History of the agencies

[bradlw]

I recently listened to a short video while on a walk, about the history/start-up of TDI
it doesn't matter...but this is the one of course it's a marketing department thing..."WE started it all" which takes me to immediate and absolute doubt. How can they say that when IANTD started what 8 years earlier (if I believe Wikipedia)? I have no idea who was doing technical stuff before IANTD but surely someone was....

Anyway, I got to thinking that it might be interesting to watch a documentary if well done and not marketing driven, on the history of scuba agencies. Overwhelming I'm sure if it reached international agencies...just far too many branches on that tree, but for my interest I wonder if there are any videos or books that do a nice job of outlining the US history.
connecting the dots of which ones did what first, how they relate, why did they form when there were already agencies doing it, what makes them different, how have they changed, etc.... or whatever...

I guess I'm curious about the whole evolution of both recreational and technical and the relatively new blending of the two.....

 

[rx7diver]

I recently listened to a short video while on a walk, about the history/start-up of TDI
it doesn't matter...but this is the one of course it's a marketing department thing..."WE started it all" which takes me to immediate and absolute doubt. How can they say that when IANTD started what 8 years earlier (if I believe Wikipedia)? I have no idea who was doing technical stuff before IANTD but surely someone was....

Anyway, I got to thinking that it might be interesting to watch a documentary if well done and not marketing driven, on the history of scuba agencies. Overwhelming I'm sure if it reached international agencies...just far too many branches on that tree, but for my interest I wonder if there are any videos or books that do a nice job of outlining the US history.
connecting the dots of which ones did what first, how they relate, why did they form when there were already agencies doing it, what makes them different, how have they changed, etc.... or whatever...

I guess I'm curious about the whole evolution of both recreational and technical and the relatively new blending of the two.....

Yes, people were doing deep, decompression dives--air dives using accelerated oxygen decompression--before IANTD--even before the term "technical diving" was coined (by Michael Menduno). But I think it's fair to say that IANTD made training "readily" available to the masses.

Brett Gilliam left IANTD to found TDI c. 1994, I think.

ETA: IIRC, Billy Deans either was about to, or had already shut down his mixed gas training facility in Florida by the time TDI was born. But, I'm pulling this out of ancient memory...

rx7diver

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

"We started a lot of what is happening today" is a far cry from "We started it all."

Definitely marketing speak, as it is vague enough that one cannot say that it is patently false.

It reminds me when I became involved in the politics in the city in which I lived over a wedge issue. One of the city council members in the opposition was so good at just barely not lying. For people who were uninformed, it all sounded nice. Being in opposition, I was both frustrated but also in admiration of his gift in rhetoric. He was quite good.

That's what marketing is all about. Grand statements that are not necessarily reflective of reality, but not outright lies. Deceptive? Perhaps yes, perhaps no (typically yes IMHO).

 

[p_kos]

Yes, people were doing deep, decompression dives--air dives using accelerated oxygen decompression--before IANTD--even before the term "technical diving" was coined (by Michael Menduno). But I think it's fair to say that IANTD made training "readily" available to the masses.

Brett Gilliam left IANTD to found TDI c. 1994, I think.

ETA: IIRC, Billy Deans either was about to, or had already shut down his mixed gas training facility in Florida by the time TDI was born. But, I'm pulling this out of ancient memory...

rx7diver

PSAI was the first agency to offer “technical diving”, founded in 1962 (although it went through some name changes along the way).

 

[happy-diver]

History

The Professional Scuba Association International is oldest technical / extended range scuba certification agencies in the world.

psai.com

 

[bradlw]

cool link happy Diver...thanks
My minor brush with fame.... On one of my early trimix training dives down to 224 ft in 40-fathom grotto, I spotted Hal Watts diving solo checking my instructor and me out. He never interacted or said anything except I seem to remember waving and him waving back.... but still a little brush with fame in my log book

 

[rx7diver]

@p_kos and @happy-diver,

Thank you for this info on PSAI. I had heard of Hall Watts and his 40 Fathom Grotto when I was doing my technical scuba training (through IANTD) in the mid-1990's. I hardly knew anything, though, about PSAI.

rx7diver

 

[jadairiii]

and dont forget, IANTD was originally IAND. "Hyper Dick" was selling nitrox (voodoo gas) to the masses, with a Bud in his hand, in 1985. Dick was my instructor for my nitrox class in '92.

Dont want to say TDI was late to the party, but the party was going strong by the time they formed. My IANTD Trimix instructor was one of the first TDI Tech instructors.

 

[p_kos]

@p_kos and @happy-diver,

Thank you for this info on PSAI. I had heard of Hall Watts and his 40 Fathom Grotto when I was doing my technical scuba training (through IANTD) in the mid-1990's. I hardly knew anything, though, about PSAI.

rx7diver

They have become more popular in Europe and Asia over the last decade and they remain somewhat controversial for their deep air/nitrogen narcosis management courses. Perhaps the rising cost of helium has helped them gain traction.

 

[rjack321]

They have become more popular in Europe and Asia over the last decade and they remain somewhat controversial for their deep air/nitrogen narcosis management courses. Perhaps the rising cost of helium has helped them gain traction.

While I have a PSAI CCR card, their market share in the USA is basically single digits at most. That seems to be more a reflection of TDI, IANTD, PADI and a few other agency's much more aggressive instructor recruitment efforts than anything to do with gases. I suspect the agency menu in most locations is similar and an artifact of their marketing and outreach efforts more than availability of XYZ gases or lack thereof.