Newbie wanna be Tech Diver

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A couple of things to think about:

Someone mentioned this already, but you have to have a minimum number of dives before you can take a technical class....quite a few more than 5...it depends on the agency.

Even with the minimum number of dives you might be in trouble. There are plenty of "tough love" tech instructors out there that will chew up and spit out anyone without the requisite skills. Cave instructors are infamous for this, but so are other technical instructors, and they have good reason to be tough and demanding. After all, when they certify you they are essentially giving you a license to make dives that require a high level of training and competence. All it takes is one mistake and...well, you get the picture I'm sure.

So...my advice is pretty similar to the rest. Get some dives under your belt, practice the essential skills and drills until you can do them in your sleep and get your buoyancy down pat. Read a book or two about tech diving. Practice, practice, practice. Get to know and dive with tech divers. We don't just do technical dives. Talk to them about what they do.

Then when you think you're ready take an introductory class and make sure it's something you really want to do before you spend the money on the gear. Tech gear makes the cost of recreational gear seem like pocket change.

Tech diving is a pretty cool aspect of the sport. You'll see and do things very few other people ever do. Just make sure you're trained and ready, or you might not live to tell about them.

Good luck! Stay within your experience level and dive safe! It's a sport you will enjoy for many years to come if you do. You probably already heard the old saying, "There are old divers and bold divers, but there are no old, bold divers." There's a reason it got to be an "old saying." :wink:
 
It's already been stated once, but I'll say it again. Tech diving is EXPENSIVE! The amount of money I have spent rec gear and rec dives and travel is huge. Then I decided I have practiced enough and wanted to go into a technical specialty. I began SLOWLY piecing together my new gear I needed. Go price out a drysuit, BP/W, singles wing, doubles wing, another plate, 2 matching regs and set of doubles (tanks bands and manifold). Then a pony tank (13cf) and a reg for that. Then a Deco tank (40cf) and a reg for that. And don't forget you'll need a good canister light. Don't forget the cost of getting 4 sets of regs serviced every year! The cost of Nitrox, advanced nitrox, deco, cavern and wreck training. I have over $10,000 in gear and at least that much in training (and travel and lodging for training). I have barely begun. I still want to take further cave classes and adv wreck classes, and eventually going into helium.

So spend a LOT of time diving locally. Find a good mentor, and practice, practice, practice. Figure out what aspect of "tech" you want to go into. Save your money and slowly buy gear towards that goal that you can practice with. Only ever introduce one new thing at a time. Don't take a class with new gear you haven't mastered. Don't add multiple pieces of new gear in one outing. Slow, slow, slow.
 
Once again:

Dive and dive.

Then dive some more.

Once you find yourself unable to do the dives you want to do you will need more training. It is unlikely you will need more gear.

As you progress there will be mentors to lend you the stuff you require.

Just dive your ass off.

The rest will take care of itself.
 

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So who is the troll and why would they do this in a local forum? I am being naive?

I don't think he (the original poster) is a troll. Go to his profile page and you'll see a link to his FB page. He lives in the DFW area. If there is a troll on this thread they won't get much satisfaction around here.

Now if he were to bring up a certain group of tech divers trained under a certain inflexible philosophy that might be different. :wink:
 
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Once you find yourself unable to do the dives you want to do you will need more training. It is unlikely you will need more gear.

Ummm...you must not be a technical diver. Not sure how he'll safely survive cave, wreck penetration and/or decompression dives without additional gear. Some examples: canister light, reels, stage/deco bottles, additional 1st and 2nd stage regs, a set of doubles, BP/W, etc, etc. That's just some obvious "must haves" to do just a simple technical dive that any tech diver would consider "technical."

Suggesting to a new guy that he can do tech dives on rec gear is bad advice. Period. That's a good way to get someone hurt or dead. Now any dumbass can drop to 150' and bounce right back up on rec gear. I wouldn't call that technical diving and I doubt there are other technical divers out there who would. That falls more into the "stupid" category. Do the same dive to 200' and you're going to have some deco to do. Try that with a single Al80 with air and you may very well run out of back gas before your deco is complete.

If you're not a technical diver don't give advice about technical diving. :no:
 
I don't think he (the original poster) is a troll. Go to his profile page and you'll see a link to his FB page. He lives in the DFW area. If there is a troll on this thread they won't get much satisfaction around here.

Now if he were to bring up a certain group of tech divers trained under a certain inflexible philosophy that might be different. :wink:


That's what I was thinking. I looked at his facebook page, and he appears to be a real person. I couldn't think of any reason that anyone from a certain group of divers with an inflexible philosophy would post on our local forum.
 
The tech-er divers in my local area seem to be of the inflexible variety. Is that less true in TX? Just curious, not trolling. I'm watching the thread because I'm also in the 'very inexperienced but looking towards getting some tech skills in the future'.

Edit: I didn't mean to imply that I was a hotshot who was about to go climb into a few caves to impress women, etc. I have a lot of respect for the commenters in this thread (BullSharkGator, texdiveguy, carriesal, k-valve, etc), and I certainly didn't mean to trivialize their achievements. I was just trying to mention that I had a legitimate interest with my question rather than trying to start a DIR war or something. Sorry to anyone who I offended.
 
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