Best Wreck Diving Certification?

[Redshift]

Since this is in the Technical Diving Specialities board, I'd say that it's not just about the instructor. Different agencies offer different courses. The OP mentioned first the PADI speciality and later mentioned TDI. Those are very different courses!

 

[victorzamora]

Since this is in the Technical Diving Specialities board, I'd say that it's not just about the instructor. Different agencies offer different courses. The OP mentioned first the PADI speciality and later mentioned TDI. Those are very different courses!

You're right about the wreck courses. Not so much on the deco courses.

 

[Akimbo]

... The new breed of divers bad mouth each other and their dive agency... I've seen people bad mouth Chatterton as a unsafe diver...

That is probably the key weakness of any course taught by people more interested in selling training than being honest. Wreck diving isn't safe even when you are surface supplied and have teams of professionals throughout the operation. Wreck diving in Scuba is a great deal less safe than that. Throw in being miles offshore, amateurs (in the non-derogatory sense), decompression, leisure budgets, cold water, low visibility, and sloppy seas and it gets even worse. Everyone who dives on wrecks is unsafe including John, every wreck instructor, US Navy salvage divers, and me.

Once a diver gets that fact imbedded in their psyche they will be a much safer. Want safe? Stay home in your garden and snack on the organic vegetables.

BTW oldschoolto, nice doubles and bailout.

 

[decompression]

Since this is in the Technical Diving Specialities board, I'd say that it's not just about the instructor. Different agencies offer different courses. The OP mentioned first the PADI speciality and later mentioned TDI. Those are very different courses!

They can be.....depends on the instructor......[emoji4]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cnherrick]

I am just shocked at how much helpful and detailed advice and information you all have loaded up onto this thread. Really, I pretty much speechless at saying thanks.

Just for the sake of it, I'll add a link here to the GUI instructors on their website:
GUE Instructors | Global Underwater Explorers

Sadly, no one in Texas. However, if that means a trip to Florida, getting wet and sucking air from a hose, that could be a really good thing !

Again, thanks and please keep the convo going. Because I am learning ...

 

[Akimbo]

Best? The US Navy Diving and Salvage Training Command (NDSTC) in Panama City, Florida comes to mind…

…Sadly, no one in Texas. However, if that means a trip to Florida, getting wet and sucking air from a hose, that could be a really good thing ! ...

:shocked2: I really was kidding; you don’t have to join the Navy!

Serious again: Where do you think most of your wreck diving will be?

 

[oldschoolto]

That is probably the key weakness of any course taught by people more interested in selling training than being honest. Wreck diving isn’t safe even when you are surface supplied and have teams of professionals throughout the operation. Wreck diving in Scuba is a great deal less safe than that. Throw in being miles offshore, amateurs (in the non-derogatory sense), decompression, leisure budgets, cold water, low visibility, and sloppy seas and it gets even worse. Everyone who dives on wrecks is unsafe including John, every wreck instructor, US Navy salvage divers, and me.

Once a diver gets that fact imbedded in their psyche they will be a much safer. Want safe? Stay home in your garden and snack on the organic vegetables.

BTW oldschoolto, nice doubles and bailout.

You hit the nail on the head... Wreck and Cave diving are " VERY DANGEROUS " and selling a c-card to someone over a weekend or even a few weekends is not how a diver is made... These types of diving is a mindset... It's all about risk management... I love the story you tell about being in the salvage course and the instructor gives you the layout of the wreck and asks if you'd do it... Then asks would you send in your friend...

Jim...

 

[tomfcrist]

Something to think about would be the ScubaBoard Wreck Treck this July. Capt Jim Wyatt will be offering his wreck certification on the trip, and there are few better than he is at teaching diving in an overhead environment. He lives in Key Largo, so 3 of the wrecks we will be diving are in his back yard. TomFChrist was thinking about teaching the deco procedures class on the trip, so you have the option of one or the other. Here are the details: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/fl...s-wreck-trek-july-2015-a.html?highlight=Spree

I'm not currently signed up for this trip, but if someone twisted my arm and wanted a deco course...that would probably change pretty quick. Honestly I couldn't think of a better setting or a better series of wrecks to teach any tech course this side of trimix.

 

[Rhone Man]

If you want to do wreck pen for the cool factor, don't. Cave diving is nicer and much safer.

I am not deliberately trolling you, but that is a weird comment on multiple levels.

 

[bl6394]

I took the TDI Advanced Wreck class with John Chatterton. Excellent experience - great time. We did the class in Lake Michigan. I later took TDI Adv. Trimix with him in Pompano Beach, FL. Again - wonderful time. Learned alot.

I'd highly recommend Chatterton as an instructor. He has a great deal of real world experience on challenging wrecks. He's also a very personable guy. His were two of my favorite classes.

Just an aside - I love both wreck and cave - but they are not the same. Its not really fair to say one is safer, better or more difficult than the other: apples and oranges. Asside from both being overhead - they have very different challenges. Generally, wreck's are more unstable environments - with lot's of stuff to snag you and trap you. There may be little to no flow to flush out any silt or percolation. And the environment can be very confusing visually - disorientating.

On the other hand - a 10,000 foot penetration in a cave is nothing to sneeze at either. Particularly if you have an equipment failure. And some of the restrictions these guys squeeze into would terrify me.

Dive safe.