Deep Diving

[Tonio Anastasi]

Accessiblity is growing and there are a growing number of people taking some kind of basic training in deco procedures and such. I think it's a long way from any kind of critical mass but agencies like PADI and NAUI are getting in the game now, which should lead to larger numbers of students exploring these aspects of diving. I don't know how many active technical divers are out there. Where I live it's a fraction of the number of people who take the courses.

As for safety.... I don't know. What I see happening is that there seem to be increasing numbers of people who are taking technical training for the t-shirt. That can't be good.... One guy I know openly admits that he took something like deep-air and deco procedures so he can attract women. He said he bought (or got made) a shirt with "Instructor" (which he isn't) on the front and "Technical diver" (which is as good as a lie as well) on the back for this reason too.... Entry requirements didn't catch him and i suspect that there will be a growth in students with dubious motivations (and possibly skills) taking the courses if they bring it to the mainstream.


I don't understand this question

R..

As I understand it there is rebreather diving, and then there is the technnical diving, when guys are going in the water with multiple cylinders.

Are they the same type of diving? Or is the use of say rebreathers safer then a multi cylinder option?

I knew of one technical diving instructor that would interview divers wanting to learn Technical diving. He did this in order to filter out out divers with dubvious motivations.
Apparantly he often refused clients if he felt they had the wrong motivation, whatever that may be.

To your knowledge,is this approach an exception or is it the rule?

If you could bear with me with this final question.

About two years ago in an British diving magazine, a writer made a point that, technical diving being thought by newly qualifed tech instructors, with not much experience, not only of technical diving but also of depth.

He made the point that these instructors may not have the foundations to teach from experience, which he felt was more crucial then in recriational diving.

Was he right in his statement, and is this statement valid today?

 

[Diver0001]

As I understand it there is rebreather diving, and then there is the technnical diving, when guys are going in the water with multiple cylinders.

This question is the tip of the iceberg. The real question behind that is "what is technical diving". I suppose you could say that technical diving in a broad sense is diving with any kind of equipment or procedures needed to go outside of recreational boundaries... boundaries like depth (deeper than 40m), time (over tthe NDL's) or in overheads like caves, in wrecks or under ice etc etc.

A rebreather is just one way to carry enough gas for the dive. So is open-circuit scuba. Either way it's just a bit of gear. It's what you do with that gear that makes the dive technical or not. You can stay shallow and within the NDL's on a rebreather and you can go deep and over the NDL's with it.... It's just a tool.

Are they the same type of diving? Or is the use of say rebreathers safer then a multi cylinder option?

I think I already covered the first part of this question. The second part is a the subject of some debate. The core of the debate basically comes down to this: There isn't much differnce but whatever the diver trusts seems to influence his/her perception of whether it's "safer" or not.

I knew of one technical diving instructor that would interview divers wanting to learn Technical diving. He did this in order to filter out out divers with dubvious motivations.
Apparantly he often refused clients if he felt they had the wrong motivation, whatever that may be.

To your knowledge,is this approach an exception or is it the rule?

I can't really answer this question except to say that I personally have reservations about the wide spread commercialization of technical training. up to now, the instructors like your friend have been the gate keepers. Commercialization with throw the gate wide open.... in my mind, this will make technical training available to people who for their own good really ought to be sticking to the relative safety of recreational limits. While the "diving" part of "technical diving" isn't that much different than recreational diving it's much more important to think ahead in technical diving and to respond calmly and efficiently to problems.... needless to say there are a lot of people trained for recreational diving who just don't have the personalities to do that.... they should be screened out.... Will they be? I don't know.... I doubt it....

...snip...
He made the point that these instructors may not have the foundations to teach from experience, which he felt was more crucial then in recreational diving.

Was he right in his statement, and is this statement valid today?

Wel..... it's certainly essential to teach from experience in technical diving. However I disagree with him that it's *more* important. I'd say it's ALSO important to teach from experience for recreational diving, even if it's less involved.... The fact that *that* doesn't happen enough is scandalous.

R..
P.S. I should add to this that there are other people on Scubaboard with more knowledge and information about these things than I have. I don't teach technical diving and I'm sure I'm not the best person here to tell you how it compares to teachining recreational diving...

R..

 

[Tonio Anastasi]

Thank you Diver0001

 

[wedivebc]

I knew of one technical diving instructor that would interview divers wanting to learn Technical diving. He did this in order to filter out out divers with dubvious motivations.
Apparantly he often refused clients if he felt they had the wrong motivation, whatever that may be.

To your knowledge,is this approach an exception or is it the rule?

Every tech instructors should be doing this. The good ones always do it.

 

[usmarinejustin]

I would reccomend "Shadowdiver" or "Shadow Diver", the name of the author escapes me at the moment, don't know why. Hes from around where I'm from in NC. Its more about the discovery and exploaration of diving, but its about the discovery of a Uboat of the east coast, the entire novel is trying to piece together the mystery of the "mystery UBoat". Awesome read.

 

[Nailer99]

Tech diving is growing as an industry. Whether that's good or bad remains to be seen. There are plenty of people out there with OW/ AOW certs who shouldn't really have them, just as there are plenty of people out there with driver's licenses who probably shouldn't have them.
I have no data to back up my opinion, but it seems like the vast majority of dive accidents/ fatalities I read about involve recreational divers. This suggests two things to me:
1. The vast majority of divers are recreational divers

2. Tech training makes safer divers.

Just my opinion.

(And as far as rebreathers and tech diving? There is such a thing as recreational rebreather diving. I met a girl taking CCR instruction a while back who had a grand total of 35 logged dives. You need the same training as an open circuit diver to take a CCR on a tech dive- deco, trimix, etc. CCRs are just a different kind of SCUBA system.)

 

[Starboard Tack]

.........

I wish I had seen that coming like you did!

 

[verybaddiver]

2 million people with guns and little knowledge. Some1s gonna end up dead
50 people with guns and training on how to handle stress and have lots of knowledge. Less likely of a death :]

 

[tbeindit]

I can't wait, I just gotta wait until I'm 18. I'm going to sign up for the tech classes on my birthday. I want to tech dive so bad, but am too young to begin training. I do realize I'm not 100% ready yet, but I still would want to begin

 

[SparticleBrane]

I can't wait, I just gotta wait until I'm 18. I'm going to sign up for the tech classes on my birthday. I want to tech dive so bad, but am too young to begin training. I do realize I'm not 100% ready yet, but I still would want to begin

I would start off by reading this first.
I'd also recommend slowing down. There's plenty of stuff to see that you don't need technical training for...especially for someone with <50 dives and <18 years old. Go out and get lots of diving in...then start on technical training if that's still the path you want to take.

According to this I'd also recommend learning how your dive computer works before taking up tech training.
Oh...and I'd ditch the Air2 and get on a 7' hose with bungied backup if you're serious about it.