My AN/DP/Helitrox course

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Sometimes you gotta do, what you gotta do to take a class. That said, it is very rare for an instructor not to be able to find a former student or just another friend to tag along on a dive and play buddy for a class.

Solo academic work is fine, but I have done enough advanced training to make having a "buddy" outside of the instructor a prerequisite for in-water class work. The difference in quality and experience is just night and day.


Where I am, you normally have a line of former students who will hop in and play the role of the additional student. Typically we have courses with teams of three but two will work.

The former student gets good practice while helping out the current student. Plus, it is loads of fun!!

Never will you see 1 on 1 in-water instruction for tech courses based on all the reasons mentioned above.
 
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Maybe I am a bit silly but why wouldn’t one skip Heliotrox if he plans to do trimix ?
 
Maybe I am a bit silly but why wouldn’t one skip Heliotrox if he plans to do trimix ?

Depends on a couple of factors.
1. Willingness to pay just a little bit extra for the helitrox cert vs the normal Adv. Nitrox
2. Depends on how quickly the time table is to upgrade to trimix. Trimix might be 100% in the a divers future, but there can be a lot of diving in between the two courses. Rarely, and not recommended, is a diver going to take Adv Nitrox one month and then Trimix the next.
 
Maybe I am a bit silly but why wouldn’t one skip Heliotrox if he plans to do trimix ?
Turn this around, why would you want to do ~45m on air in the first place?

Heliox gives you reasonable gas choices in line with modern density guidelines whether you decide to go on to deeper longer decompression or not.
 
Turn this around, why would you want to do ~45m on air in the first place?

Heliox gives you reasonable gas choices in line with modern density guidelines whether you decide to go on to deeper longer decompression or not.
This is the argument that makes the most sense: to have a better gas when are limited by 1.4 PPO2 because it may take a while before to have trimix.

Thank you.
 
Maybe I am a bit silly but why wouldn’t one skip Heliotrox if he plans to do trimix ?
An/dp is a requirement to take trimix. Adding helitrox allows one access to trimix for dives in the an/dp range. That allows one to gain experience in tech diving with a clearer head before moving to the deeper stuff taught in trimix where little mistakes turn ugly much quicker.
 
Turn this around, why would you want to do ~45m on air in the first place?

Heliox gives you reasonable gas choices in line with modern density guidelines whether you decide to go on to deeper longer decompression or not.

In fact, when you write it that way, it seems that helitrox should be required for AN/DP..

That was my biggest problem after AN/DP. I now can do deco, and theoretically 150 foot dives, but what gas am I supposed to breathe? It ends up being weak nitrox. For me, there was no doubt I was going to go to trimix, but I ended up doing a bunch of dives I would’ve much preferred to do with some helium in the meantime. At the time I did my AN/DP, nobody was talking about helitrox — and TDI had a *silly* 20% max. The cost/benefit wasn’t there to do the helitrox class by itself rather than trimix. But now? I think AN/DP/helitrox is the only way to go.
 
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