Experience level

[cobaltbabe]

Wanted some opinions on how long, and how much experience, in your opinions, should someone wait before going technical? The person is very comfortable in the water and would have very experienced dive partners with them. Any opinions on this matter?

 

[Diversauras]

It seems to me that who ever does enter the tec arena should understand all the principles cold. Tech training, IMHO, should be about tweeking / formatting your diving to the environment whether deep or overhead or whatever. If the expectation is to learn tec from scratch then that person isn't ready to start.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I'm sure there are all sorts of opinions out there. One thing you can look at for reference is the experience requirements of different agencies. I'm not sure I could make a recommendation based strictly on time or even experience. IMO, technical diving calls for a level of skill and commitment obove and beyond that of recreational diving. In addition some people should never consider it. IMO, the kind of person who closes their eyes and locks the brakes when in a tight spot in a car, should never consider it (if they should even consider diving). That might not be the best analogy but overhead environment diving doesn't leave you any quick easy way out of trouble (simply ending the dive and ascending). If you have a thousand feet to go to exit a cave or an hour of decompression you have no choice but to use what you have and what you know to get by until it's done.

Also I have no advice on how to know if technical diving is for you other than to some real soul searching. Even then you might find you made a mistake.

I don't think technical diving should be viewed as a part of the natural educational progression. When there is a real or virtual overhead the game changes completely.

 

[O-ring]

I think I can boil it down to three tracks for simplicity..

Track 1 - recreation diving - pick your rec agency and go through Master Scuba Diver or whatever.

Track 2 - educator/guide - pick your rec agency and go through DM/DiveCon, Instructor, Master Instructor, whatever.

Track 3 - technical - pick your tech agency and go through either cave, wreck, deco or some combination of those.

I think that there is no natural progression for recreational diving other than Master Scuba Diver/specialties and just diving. Track 2 and Track 3 are soooo different than rec diving that it requires a whole other decision process to decide if it is up your alley.

 

[cobaltbabe]

As you all know I would rather be informed then try to do something that is way over my head. If I ask questions then I will have the knowledge to make an educated decision. Thank you all for your input.

 

[MikeFerrara]

More points...

I really think it depends a lot on the person and their goals. I know divers who went streight from OW class to cave training with very few dives inbetween. I certainly wouldn't recomment that for most people. However these folks were experienced cavers and started diving only for the purpose of diving caves and had little or no interest in any other diving. While they had little diving experience they had lots of caveing experience.

 

[cobaltbabe]

Obviously it is me who is thinking of going tech. The people I am diving with are tech and I want to see what they see. I am totally at ease in the water with all my gear. I do want to get some more dives under my belt before I go tech though.

 

[O-ring]

cobaltbabe once bubbled...
Obviously it is me who is thinking of going tech. The people I am diving with are tech and I want to see what they see. I am totally at ease in the water with all my gear. I do want to get some more dives under my belt before I go tech though.

...other tech diving friends/mentors will do a lot to accelerate your learning curve.

 

[Diver0001]

cobaltbabe once bubbled...
Wanted some opinions on how long, and how much experience, in your opinions, should someone wait before going technical? The person is very comfortable in the water and would have very experienced dive partners with them. Any opinions on this matter?

There's more to it than experience. Your water skills need to be next to perfect (which, unfortunately, experience alone does not guarantee), you have to be very calm under pressure and you need to be intelligent and creative enough to solve novel problems with very little margin. And most importantly you need discipline. And not just the "I can do it when I want to" kind of discipline; you need the "I can't even spell sloppy" kind of discipline.

R..

 

[cobaltbabe]

I am learning alot from them from my friends/mentors. Reading alot when I have the chance to try to immerse myself in the whole thing. I want to take it to the extreme.