Experience level

[wreckchick]

I've talked to an instructor about doing an Intro Cavern/Cave thing at some point in the future and his recommendation was to 1st: dive a lot and 2nd: dive like you're in a cave even when in open water. This means being ultra picky about buoyancy, learn some different kicks, watch air consumption and start tracking SAC rates so you can get a feel for gas management, and handle everything that comes your way at depth "pretending" you can't just ascend. Obviously if you have to, you have that option, but just to get mentally prepared for what those environments will throw at you. One other thing is to be aware of how big you are and try to complete each dive without silting or knocking into anything, this is good practice anyway, but get your buddy to tell you if you silt up and do the same for him/her.

I was following a cave diver who was very close to the bottom, frog-kicking, and she didn't move a particle, another diver in front of me was higher than her by a few feet and was doing a traditional flutter kick and was silting up the bottom pretty good. It was nice to see how the style differences impact the visibility.

I don't know if you're talking about that kind of tech diving or just doing deeper stuff, but by being around divers doing the kind of diving you want to do, you can pick up some technique stuff just by watching even if you're within your limits.

Something to think about from another novice diver.

Rachel

 

[Braunbehrens]

Don't ignore the shallow stuff!

A lot of beautiful stuff is in shallow open ocean. It would be a shame to go deep right away, and miss out on it. One of the best dives I've ever had was at a max depth of 15 fsw!

Also, deep dives are usually short dives. It's nice to do dives to intermediate depths and spend some time just diving.

A friend of mine once told me how he got his son to wait until getting certified for SCUBA. He told him that to be ready to SCUBA dive you first have to be a competent free diver. A couple years later his son took him free diving. He went down to 30 ft, took off his mask, replaced and cleared it.

He was ready.

There are two aspects of diving that you need to get under your belt for safe technical diving. One comes from learning all the skills, but the other is from experience. I would say that if you do a LOT of diving for a couple of years it's ok to progress into more technical stuff, provided you are a great diver.

BTW, I don't agree that everyone should take DM etc. classes. While I enjoy teaching people stuff, I don't want the liability that comes with simply having those badges. No thanks.

I'll leave you with this tried and true saying: There are old divers, and there are bold divers. There are no old bold divers.

 

[Jimmy B]

The first thing I would do is to enroll in a DIRF course, to build your fundation and meet with some other like minded people. Tech/Cave or extreme Advanced what ever they call it now is a serious game.
After the DIRF course find and dive with people a little better and more experienced than you cause your not going to learn unless you do.

Most mistakes people make is to "cheap" their way in, it can't be done cause your going to buy someone else's problems. IMHO anyway

Hope you choose the right path for you.

Enjoy

JB

 

[Wendy]

I noticed that you mentioned that you would be diving with experienced divers. Remember that something might come up where you will have to help your more experienced buddy out of a situation. So don't fall into a practice on relying on your 'more expereinced' buddy. In technical diving I believe that you are part of a team and the team as to work well together. So in saying that practice skills in ow rec limits, As someone mentioned above, consider a DIRF course, or get yourself a scuba mentor like I did. But don't get into tech diving cuz all your freinds are doing it, just take your time, dive, dive, and do some more diving and when you feel you are ready, just do it.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Sounds to me like you're getting into this with the right attitude. I have seen divers get into tech with under 100 dives. I'm not sure they were ready but again, it isn't always about numbers. You have mentors, that's great.

An instructor I know recently got into tech diving. I read his release form, which they made him write out in his own handwriting. Very sobering stuff actually.

 

[diverbrian]

I find this interesting as I took the courses that I did to help improve my open water skills initially as I wanted to dive some deeper wrecks up here and the deep diving course through this route taught me far more than the deep diving course available through my recreational agency.

I discovered a great deal about what I want to do and don't want to do. I thought that I would never again do deco diving after I got my cert. because I would be leery of the risk. I just wanted to improve my skills.

I was wrong. As long as I have a lift bag and a reel, I have a path to deco on if all else fails. I now have improved my buoyancy skills (which were being improved in my DiveCon course and were fairly good to start with) immensely. My discipline, having been trained in the Nuclear Power field in the Navy, was never a problem. I have encountered problems at depth and I don't think about surfacing to solve them. Underwater problems are solved underwater. I love the redundancy that tech gear gives me under the water. I will pick my wrecks, but I plan to do more deco diving.

However, the additional equipment and rules to penetrate wrecks and go into caves with the possibilties of silt-outs, debris falling, guidelines getting cut (need I continu? the list is endless) will be beyond me for a while to come. For now, the rule of thumb is simple: if a guideline is required to get out, I have no desire to take the risks necessary to do it. The equipment and training to mitigate those risks are beyond my financial means and I have a lot to see just by extending my diving ability to the ability to PLAN deco dives, and FOLLOW the plan that my dive buddy and I have.