Intro to Tech

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WDiver78

Registered
Messages
22
Reaction score
1
Location
Malaysia
# of dives
25 - 49
I have always wanted to do Tec diving ever since I started scuba diving. I am currently rescue certified with over 70 dives, and I am also dry suit certified. I would say my skills such as buoyancy and finning are pretty decent. I have always been curious about venturing the depths.

May I get some advice such as pre requisites I should do prior to my Tec Course (Not anytime soon)? I am planning on doing a deep diver course first. How many dives should I have before going into Tec? Are there any specific courses that can prepare me better? What are some beginner Tec gear that I should be investing/looking into? What are some good agencies to start my Tec journey?
 
Do you currently dive sidemount or doubles? If not, what is your single tank setup? Do you already dive a BP/W? What sort of tech dives do you want to do - cave, wreck, deep ocean?
 
If you are planning on starting with Intro to Tec, then just go. It is very much an intro class. The instructor will help assess your skills as well as expanding upon them.
Get through the class before jumping into buying more gear.
While I have been to Malaysia, I don't know what the support you will have for tech diving, this is important to take into account. A local tech instructor will help you understand what works best for your area.

The agency isn't as important as having a good instructor. I know several in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. My few trips to KL, I wasn't diving.
 
Do you currently dive sidemount or doubles? If not, what is your single tank setup? Do you already dive a BP/W? What sort of tech dives do you want to do - cave, wreck, deep ocean?
I currently only use single tanks, as for my gear:

BC: Dive Rite Hydro Lite
Reg: Aqualung Legend
Comp: Suunto D5
Fins: ScubaPro Seawing Nova

I would like to eventually get into all the tec dives mentioned, however, my current goal is to venture into deep ocean dives
 
If you are planning on starting with Intro to Tec, then just go. It is very much an intro class. The instructor will help assess your skills as well as expanding upon them.
Get through the class before jumping into buying more gear.
While I have been to Malaysia, I don't know what the support you will have for tech diving, this is important to take into account. A local tech instructor will help you understand what works best for your area.

The agency isn't as important as having a good instructor. I know several in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. My few trips to KL, I wasn't diving.
There are pretty good dive centres on the East Coast of Malaysia for Tec diving, though I will most likely do my Tec course abroad, probably Thailand or Indonesia. I assume my time doing Intro to Tec will be accredited for when I do the actual Tec course?
 
There are pretty good dive centres on the East Coast of Malaysia for Tec diving, though I will most likely do my Tec course abroad, probably Thailand or Indonesia. I assume my time doing Intro to Tec will be accredited for when I do the actual Tec course?
Hey Wdiver,
Fellow asian diver from Hong king here, here is my 2 cents:
IMO the two most important skills of technical diving is control and mindset, in terms of skills to master, you have to be able to control things your positioning in the water through means of precise (good) finning technique which includes backward kick/ helicopter turn/frog kick etc. and control of buoyancy.
With regards to mindset, it is important to incorporate a lot more teamwork and planning, in technical diving a big no-no are trust me dives, a good technical diving course should be able to instill in the student good knowledge of how to plan and execute a dive with good situational awareness (surroundings, objective, teamates)


in my opinion it is not important how many dives you start technical diving but the skills you have, also an important point i would like to stress is to carefully vet your instructor, find someone who regularly do the dives you are interested in (in the future). One note on agency, i am a gue diver with many friends who are gue instructors, i find the gue fundamentals the best bang for your buck if you are looking into getting into technical diving, there are several instructors in asia which might suit you. For other agencies my experience is that the competency and the quality of education highly varies depending on the instructor you find, so vet your instructor well!

In any case best of luck on your journey into technical diving!
 
I have always wanted to do Tec diving ever since I started scuba diving. I am currently rescue certified with over 70 dives, and I am also dry suit certified. I would say my skills such as buoyancy and finning are pretty decent. I have always been curious about venturing the depths.

May I get some advice such as pre requisites I should do prior to my Tec Course (Not anytime soon)? I am planning on doing a deep diver course first. How many dives should I have before going into Tec? Are there any specific courses that can prepare me better? What are some beginner Tec gear that I should be investing/looking into? What are some good agencies to start my Tec journey?
The best thing I would advise for an easy life and progression through technical diving is to truly master your core skills of trim (flat), buoyancy (rock steady) and finning (all kicks including frog, helicopter turn and backfinning). With all of that mastered life becomes so much easier to hold a stop, do a drill, help yourself or someone else.

About that number of dives I moved from a BCD+single to a twinset with backplate and wing. Then it's a matter of practicing your shutdowns, switching regulators, etc.

The thing that really helped me was doing GUE Fundimentals. (Someone had to mention it!) Doing this equips you with the skills for practising to truly master them. However the best part of this was clearly demonstrating to you what good really looks like; setting the bar high and giving you the tools for surpassing that level.


The progression from there is on to Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures with a single oxygen rich decompression cylinder. Then on through extended range -- deeper diving -- using helium in the mix. Then two deco cylinders... etc.

All of that utterly relies on your core skills; without those to fall back on it's hard, really hard.

It's not a race either. Take your time and enjoy your progression.


Oh, as helium's getting far more expensive, so don't be surprised that there's the lure of a rebreather in your future diving career. Again; core skills really help.
 
You said you want to go deeper, how much deeper? What are you planning on seeing/doing while deeper?

Yes, take the intro class. I didn't. In hind sight, there are some things that should have been taught on the basic level that I am picking up later. It would have been much easier if I would have taken the intro class.

After intro, expect to move quickly into Advanced Nitrox and Deco Procedures, consider the trimix add on as well. The 2-3 classes bundle together nicely. This will get you more time in the water, get you into proper deco procedures, pretty much prime you for deeper stuff. Just that should open a whole lot of opertunities and keep you busy for a few years. Once into it, you will find yourself with the right people to eventually get you further.
 
Hey Wdiver,
Fellow asian diver from Hong king here, here is my 2 cents:
IMO the two most important skills of technical diving is control and mindset, in terms of skills to master, you have to be able to control things your positioning in the water through means of precise (good) finning technique which includes backward kick/ helicopter turn/frog kick etc. and control of buoyancy.
With regards to mindset, it is important to incorporate a lot more teamwork and planning, in technical diving a big no-no are trust me dives, a good technical diving course should be able to instill in the student good knowledge of how to plan and execute a dive with good situational awareness (surroundings, objective, teamates)


in my opinion it is not important how many dives you start technical diving but the skills you have, also an important point i would like to stress is to carefully vet your instructor, find someone who regularly do the dives you are interested in (in the future). One note on agency, i am a gue diver with many friends who are gue instructors, i find the gue fundamentals the best bang for your buck if you are looking into getting into technical diving, there are several instructors in asia which might suit you. For other agencies my experience is that the competency and the quality of education highly varies depending on the instructor you find, so vet your instructor well!

In any case best of luck on your journey into technical diving!
The best thing I would advise for an easy life and progression through technical diving is to truly master your core skills of trim (flat), buoyancy (rock steady) and finning (all kicks including frog, helicopter turn and backfinning). With all of that mastered life becomes so much easier to hold a stop, do a drill, help yourself or someone else.

About that number of dives I moved from a BCD+single to a twinset with backplate and wing. Then it's a matter of practicing your shutdowns, switching regulators, etc.

The thing that really helped me was doing GUE Fundimentals. (Someone had to mention it!) Doing this equips you with the skills for practising to truly master them. However the best part of this was clearly demonstrating to you what good really looks like; setting the bar high and giving you the tools for surpassing that level.


The progression from there is on to Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures with a single oxygen rich decompression cylinder. Then on through extended range -- deeper diving -- using helium in the mix. Then two deco cylinders... etc.

All of that utterly relies on your core skills; without those to fall back on it's hard, really hard.

It's not a race either. Take your time and enjoy your progression.


Oh, as helium's getting far more expensive, so don't be surprised that there's the lure of a rebreather in your future diving career. Again; core skills really help.

Seems like GUE fundamentals is something I should look into. I’ve also heard that their training is rigorous. This will probably be my next target since I already have my deep diver specialty planned for this May. @Wibble you mentioned that prices for helium are going up. How much do Tec dives generally cost? And I mean multi gas trimix kind of dives
 
Doing technical diving (training) has nothing to do with the number of dives. You have a sit down discussion with the instructor, it is pretty much a 2-way interview. If the time is right, the time is right. If not, get a bit of information and an idea of what needs to be done for the time to be right. The dive store marketing "you need 12 dives to qualify for the next level" is BS in the technical world.
 
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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