Hey all. I did my intro to tech course this weekend. It was great
The course I did is not affiliated with any agency, it’s just a combination of things that this particular shop likes to go through before allowing people to do tech training with them.
On day one we spent the first half of the day in the classroom and the shop, covering some basic elements of technical diving and diving in general. We then setup our gear and I got some helpful tips on rearranging my bp/w which improved it quite a bit for single tank diving as well
Following that we went to a local pool and ran through skills and drills. It has been a really long time since open water and this was the first time I had done anything like that neutrally buoyant and in trim (theoretically!!).
Managing new kit and some low level task loading was more difficult than I thought it would be. It really showed how much we had to improve! We did basic 5, out of air drills and valve drills, then tried some different finning techniques. One of the guys managed a back kick while the rest of us looked on enviously as we stayed pretty much in the same place
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We called it a day after that and we were told that overall we were pretty normal for an intro to tech class. I got complimented on my valve drill and Mike for his successful back kick.
Day two was two dives at the lake. It feels like a bit of a blur now, but we ran through all of the skills and drills from the day before, this time with more of a buddy/team focus. We also did a 3,6,9 drill to simulate a deco stop profile, and apparently one of the best the instructor has seen in the intro classes.
We silted the crap out of the bottom too. The instructor said something about him not having to try to make the conditions more silty since we did more than enough ourselves. We did a sac calculation swim next and then my buddy was low on air, so we finished sharing air while deploying our SMBs.
I really enjoyed the course. My fellow students were all good guys that were easy to get along with and I felt like we were all at a similar level of capability. The instructor Dave was good too and I would happily recommend him to anyone. He he clearly knows what he is doing and why and is able to communicate that.
I would like to have spent more time on finning techniques, because that’s where I think I need the most help, but this really is just an intro course so the expectation is that we would go on and work on things before progressing into tech diving.
The end result is that I mostly got what I wanted out of the course and i know what my diving goals are for the next few years. I am going to use twins from now on as my redundant gas source for solo diving, while continuing to work on my finning techniques.
I’m also going to do a few more rec courses in twins with this shop and their tech instructor so I can get my skills dialed in. In a year or two I’ll hopefully do tech 40 or equivalent courses and then dive like that for a while. I’m not in a huge rush so my time line might stretch depending on money and other commitments. The important thing is that I’m going to be building experience in my tech config and I’m going to be safer when diving solo with full redundancy.
I bought a fair bit of gear this weekend but I think I’ll have it for a long time. My computer died so I had to replace that as well.
My new gear list:
Secondhand twin set
Oms slipstream xl fins
Oms 45lb wing
Scuba pro mk25 evo and g260 doubles set
Shearwater peregrine
Tech shorts (fourth element I think?)
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