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I can't comment specifically on the IANTD course, but will throw in some thoughts based around the TDI Intro to Tech course. The good ol' DIR-F, and more recent GUE Fundamentals course really have been so amazingly successful that a lot of other agencies are wanting a piece of that pie. At a...

Both Craig and Alison have given some good advice, would definitely suggest Dive! Tutukaka and a trip out to the Poor Knights. There is a daily bus service between Auckland and Whangerei, from which it's a short hop to Tutukaka: Bay of Islands New Zealand services : : Northliner Express...

Thanks, Steve. Useful to know how it was intended.

Amen! I couldn't agree more. Last year, I had the (mis)pleasure of watching someone teach a tech class which involved a total of 28 minutes of bottom time, and under 70 minutes in total of time in water. The students raved about the course - they got to go to 45m, hooooYA! The...

I probably wasn't clear - by "at the end" I mean after all the dive planning aspects are discussed. I tend to only do S-drills and bubble checks in the water, everything else is done on the boat. S-drills tend to be a modified-S (unless it's a training dive) so done dry when possible with bubble...

I tend to shift things around to suit a particular dive rather than consider the acronym to be an inviolate rule. I see it as an "easy to remember" guide rather than a process - so tend to do S-drills and bubble checks at the end.

I've done oral inflation of a bungied wing at 50m. I've also done oral infation of a different unbungied wing at the same depth. The latter was easier to inflate. I guess to be rigorous, I should have removed the bungies from the bungied wing.... Bottom line is that it's pure opinion - I...

Yup.... for TDI START is: S - S drill (OOA & Bubble Check) T - Team (Equipment Checks) A - Air (Gas Matching) R - Route (Entry/Exit, Underwater Plan) T - Tables (Depth, Time) It may be slightly different for SDI, but some variation of.

Because both water and air are fluids - but they have wildly different fluid properties in terms of say, viscosity. Compare the relative ease with with supersonic flight is achieveable, witht the relative difficulty of a boat doing the same....which in essence is a boat having to overtake...

Not that I am a fan of bungied wings myself, but having both designed both ships hulls and aeroplane wings in my time... there is a huge difference between aerodynamics and hydrodynamics....!

In addition to Lynne and Jim's comments..... there are some huge differences. Cavern and wreck dives essentially use the same motor skills - but the environment is vastly different. Some of the key differences are: 1. You often have to enter a wreck through a restriction (e.g. a window)...

I hate to blow my own trumpet..... but I will. Come to New Zealand, we have some excellent wrecks for training and experience. We also offer an Advanced Wreck course which has either a Wreck or Cavern prerequisite. The current course is really "intermediate" wreck, but I'm in the process of...

The OSTC Mk II. I have one, it's awesome. HW | OSTC Mk.2

Think about what you might want a knife for whilst diving. Generally, I think that smaller knives are actually better than bigger ones. You probably want a line cutter on the back of the blade. I use a Halcyon T knife on my harness: and a Saeko folding knife as spare in my drysuit pocket...

What do you mean by "free ascent", Thal? I interpret it as a blue water ascent, i.e. no reference. In which case I would add ".... whilst sharing gas" to the end of your statement.

100% agree - but then most of us are trained (to some degree) with the use of an alternate air source and donating/receiving gas from another diver, so not only does it make us feel more comfortable but it is also a solution that is within our competence. If you replace the 80+ feet out of...

I almost wish the OP hadn't mentioned Spare Air - they are too easy to make the target, rather than addressing the more general question about redundant air sources in general. To be honest, I don't think there is any "right answer" here. Personally, I think that any diver needing a "placebo"...

Had a pretty cool experience yesterday whilst out diving. The local rescue helicopter has a new winchman in need of training, and they teamed up with one of our dive charters (Dive! Tutukaka) to get some practice for the new guy. We were on board and got to see the whole thing. For divers...

One thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post - if you choose to buy a computer for decompression diving, the absolute ONE MUST feature is that it doesn't lock out on you if you violate the deco profile.

I wouldn't recommend buying a computer *before* an introductory tech course - what you (should) learn in that course is the information that will enable you to make a choice, between a computer and/or a bottom timer. For an introductory course, a "recreational" computer in gauge mode is...