Cost of TDI Advanced Nitrox course

[Zachyamauchi]

Hello all
This is my first post to scuba board. I am interested in taking some tec diving courses and am wondering what a typical price for the TDI Advanced Nitrox course is. My LDS offers it for $650 and I was wondering if that is a good price. I have my padi advanced OW and nitrox.
Thanks
Zach

 

[DevonDiver]

Where costs vary, inevitably so does quality. You tend to get what you pay for... and with technical dive training, your foundations are critical.

My recommendation is to do considerable research before selecting your trainer. Yes.. you select an instructor... not a dive center or agency.... because it's only the instructor that counts.

With instructors, experience matters. You need a full-time, dedicated tech instructor... someone who's lived and breathed technical diving, exclusively, for significant years. Someone 'known' in the tech community.

In recreational diving, instructors can get away with regurgitating the manual and completing a minimum tick-list of skills. Technical instructors can't get away with that... It just doesn't produce competent, safe tech divers.

A pedigree, highly experienced, technical diving instructor is the pinnacle of professional dive education. The time, money and effort they've invested getting to that level is phenomenal.... so you can appreciate they value their own worth beyond scrabbling over cost competition with the less capable fast-track tech drones...

 

[scadreau]

Zach,

There is a lot to consider in the price of the course. First I will reiterate what Andy said. Selecting an instructor for tech training should be a fairly involved process. You should ask them several key questions regarding their experience and what they primarily teach. You want a tec instructor that teaches tec most of the time. You also want an instructor that is out tec diving when he/she is not teaching rather than guiding reef dives. For instance: last year I did ~150 dives. All but ~15 of those were decompression or teaching tec.

Also to consider in the course cost is what it includes. Does it include cert card, books, gas fills, boat trips, etc. The area you live in will change the cost as well.

Feel free to message me if you have any specific questions.

Scott

 

[rongoodman]

Are you planning on taking Advanced Nitrox by itself? It's usually combined with Deco Procedures, or in the case of TDI, Deco Procedures/Helitrox(which is the way to go, IMO). That implies that you're comfortable diving doubles and at least one deco bottle.


(A quick check at Dayo Scuba, where I took mine, shows $300 for AN and $500 for AN/DP, so it looks like your shop is quite high. It might be an apple/oranges comparison, though.)

 

[stuartv]

Both the shops local to me teach TDI Adv Nitrox in combination with Deco Procedures. Both of them charge right at $1000 for the combined course. I know one of them incorporates TDI Intro to Tech into that same course. I'm not sure if the other formally does that or not.

 

[tomfcrist]

If that price includes charter fees and fills it's not too bad.

 

[abscuba]

As stated before look at the instructor, crossing over to the tech side is a commitment and you will need some one who can not only show you the ropes during the course but afterwards as well. Your gear cost will likely be higher as a normal recreational diving kit will not be adequate for tech diving. If that price includes boat charter and gas fills then it is a fair price. If not would be worth asking gas can start being a lot more expensive than when it was in a normal nitrox course as you are needing a lot more O2.

 

[Zachyamauchi]

I live around lake Tahoe California and the LDS charges 650 for AN and 850 for Deco procedures. There are other shops in the bay area that offer those courses and I was wondering if I should shop around. I plan on taking both and will do a thurough job in selecting an instructor. I just got an sms 100 and was also wondering if the course is easier in bm or sm since that BC does both.
Zach

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[abscuba]

Either configuration can work and I would talk with your instructor to see what they are experienced with. The only times I bm any more are with my rebreather or when I am teaching, the rest of the time it is side mount. That being said most of my tech diving is squeezing through hallways, portholes, and engine rooms of sunk ships. If the instructor you select does not have experience with sm then it could be a hindrance to the course. Ideal you want to do the course in the kit set up the way you plan on diving it after the course so when talking with the instructor you plan to use ask them about the kit they dive and why.

 

[boulderjohn]

As some have said, the price of the course depends heavily upon what that price includes. The big issue is how much of the cost of the diving, if any, is included. That can vary dramatically. For us, the nearest place we can teach tech courses in a 6+ hour drive away in New Mexico. Our tech course prices include instructor's costs, including significant travel costs and motel fees. If you are next to lake Tahoe, that kind of overhead for the shop will be much, much less. Some shops will have the student pay a travel fee in addition to the course fee to cover instructor expenses. Some course fees include gas costs; some don't. That can be huge.

The last time I took a tech course myself, the additional fees were more than the cost of the course itself.

---------- Post added January 5th, 2016 at 09:08 AM ----------

I have taught the course both sidemount and backmount. The big difference--and it is huge--is valve shutdown drills. I find it is the hardest part of the course for backmount students, but it is a non-issue for sidemount students.

Whichever course is easiest, though, should not be what you are looking for. You need to be able to do the skills required of you when you do a dive. If you learn the skills in sidemount and then dive backmount, it will not be a good thing if you discover in an emergency that you can't shut down a leaking valve because you avoided learning it on your quest to find the easiest path to certification.