Backing off from technical diving

[gekodivebali]

Let's go back to basics: unless you're a commercial/military/instructing diver, diving is merely about having fun.
You can do this in multiple ways: free-, rec-, tec-, cave-, wreck-, critter-, big fish-, photog-, videog-, buddy-, team-, solo-, fresh-, salt-, swimming pool-, breather-, spearing-, teaching-, guiding-, learning, supervising, etc...
Different ways will peak your interest at different times. Some you will learn to love, then forget. Some you will get back to. Others will be replaced by new ones. Or you may just stick to the only ones you truly love.
Whether you move from one to the next hectically or keep on doing the same thing over and over does not matter. All that matters is that you keep on having serious fun. That and not taking yourself too seriously while doing it!

 

[DaleC]

Lynne, I said some, not all



Here's a simple route to tech diving that doesn't cost much and eases people into what's in store.. the problem, it takes time (and you can't call yourself a "tech diver" for a while). Never underestimate the importance of labels to the ego.

Basic OW diving to rec depths.
Develop core diving skills, read a couple of books. Consider whether you like this sort of stuff. Want to push beyond rec NDL's so you pick up a copy of the USN air tables.

Basic Staged decompression. Begin learning what it takes to stay down; practice within the NDL's. Collect a couple more tanks. Begin doing single gas decompression at rec depths. Slowly increase your deco time. Consider whether you like this sort of stuff. Get bored with increased hang times. Maybe get some instruction.

Mixed gas decompression. Take a course on advanced nitrox/deco procedures. Begin using 50/50 and 100%. Consider whether you like this sort of stuff. Begin bumping up against the limitations of air diving. Look at the cost of trimix training...

At this point the training/cost investment is going to really kick in but at the same time a lot of preliminary diving has been done to give the diver an idea whether they re suited and enjoy this form of diving.


Today's (not so fantastical) scenario:

Take basic OW course. Do 20 dives in world famous tropical destinations. Decide you've been there, done that. Read an article about tech diving. Declare you are going to become a "Tech Diver". Begin to mock anything OW. Begin wearing your mask on your forehead backwards. Sarcastically ask MOF's if they need rescuing.

Look at various courses. Decide you don't have time for preliminaries and sign up for trimix training in the Galopagos. Buy a scooter.

Try to pick up chicks during most of the course but declare it a good learning experience. Pay thousands and do a handful of tech dives. Aim for the Andrea Doria. Touch it. Get scared.

Sell all your tech gear.

Read an article about cave diving.. now that's cool! Declare you are going to become a "Cave Diver". begin refering to yourself as one as soon as you take a cavern course...

 

[Hawkwood]

....
Today's (not so fantastical) scenario:

Take basic OW course. Do 20 dives in world famous tropical destinations. Decide you've been there, done that. Read an article about tech diving. Declare you are going to become a "Tech Diver". Begin to mock anything OW. Begin wearing your mask on your forehead backwards. Sarcastically ask MOF's if they need rescuing.

Look at various courses. Decide you don't have time for preliminaries and sign up for trimix training in the Galopagos. Buy a scooter.

Try to pick up chicks during most of the course but declare it a good learning experience. Pay thousands and do a handful of tech dives. Aim for the Andrea Doria. Touch it. Get scared.

Sell all your tech gear.

Read an article about cave diving.. now that's cool! Declare you are going to become a "Cave Diver". begin refering to yourself as one as soon as you take a cavern course...

Love it.

Now replace the "hobby" specific references to R/C planes (or whatever), Model/High Power Rocketry, or basically any hobby or pass time where there is always sometime else and you have the same scenario.

This has been one of the more interesting threads I have read in quite a while. I learned a lot.

 

[boulderjohn]

What is missing is an emphasis on local recreational diving. If more time was spent developing and promoting this as a valid and worthwhile pursuit, more divers might spend more time there developing basic skills, and perhaps, learning what they really enjoy in regards to diving.

If I lived where you do, I would certainly emphasize this if I were a dive operator. I spend a month or so in Florida each year these days, and I certainly see local operators doing all they can along these lines.

Now let's consider this approach where I live in Colorado, a state that is among the top in the nation for certified divers per capita. I just taught a class this weekend in Chatfield State Park. If you bring a shovel, you might get more than 21 feet deep. Visibility is a few feet, and if a student rototills the bottom, it is inches until the dust settles. When you take students on a dive, better have them follow a line. Either lay it yourself (as I do) or have them follow the permanent line linking artifacts like toilets, a shopping cart, etc. Unlike the other instructors in the shop, I prefer Aurrora Reservoir, where most of the year you can get past 30 feet deep.It lacks a permanent line, but there is a sunken Cessna to explore. Aurora is closed to local diving from mid Autumn to mid Spring. Chatfield is open all year, but it is really, really cold in the winter. Those are the two best sites available in the entire state, and if I am wrong, someone please let me know. The best "local" diving we have is a 6-7 hour drive south to a couple of sink holes in New Mexico.

I think that situation exists in a lot of places around the world. It is really tough to get people excited about local diving, and transitioning to tech under those conditions is even tougher.

 

[flots am]

Basic Staged decompression. Begin learning what it takes to stay down; practice within the NDL's. Collect a couple more tanks. Begin doing single gas decompression at rec depths. Slowly increase your deco time. Consider whether you like this sort of stuff. Get bored with increased hang times. Maybe get some instruction.

This is where it sort of falls apart.

There's a huge difference between just planning and executing a dive and having someone who already knows what to do (a tech instructor) demand that you simulate various failures in a realistic setting, without actually exposing you to too much risk.

When I had 100 dives, I had absolutely no doubt that I could safely plan and execute a long 200'+ dive. It's just a printed dive plan and the right number of bottles with the right gas.

Then I took an actual deco class and discovered just how much various levels of depth and stress effected my RMV as well as my ability to think clearly, handle single and multiple failures in myself and my buddy, and the consequences of screwing up.

I don't think this is something you can get just by practicing without assistance from someone who really knows what's going on, what can happen and knows how to teach.

flots.

 

[Wayne at DiveSeekers]

Backing off from technical diving, I get if....
1. Age
2. Health
3. Lost Interest (maybe)

Costs - I get it but don't get! First thing that I explain to divers that come to me for Tec training is costs! Tec Diving is not cheap! If you want to do the dives you need the gear, training, gas, charters/travel & service (think I covered it). To me, this has to be one of the first discussions.

I try to balance teaching and doing personal dives so I am not burned out as an Instructor. I love every aspect of the Tec dives, so I don't see me giving it up for a while. Tec diving is not for everyone, and that is OK.

 

[mathauck0814]

Backing off from technical diving, I get if....
1. Age
2. Health
3. Lost Interest (maybe)

Costs - I get it but don't get! First thing that I explain to divers that come to me for Tec training is costs! Tec Diving is not cheap! If you want to do the dives you need the gear, training, gas, charters/travel & service (think I covered it). To me, this has to be one of the first discussions.

I try to balance teaching and doing personal dives so I am not burned out as an Instructor. I love every aspect of the Tec dives, so I don't see me giving it up for a while. Tec diving is not for everyone, and that is OK.

To some small extent, I do understand not wanting to spend the same money to do the same dive over and over. Some of us live in places with a lot of variety in tech sites in our back yard to keep things interesting, others not so much. I could see not wanting to fill the double 130s with mix to do the same 100m wall that you've done a dozen times already this year... Like I said - I understand why people get out, I just don't necessarily share their sentiment (at least not yet)

 

[TSandM]

I have all the gear, and I have the training, and my gas costs aren't unsupportable. (The gas for a 150 foot dive in the lake costs less than a day on a recreational charter.) I've just found that the bang for the buck isn't there -- a lot of our technical diving in the T1 range is airplanes at the bottom of Lake Washington. I've dived most of them, some two or three times. They don't change much! I'd much rather dive Long Island Wall, or Davidson Rock, or go up to Saanich Inlet or do Agamemnon Wall (as previously mentioned). But all those dives are boat dives and the ones in Canada require a pretty long schlep and an expensive ferry ride. As a result, I just don't do them very often.

 

[Slamfire]

Oh, come on! Nobody is "promoting ignorance." We're not talking about anything like refusing to let Afghan girls go to school, for cripes sake!

and yet

people without mentors to hold them back may in fact think this is the case [knowing about deco and equating it to learning how to plan and execute a deco dive]. The mindset of semi-trained people--those with only a smattering of knowledge but no in-depth (pardon the pun) training--is the bigger issue, IMHO.

So we take preventive measures against the dangers of "semi-trained" people by leaving them totally untrained in this particular subject matter. Again, Quero, I cannot agree to say that ignorance is better than knowledge on any degree. Also, I thought mentors would help you advance, not hold you back.

While I fully recognize that learning how to read tables is not the same as being ready to plan and execute deco dives, knowledge is still better than ignorance. In my particular case, knowing how to use US Navy deco tables was one of the biggest deterrents against taking a dive beyond NDL. And, yes, I might be projecting my own self to the rest of the world here again, but I would hope most of humanity would do something useful with knowledge instead of going suicidal.

Since you were so terribly disappointed in your Open Water course, I suppose you would have preferred one of those courses that takes half a year to complete and doesn't issue a certification until you have a dozen dives and 100 hours of training.

I would have preferred a course that did mention how crucial it is to control your fears in difficult situations, management of panicked divers, and basic rescue skills--at least more than a tired diver tow/push (wouldn't you think these are crucial, floatsam?). As well as a course that could provide me an idea of the magnitude of my screw up if I ever took a dive beyond NDL.

And I did get much more than a dozen dives or 100 hrs of training way before I obtained a plastic card saying that I was now a true blue OW diver. I only got that plastic card because I moved to another country and it was hard to resume diving when you no longer have a diving social structure around you. But there are plenty of poor souls that don't get a chance to be disappointed simply because they don't know what they don't -- ignorance over knowledge.

 

[Wayne at DiveSeekers]

Yeah, guess I am lucky to have all these wrecks to choose from here in the northeast! I love our local diving off of NJ as well as other options that are available within a reasonable driving distance.