical training. GUE Fundies, PSAI calls theirs ABC's I think, TDI, IANTD, UTD Essentials, etc. all have similar courses.

Most will have fairly limited prerequisites because they're specifically designed to get recreational divers to a place where they can take those tech skills and master them, so really, you could go into any of them right away. They're not going to teach you mask clearing or regulator recovery or anything like that, they are all geared to perfecting buoyancy, trim, and propulsion, and introducing students to gear configurations that they will utilize as they progress along their technical diving path. If you can go into the course already knowing how to do the basics, your instructor will be able to spend less time on the dumb skills and more time on sorting out the specific skills that you will utilize. If you go in and you can't recover a regulator, chances are they won't even let you continue in the course. They're not there to teach you how to be an open water diver, the whole goal is raising your level of proficiency of the basic skills to what you'll need to do actual advanced diving.

Taking specialties beforehand really isn't something that will pay off. You don't really have "specialties" in the technical diving world, at least not in the same vein as the recreational world. I guess GUE's documentation diver is sort of a "specialty," but it's at a whole other level. But yeah, fish ID isn't going to help..... I can't tell you how many divers I run into that have a binder full of specialties that are terrible divers.

You're better off being truly comfortable in the water (not your perceived level of comfort when you're flailing around like you just found a spider crawling up your arm) going into the course, and that means diving, being competent at the level that you're at. They're going to make you a whole lot better, but if you start at a higher level, the better you will do. Pool time is a fantastic way to prep. Hell, I do pool time even when I can't go real diving, and especially before I'm going to take a course or do some serious diving like cave or deco. A little rec vacation on shallow reefs I may only spend an hour in the pool making sure everything fits right and is configured correctly, a rebreather cave dive I may spend 4 or 5 hours in the pool burning through a scrubber just working on skills. So hop in the shallow end and practice neutral buoyancy. Then hop in and practice doing it in horizontal trim. Or do it the other way around, it really doesn't matter, the end goal is the same.

Think about it this way, your brain has 100% of it's cognitive ability to dedicate to a full set of tasks. Let's say that now, you spend 85% of your cognitive ability trying to keep yourself from cratering into the bottom or keeping your head below water (honestly that's probably pretty accurate for most recreational divers). That only leaves 15% of your ability to dedicate to other tasks or deal with any issues. Now let's say you relax, practice your breathing, and all of a sudden you realize you're counting pool tiles while only using 50% of your cognitive ability to stay neutral, that's great, now you've got 50% to dedicate to other stuff as well. The more you can automate those tasks from your conscious cognitive function, the better shape you will be in to take the lessons from a course and apply them and master them.

What we're really talking about is the spectrum from unconscious incompetence (you don't even know you suck) to unconscious competence (you don't even realize you're perfectly neutral and in trim, it's just what you do). The more your diving, even at your currently limited level, can shift to the unconscious competence side of the spectrum, the more you will get out of the class. So work on making your basic skills an unconscious action. Then, when you take whatever class is your entry into the technical diving world, your adjustment to the new skills will be much easier, and you will accomplish much more. You will get thrown back into the beginning of the spectrum on any of those courses. That's the idea, you become fully aware of your deficiencies and you know how to correct them, then you correct them, then you forget that you're even doing them with mastery, and you don't realize that you're correcting something. However, the learning curve getting back to unconsciously doing things correctly will be much easier if you can do them well at your current level, so relax, get comfortable, and practice the stuff you already know how to do.

Don't worry about taking a stack of cards to your instructor. You're paying them to sort out the basics to a very high level. Very little of what you've done before will matter, but the skills you have beforehand will make a world of difference.
 
Whichever way you go, definitely getting some more dives under your belt would be a very good thing.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with some long range planning, even though some pooh-pooh long term planning.

If I may ask - you’ve been diving 8 years and only have 60 dives, why so few in such a long period of time? Have you only recently gotten more serious about diving? It’s a perishable skill. If you take Fundies or whatever, you need to keep diving on a regular basis to keep your skills up. What’s the point of taking such a course if you’re not going to dive for another six months after taking it? (Just an example)
 
The OP is 18 years old according to his profile.
 
Whichever way you go, definitely getting some more dives under your belt would be a very good thing.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with some long range planning, even though some pooh-pooh long term planning.

If I may ask - you’ve been diving 8 years and only have 60 dives, why so few in such a long period of time? Have you only recently gotten more serious about diving? It’s a perishable skill. If you take Fundies or whatever, you need to keep diving on a regular basis to keep your skills up. What’s the point of taking such a course if you’re not going to dive for another six months after taking it? (Just an example)

got my OW at 10 yrs old. usually dove a few times a year. in the last 2 years i have gotten progressively more serious about it. I just turned 18 so i'm getting to the point where i am actually able to dive more. Even with how little i dive a year personally i think the skill has stayed pretty strong.
 
I'm not a cave diver or Instructor but I will say one of the most helpful classes. I took was perfect buoyancy. I would take that class or find someone that can help you learn what and how to achieve good buoyancy and trim before you do a lot of training teaching yourself bad techniques.
 
My first open water training dive for my combined Intro to Tech/Advanced Nitrox/Deco Procedures class was dive #49 for me. My final checkout dive to complete those certifications was dive #84, 9 months after I had my first tech class classroom and pool sessions.

The reason I was able to start my tech training at such an early point in my diving was that my tech instructor was the same instructor I had previously taken the Deep and Wreck specialty courses from. He "learned" my diving during those earlier courses. I believe he saw some potential. And, he was willing to take me into the course knowing, and making clear to me, that it might be a while, with a lot of practice and diving along the way, before he signed off on my certs.

Besides the 35 dives I did from start to finish of that class, I did a lot of pool sessions, with and without my instructor. A number of the open water dives in there were also with my tech instructor.

So, again I say, my suggestion is to find the instructor you want to train with. Then, take some classes that will help you anyway (like Deep or Wreck or Rescue or Advanced Buoyancy Control or whatever) from that instructor, if you can. Intro to Tech or Fundies or Essentials are appropriate for any level of diver, really, except possibly the ones that are already into tech, so no reason to wait to take any of those. Let the instructor guide you through what training you do. The instructor will be able to tell you when you are ready for the actual tech classes.
 
I'm not a cave diver or Instructor but I will say one of the most helpful classes. I took was perfect buoyancy. I would take that class or find someone that can help you learn what and how to achieve good buoyancy and trim before you do a lot of training teaching yourself bad techniques.
You really need an instructor who goes beyond the syllabus on this one. Someone who adds to it so that it is a mirror of fundamentals/essentials/basics of exploration. If there is a GUE, UTD, or ISE instructor nearby, then the return is likely to be much higher.

My PPB course was a joke. My fundies course was most definitely not.
 
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