go tec or stay rec

[BluewaterSail]

So the plan is to do serious tech dives on borrowed equipment?

 

[Ste Wart]

PADI Tec Rescue

Never heard of it. And google doesn't seem helpful. Is it a specialty course? Did I miss it in the UJ?

Team Blue Immersion, Dahab, Egypt

Ok. I used to live in Dahab and these guys took over Tom Steiner's old shop after I'd left, so I don't know too much about them. Send a PM to String on this forum, he might have some more insight.

As for the Tech in Dahab, well my avatar is me coming out of the Blue Hole in Dahab so I'm fairly enthusiastic about the diving there. Lots of deep canyons and semi-cave/ long swim throughs. Stunning drop-offs, no wrecks! However.... it is very easy tech. Warm, blue waters with little or no current or tide ( I think springs are less than a metre), from that point of view the environment is a little sterile. So be aware that the challenges at depth may not mirror other environments

Personally I'd do IANTD Trimix with Floh at Reef2000 in Dahab, but that's because he trained me. And I recommend speaking to him once you're in Dahab

I gotta leave price out, as I was given a serious discount, but free gas (200 euros for unlimited helium) free transport to dive sites (mostly shore diving) and yes Equipment is included.

200 Euros for Unlimited Helium!? Take it. Transport is pretty cheap maybe 100LE ($15/£10) but nice not to pay it.
As for equipment, depends what it is.

---------- Post added June 24th, 2013 at 09:17 AM ----------

So the plan is to do serious tech dives on borrowed equipment?

Is there a problem with that? Equipment is Equipment.

The guy is starting from scratch with tech. New or Borrowed equipment will be alien for the confined sessions anyway. As long as the equipment is sound then use it. Then make informed purchases later.

 

[DevonDiver]

Never heard of it. And google doesn't seem helpful. Is it a specialty course? Did I miss it in the UJ?

It's on the PADI Members site: Training Essentials - TecRec - PADI Distinctive Specialty templates - Technical Rescue Techniques (Word doc)

I used to live in Dahab and these guys took over Tom Steiner's old shop after I'd left, so I don't know too much about them.

I know Jonas Samuelson who's one of the Team Blue founders (he's here on SB occasionally). They seem pretty active and promotional stuff looks good. Have hosted some 'name' divers also and gotten good feedback.

 

[Quero]

Go for it. If it's where you want to be ultimately, why delay when you've got a golden offer in your hand?

 

[DCBC]

...as a previous dive shop manager and having been teaching for sometime I have frowned on the "zero to hero" scenerio.

Me too. I know I wouldn't hire someone without the experience.

As for the tec instructors out there, obviously if you are teaching PADI tec you've been a teaching recreational scuba for some time, how did you go about making the instructor ratings?

My technical instructor rating is with the World Underwater Federation: CMAS. As a commercial mixed-gas/saturation Instructor and CMAS 3 Star instructor (ITE), I applied to CMAS to challenge a number of technical instructor /instructor trainer /instructor trainer examiner specialty Examinations: Full Cave Instructor (Cave III), Advanced Trimix Instructor and CCR Instructor. After the exams I had to provide diving logs and undertake a deep cave penetration/check-out to 300 FFW (on CCR) at the Ojamo lime mine (40 miles outside of Helsinki, Finland). I enjoyed the dives, but you had to look-out for the abandoned dynamite boxes.
:nuke:

 

[DevonDiver]

should I stay rec or go tec.

any help would be greatly appriciated!!!!

If it helps, I was recently interviewed on the tech-instructor role for a magazine:

What it's like to be a technical diving instructor - PreAcquaint.com

 

[RJP]

You make a good point, but it begs the question why the recreational student isn't more discerning. They think that one Instructor is as good as any another.

Quite simple, actually. They have no context to believe othewise.

However, by the time someone is stepping up to tech training they have certainly seen the range of divers - and their instructors - out there in the world.

 

[DCBC]

Quite simple, actually. They have no context to believe othewise.

As the average age of a new diver has increased over the years (since the standards have been dropped to accommodate fat out-of-shape older people with money ) I think that these people have been exposed to several different Instructors.

I don't think that the masses believe that all school teachers are the same? University Professors? Driving Instructors? Skiing Instructors? Coaches? I think that the context would indicate that most adults know that Instructors can vary greatly in their ability and training. I don't think I've not known anyone to say that they've never known a poor Instructor...

 

[MalibuJerry]

I think there are two questions here: Tech or stay Rec? and Tech and Instructor Tech. It seems to me if you have to ask the first one on this forum the answer is Rec. You need a good reason to be a Tech diver. It is expensive, it requires lots of training and you need to have a dive buddy to practice with so that you are always sharp on deep dives with long deco stops. If it is just because it is there, I wouldn't do it. The second question is premature. If you are already a tech diver and are passionate about it and want to share it by teaching others, then it is indicated. But you won't have a clue until then.

 

[pholife]

I think there are two questions here: Tech or stay Rec? and Tech and Instructor Tech. It seems to me if you have to ask the first one on this forum the answer is Rec. You need a good reason to be a Tech diver. It is expensive, it requires lots of training and you need to have a dive buddy to practice with so that you are always sharp on deep dives with long deco stops. If it is just because it is there, I wouldn't do it. The second question is premature. If you are already a tech diver and are passionate about it and want to share it by teaching others, then it is indicated. But you won't have a clue until then.

Thanks so much for actually bringing the forum back to the original question!

Of course, and I can say this as an experienced instructor that instructors should have an extreme amount of experience before teaching. This is why exactly I am looking towards an internship of this nature... I with normal recreational teaching, I can afford the time to take out for "fun diving". The internship allows me 4 months of hands on training, conducting courses, under the supervision of extremely well versed tec instructors. So, by the end I will have the experience, hopefully at least 50-100 deco dives as a dive, safety diver and support diver.

Remember we all started out as an open water diver, I myself, learned from my father at the age of 11 and then moved on to a NAUI OW cert and kept diving until I was 26 until I did my divemaster (at that point, I had more dives than my "mentor") to the date now I have nearly 3500 ow dives, I consider myself to be a seasoned instructor and would like to expand my teaching options. As I am very interested in equipment configurations, deco procedures, etc.

As for becoming a tec instructor, to my impression you other tec instructors do not think that a 4 month intensive internship is enough to begin teaching technical diving? If not, what do you recccomend? Bag the internship, drop 1500 on a course that will give me 12 ow dives... or spend a bit more and get proper training. Sure I will walk away a DSAT instructor, but that sure doesn't mean I am going to be running around bending out people... I am hoping to EXPAND my possibilities as an instructor...

I really feel from some of the users on hear that they are the only ones suited to be tec instructors