Advanced Recreational and Technical Training

[boulderjohn]

With the recent changes in forum structure eliminating the Trips and Local Marketplace forums and having such announcements appear within the appropriate regional forums, I am re-announcing the still new Advanced Recreational and Technical diving program (ART) at Weavers Dive Center in Boulder, CO. The idea of the program is to take students who are looking for more out of diving as far as they want to go.

Advanced Recreational: Students learn advanced buoyancy and kicking techniques that will allow them to explore recreational level wrecks, swim-throughs, and caverns without creating silt storms. Cavern diving and wreck diving certification is possible. Gear selections appropriate to more advanced diving is explored. Students can learn more advanced dive planning, gas management, and decompression theory. Although the program has a menu of a number of classes, the two centerpiece courses are:

• TecReational Diver: A PADI Distinctive specialty only available in Colorado through Weavers. It teaches advanced buoyancy and trim, as well as all the skills needed to perform more advanced dives, including frog kick, modified frog kick, modified flutter kick, back kick, and helicopter turns.
• Dive Planning: A PADI distinctive specialty only available in Colorado at Weavers, this course teaches virtually everything a recreational diver needs to know to be able to plan dives without professional supervision in most sites around the world It includes gas management, decompression theory, emergency measures, safety concerns, tides, altitude, and much more.

Technical: Technical training is offered through TDI. Students are introduced to the basics through Introduction to Technical Diving and continue on to decompression diving. The Cavern Diver specialty can also be considered a part of the Technical program.

We plan to do training in a variety of sites, including locally at Rock Lake in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.

Interested people can contact the shop or PM me for more information.

 

[Tjack]

Hi John, what is required to get Deco procedures certified? Is tech fundies a prerequisite?

 

[boulderjohn]

Hi John, what is required to get Deco procedures certified? Is tech fundies a prerequisite?

You need to start with Intro to Tech. You also need Advanced Nitrox. You will normally take Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures at the same time. Unless you are a rebreather user, there is no reason to take Advanced Nitrox unless you are planning to use it for decompression, and there is no reason to learn decompression procedures if you are not qualified for advanced nitrox. The whole procedure takes a while, with the time dependent upon how often you are available for training and how much epxerience you have starting off. If you already have pretty good skills in terms of buoyancy and propulsion, you will breeze through Intro to Tech.

If you do not have those skills, then you might want to start with the TecReational Diver class. The curriculum of that class is very much what most people mean when they say "fundies." On the other hand, Intro to Tech goes over that stuff, too, so you might as well start there.

Equipment is an issue. You don't absolutely need to have tech gear for Introduction to Tech, but if you are thinking along those lines, you want to start using a BP/W, etc. as soon as possible. If you are going to be doing local decompression dives, then you had better have a dry suit. A 90 minute dive in Rock lake in a wet suit would not be my idea of fun.

 

[Peter Guy]

TecReational Diver: A PADI Distrinctive specialty only available through Weavers.

Does that mean I can't teach it any longer since I'm not at Weavers?

 

[boulderjohn]

Does that mean I can't teach it any longer since I'm not at Weavers?

In Colorado.

I will amend.


(Peter wrote the course.)