Texasguy
Contributor
The only addition for tec50 is a use of an additional deco mix before one can jump on 100% O2. Seems self evident and totally doable with Tec45 skills.
Does Tec50 make sense to take?
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Firstly, I'm just getting back into the PADI system so forgive any errors and hopefully Andy Davis (Devondiver) can post as I believe he has dealt with this question before. I believe the differences are Tec 50 will cert to 165' and will allow for extended deco as compared to Tec 45 with a more restrictive deco time.
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Texasguy
Contributor
It only allows to 165 from 145, deco time is not restricted since tec45. Tec40 is limited to 10 mins deco.
DevonDiver
N/A
Tec45 permits unlimited deco to 45m using a single deco gas (>100%).
Tec50 increases the depth range to 50m, but most importantly enables a second deco gas.
This reflects a concept that preserving multiple gasses/switches for a more trained/experienced level helps avoid the risk of O2 toxicity accidents in less experienced technical divers. Sound logic.
To be honest, a 2nd deco gas is rarely needed on <45m dives. It starts to make sense below that depth (i.e. Tec50 level). If you don't need it.. and your still prone to mistakes as most novice technical divers are.... it's better to K.I.S.S. Sticking to a single deco gas is profoundly simple and eliminates one of the major risks of technical diving.
People focus too much on what a certification card gives them, and not how a syllabus progressively presents risks - in line with training and experience acquisition to mitigate them.
Tec50 increases the depth range to 50m, but most importantly enables a second deco gas.
This reflects a concept that preserving multiple gasses/switches for a more trained/experienced level helps avoid the risk of O2 toxicity accidents in less experienced technical divers. Sound logic.
To be honest, a 2nd deco gas is rarely needed on <45m dives. It starts to make sense below that depth (i.e. Tec50 level). If you don't need it.. and your still prone to mistakes as most novice technical divers are.... it's better to K.I.S.S. Sticking to a single deco gas is profoundly simple and eliminates one of the major risks of technical diving.
People focus too much on what a certification card gives them, and not how a syllabus progressively presents risks - in line with training and experience acquisition to mitigate them.
Also if you ultimately plan to do trimix 65 and full trimix with PADI then 50 is a prereq. It's a good course with the right instructor. Devon pretty much summed it up.
Michael Guerrero
Contributor
I specifically chose not to do PADI for any further technical training because Tec 50 was a requirement before I could take Trimix. Having dived multiple deco gasses after my TDI AN/DP course, I think it is a ridiculous requirement to have an entire second course just to add a second deco bottle. I'd recommend TDI Trimix next or some other agency that doesn't require you to put another dollar in.
DevonDiver
N/A
PADI TecRec now has an option for Tec45 TMX and Tec50 TMX. These add 2 additional dives (6 not 4), but qualify normoxic trimix.
Breathing gas mistakes leading to O2 toxicity is the biggest killer of technical divers. I don't think that's "ridiculous".
What's "ridiculous" is doing a mere 6-8 training dives and someone thinking they're now sufficiently expert to be immune from making a stress-induced mistake that'd have fatal consequences.
Tec50 is a shallow skills dive, a single simulated deco 'dress rehearsal', and two significant deco dives. It's hardly overkill given the risks and demands of diving that's inherently unforgiving and has severe repercussions to small mistakes.
Reserving 2+ deco gasses is a significant step in technicality. I don't think it's 'ridiculous' because, as a tech instructor, I see how very easy it is to task pressure a diver into making such a 'simple', but potentially fatal, error.
I can't speak on behalf of other instructors... but for myself, and other tech instructors I know and admire, the outcome of any given training course is that the students are actually cautious of immediate progression in training.
Good tech training, with high standards, teaches limitations.... it doesn't empower divers to believe further training is 'ridiculous', or to scoff that such training is 'below them', or best avoided.
Attitudes to tech diving have 'shifted' a lot over the last couple of decades. It's a pretty new phenomenon that relatively novice divers feel single-digit tech training dives experience is sufficient to the task of drilling them to an error-proof level of competency.
Training is a good thing. The only 'rip off' happening in tech training is instructors whose low standards shape student diver expectations to think a few hours (if that) of in-water practice would make them competent technical divers.
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Michael Guerrero
Contributor
I completely agree. After all, no one is immune from making mistakes, stress-induced or otherwise. Likewise, sufficient practice before increasing complexity in a dive is valuable advice at any diving level. Whether moving from one deco bottle to two, after sufficient practice with one bottle and team gas switch procedures, merits an entire additional course is debatable.
Tec 50 is required for trimix for more reasons than the second deco gas. The 40-45-50 sequence is really one continuous course that teaches all the concepts related to technical diving throughout those three steps. It does not, for example, separate advanced nitrox but rather mixes it in with everything else. Then the trimix class builds on that continuum without repeating much of it. In other words, the trimix course assumes you have completed Tec 50 and have the knowledge it contains.
I recently crossed someone over from a lesser known agency that was not on the official list that tells at what point people enter the PADI system when crossing over, and I had to ask for a clarification from PADI. In addition to the fact that the diver had had only experience with one deco gas, another factor was gas decision making. In the system from which he came, there were no decisions to be made. If you were diving a certain depth, you used a certain gas. Where I do most of the training, that is simply not possible. I mix helium and oxygen from the back of my van on the New Mexico prairie, and our gas decisions (and consequent dive planning) depend upon what we are capable of doing with what we have available. We have to think constantly about MODs, ENDs, etc. We have to think about the amount and kind of deco gas we can create and how it will impact our total dive plan in terms of those reserves. That is the kind of thinking that a lot of people have never experienced, and I imagine they never thought that such planning would ever be necessary
I recently crossed someone over from a lesser known agency that was not on the official list that tells at what point people enter the PADI system when crossing over, and I had to ask for a clarification from PADI. In addition to the fact that the diver had had only experience with one deco gas, another factor was gas decision making. In the system from which he came, there were no decisions to be made. If you were diving a certain depth, you used a certain gas. Where I do most of the training, that is simply not possible. I mix helium and oxygen from the back of my van on the New Mexico prairie, and our gas decisions (and consequent dive planning) depend upon what we are capable of doing with what we have available. We have to think constantly about MODs, ENDs, etc. We have to think about the amount and kind of deco gas we can create and how it will impact our total dive plan in terms of those reserves. That is the kind of thinking that a lot of people have never experienced, and I imagine they never thought that such planning would ever be necessary
Michael Guerrero
Contributor
Kind of scary that someone can be a "technical" diver without also being an adaptive, thinking diver. Seems like some people really just stay in the box they're put in, and when the agency says they get a bigger box, that becomes their new reality, even though the bigger box existed the whole time. Here's to critical thinking...
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