Course progression to Tec diving

[tbone1004]

@stuartv I see no need for redundant wing inflation and will revert to oral inflation. I will regularly conduct full dives only using the oral inflator to stay in practice. Wasn't allowed to use a power inflator in the pool when I was learning to dive, so I have probably 1k hours of orally inflating only while in a pool, so it's a nonissue for me. I would not remove the drysuit hose since the inability to inflate a drysuit can be a safety issue, so I will always prioritize the drysuit.
One advantage to the LPI crossing is that it is typically long enough to reach the drysuit inflator if you unplug it from the wing, remove it from the hose retainers, bring it to the right side of your head, and then straight down. It's a LOT of work, but in a cave you might have to do it depending on the cave profile.
Alternatively you can send air up by purging a regulator into your wrist seal. Distinctly unpleasant, but better than trying to remove a wing inflator imo. I always prioritize drysuit inflator over wing inflator for that reason.

The advantage of taking it off of the right post is that I don't have a swivel turret first stage with a fifth port, so by not forcing that hose to cross over, it saves it from getting bent by the crown of the tank. If you switch often with one reg set between drysuit/doubles and wetsuit/singles it also saves you from having to swap inflator hoses. For me, I don't have a 5 port turret first stage, so it saves the bend in the LPI

I still have one inflator on each post, they're just on the opposite post than what the DIR crowd does. Wing on the left, drysuit on the right.

 

[joe10540]

I've taken PADI courses and I've taken NAUI courses. I feel like I had excellent instruction from both but both instructors were thoroughly interviewed prior to my classes. I have also seen PADI instructors from the same shop I got great instruction take an OW student on a check out dive in a sinkhole that bottoms out at 160 to do a dive with less than 2 feet of viz at an OW level. That just screams reckless and the student seemed to have no idea just how quickly she could have ended up too deep or separated from her instructor. I firmly believe that it is the instructors that make the course and the agency is only who gives them the authority to teach. You can find awesome PADI instructors as well as those who just haven't killed anyone YET. I am sure there are GUE instructors who don't teach to the same standards as the others but less people talk about it.

Talk to several instructors, tell them your goals and ask them what their qualifications are to get you to those goals as well as how they think you should proceed. You will undoubtedly find one that seems to know what they are talking about and also show a genuine concern for getting you there safely. Also if they know your end goal from the start they can start polishing higher standards from the beginning like holding trim and buoyancy in your nitrox class instead of waiting until AN/DP to make it a priority. Ultimately it's your safety that you have to look out for. There are people that will cut corners to get where they want to go and live to tell about it, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous.

 

[KevinNM]

That's exactly what my boss told me about my Fundies course in June--do it single tank, get it down, and then move on from there. I believe his exact words to me were, "you will be (freaking) miserable if you do Fundies with with me in a twin set."

Yes. People are different, but this is what I found.

Fundies in a twin tank and a drysuit is a lot harder than in a single tank and a wet suit.

Getting a tech pass in doubles and a ds is a lot harder than getting a rec pass in doubles and ds.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

It seems whenever posters have an interest in venturing into tech diving they are told to take recreational classes and when they have an interest in recreational diving they are told to take fundies.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Within the Scubaboard microcosm, there some universal laws:

1. BP/W is the only acceptable form of BC. If you prefer any other style of BC you are clearly inexperienced and/or doing something wrong.
2. Add a GUE cert and say Hogarthian over and over for bonus points.
3. You are either Doing it Right or doing it wrong. That is an absolute statement.
4. All PADI instructors are garbage. All TDI instructors are trustworthy. All GUE instructors are gods. (This gets really complicated when a PADI instructor holds other agency certs)
5. Dive the absolutely smallest wing possible or you are going to die.

I can't say I entirely disagree with them, but I don't entirely agree with them either.

I don't think this is universal at all ... I certainly don't feel that way, despite the fact that I dive BP/W (and own several different ones), have GUE certs (although I don't identify myself as a GUE diver ... far from it, in fact), believe that there are multiple different ways to "do it right" depending on a variety of factors ranging from equipment choices to diving environment to learning styles to personal preference. My impression of PADI instructors is that there are a great many really good ones out there ... and perhaps even more who are not very good. This isn't based on agency per se, but rather on the fact that so many of them are zero-to-hero types who can quote the curriculum chapter and verse with little clues as to why they're teaching it. And for the most part the emphasis in their training was more on how to be a successful instructor than on how to successfully train people to scuba dive. That, however, is far from limited to PADI and extends ... in one degree or another ... to most of the mainstream agencies. As to why people believe what they do about GUE instructors I can only say you will never ... ever ... meet a GUE instructor who was just an OW student a year ago. The same cannot be said for virtually any other agency.

As to wing sizes, I think the emphasis on wing size is vastly overrated, unless you are diving in high-flow caves ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It's easy to bash PADI, SSI, etc for running to the lowest common denominator in their OW recreational courses.

... this is more a function of the inherent conflict of interest between dive shop and dive training than it is anything to do with the agency ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Lorenzoid]

It seems whenever posters have an interest in venturing into tech diving they are told to take recreational classes and when they have an interest in recreational diving they are told to take fundies.

Perceptive! I think a lot of the people who ask broad questions about "getting into tech diving" are relatively inexperienced rec divers, still bursting with enthusiasm for their new sport. (Not necessarily the OP, who has been diving regularly for 5 years; rather, I'm just generalizing.) On the other hand, Fundies (or equivalent) is great advice for those people who ask "how can I become a better recreational diver?"

 

[stuartv]

I still have one inflator on each post, they're just on the opposite post than what the DIR crowd does. Wing on the left, drysuit on the right.

Gotcha. I misunderstood your earlier post. Probably read it too fast. I thought you were saying you had wing and drysuit both coming off the left post. What you've said makes sense.

My doubles regs have a swivel turret and 5th port, so mine don't make any sharp bends. And I have a separate set of regs for single tank, so no worries of changing things around much.

Thanks for cluing me in.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

"You mean there's a catch?"

"Sure, there's a catch," the dive guru replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to be a technical diver is really diving for recreation."

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own diving progression posted in ScubaBoard was the process of a rational mind. The OP was concerned and so he posted. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would be told that there really isn't such a thing as recreational diving because the ascent rate is in fact decompression and he would be a technical diver. The OP would be crazy to dive without some technical training and insane if he took technical training, but if he was sane, he had to do more recreational diving. If he did, he was crazy not to have tech training; but if he didn't go tech, he was sane and could be a recreational diver, which he would be regardless if he was a recreational or technical diver. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

 

[stuartv]

This board really needs a Love button!