Best way to structure technical training

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Question for the instructors but all are welcome to share your views.

It seems that different agencies like to break technical training into different chunks and with some of these, I am totally failing to understand the wisdom behind the breakdown.

GUE and other DIR offshoots have Fundies or Essentials which is meant to build basic proficiency. I can appreciate that. After that their progression is Tech 1, Tech 2 etc and since you are not learning new gases, it is more skill oriented.

TDI's original approach made sense if you wanted to be selective about the depths at which you would introduce Helium. ANDP would introduce divers to bottle handing and basics of decompression while Trimix would have been their first introduction to Helium.

Is there any reason or advantage for SSI to break their technical training into XR Nitrox with 130 feet depth limit and 50% Nitrox for deco? To the instructors who teach tech, what exactly are we trying to achieve by this mini-tech course? It appears that we are not confident in the students ability to hold a stop at 20 feet so we are graduating semi-tech divers with an error room for 70 feet?

What exactly is the best breakdown for creating solid and competent technical divers and why?

 

[CptTightPants21]

Just to clarify. You ARE learning new gases in Tech 1 and Tech 2. Tech 1 is normoxic trimix - 21/35 and 18/45; Tech 2 is hypoxic - 15/55, 12/65, 10/70....etc. I think what you might be getting at is most of the math is covered and stressed at the fundamentals level. There is no learning to calculate MOD, ATA, SAC rate, etc because those calculations or the core concepts that enable those calculations have already been gone over thoroughly.

I just looked at the SSI website. It looks like SSI basically said "scr3w it, no one takes our tech classes, might as well just name our programs whatever the hell we want". SSI 'Extended Range' only goes to 145ft and 100%--when every other Extended Range class would be to 170-200' and include two deco gases plus maybe bottom stage.

Names aside, SSI is taking a page out of PADI's book (tec 40-45-50) and breaking there tech classes down into small bite size chunks.

When I was first starting out I didn't care about the smaller breakdowns of classes--I even slightly favored it. Now that I have done more real world diving, I no longer like the smaller breakdown in classes. I find that the smaller breakdown of classes lends itself too much to diving past certification or being 'unsatisfied' with the current diving level. I have other tech agency certifications, but I think the GUE method of Tech 1, Tech 2, Cave 1, Cave 2, CCR 1, CCR 2 is the way to go. Each of those classes is a nice full mouthful--clear progression of skills and open up a large swath of future dives before needing to move on to the next level. You aren't babied with arbitrarily small bite sized morsels.

Some people will prefer the small bite size classes as they progress, but I don't share that philosophy. You should walk before you can run, but there comes a time where you need to be able to take a full bite; diving at 180ft is not the place for needing small bites

 

[rjack321]

UTD tech1 has a 130ft limit, with O2 deco. The idea was to break up an "150ft" T1 since its 5+ days of exhausting otherwise.

Some people like smaller long weekend type classes

 

[CptTightPants21]

UTD tech1 has a 130ft limit, with O2 deco. The idea was to break up an "150ft" T1 since its 5+ days of exhausting otherwise.

Some people like smaller long weekend type classes

I think we should distinguish between the breaking up course days vs cert cards being issued. I have seen Tech 1s being broken up between two long weekends in Florida, typically 3 days in the springs and 3 days in S. Florida off the boats. I have no problem with people doing a course over two weekends, a single cert card is still only issued after you pass day 6.

 

[rjack321]

I think we should distinguish between the breaking up course days vs cert cards being issued. I have seen Tech 1s being broken up between two long weekends in Florida, typically 3 days in the springs and 3 days in S. Florida off the boats. I have no problem with people doing a course over two weekends, a single cert card is still only issued after you pass day 6.

some people want to take 6 months or a year and dive at an intermediate level
or never go beyond 130ft even

 

[CptTightPants21]

some people want to take 6 months or a year and dive at an intermediate level
or never go beyond 130ft even

Which is fine. The time taken between courses or the dives that they want to do after class is up to the individual. This is a discussion about the 'best' (if there is such a thing) breakdown of tech courses. The SSI course with 130' and only 50% is the definition of something that is half baked. I have no idea how someone could make the arbitrary decision before training that they want deco, but don't want to go beyond 130. As soon as they want to do a dive a little deeper (140') they have to either take a new course of violate their training. They also don't have access to 100% O2.

We can keep using Tech 1 as the example, but other courses would fit. What dives are actually done after class is an individual choice, but the best certs should be meaty enough that they allow flexibility and open up an large array of dive options, not a narrow cookie cutter approach.

 

[RainPilot]

As you know, the progression from recreational, vacation-type diver to a tech diver requires a significant addition of skills, each of which needs to be mastered in order to move on to the next stage. Generally the agencies have built their courses around these "building blocks" in order to create a space where the diver can consolidate their new skills on their own for a while before adding the next chunk.

Starting with an AOW diver:

1. Fix my buoyancy, trim and propulsion
2. Take me down to 40m
3. Give me a redundant gas source
4. Give me a stage tank
5. Let me do some limited deco with a "friendly gas" (50%)
6. Add helium to the mix
7. Add another deco stage and more (unlimited?) deco
8. Increase depth (60-ish m)
9. Add a travel gas and another stage.
10. Increase depth (usually 100+)

However since divers have gotten more impatient, and instructors/shops have gotten more desperate to sell courses in a declining industry, the agencies have started to merge some courses and change some of the depth limits to change the perceived "value" of the courses. Some have also started to add in helium much earlier (not a bad thing IMO). However, adding helium as a "standard" can be problematic for shops in places where it isn't available.

Most of the time, it is easier to add a new course than to change existing ones, so occasionally there are some very odd combinations of courses or gaps in the training progression.

Personally, wherever possible I follow the above breakdown and issue cards where required or appropriate. Nobody really needs a card for a buoyancy-trim-propulsion workshop, around here nobody needs a card for twins, if they choose sidemount then I will issue a card, usually its only by stage 5 that anybody needs a card. I usually add helium earlier as well, then they get a card for that so they can get fills (RAID Deep40 Trimix for example). This is where having multiple agencies to cert from can be a bonus, allowing cherrypicking of course structure to fit your desired flow.

I know there's better ways to do this, this is what has worked for me. I am following here to see what the real heavyweights are doing and hopefully learn from them.

 

[RainPilot]

I have no idea how someone could make the arbitrary decision before training that they want deco, but don't want to go beyond 130.

I see this a fair bit. There are people who don't want to go deep but are just tired of their short NDL on a 110' dive and would like to stay longer on the site to get their money's worth. I have a couple I am working with, the husband is keen to go full tech but the wife has no desire to go deeper. She also has a SAC rate that makes me cry in my mask every time I ask her how much gas she has. She has now gotten into photography, so a "130', slung stage and mostly backgas deco for 10-15 min" course is something I could get her excited about but thats as far as it goes. Personally I am glad that some of these certs exist for these people, but they do lead to some confusion and generally clutter up the course progressions.

 

[NothingClever]

Like RainPilot, I’m very interested in the perspective of seasoned dive leaders.

As a toddler diver (TDI AN/DP), I’m trying to figure out what training to pursue after I get some more deco reps in. I know I shouldn’t be so critical but at first impulse I find some of these 5m certification increments to be a little insulting.

Available to me (in no particular order) are TDI, SSI, RAID and GUE.

 

[NothingClever]

It seems that different agencies like to break technical training into different chunks and with some of these, I am totally failing to understand the wisdom behind the breakdown.

Purely my speculation but I think it’s a way to mitigate the risk of liability.

If an agency only has me for a weekend class or two and a few dives, certifying me in a small increment lessens the agency’s exposure to risk.

Hypothetically speaking, they certified me to dive at 45m but when I suffered a hit I was on a profile with a max depth of 50m....not the agency’s fault in a court of law since I was operating outside the limits I was certified to dive.