Mark of the Tech Diver!

[TSandM]

I didn't mean to bash rebreather instructors. I just meant that the diving experience required to purchase and train on a unit is pretty minimal. We have people with really limited recreational diving experience moving to rebreathers in the PNW. I have seen people in open water, and people in caves, whose buoyancy control and trim were poor and who were causing a great deal of silting. I know rebreathers require relearning buoyancy control, so the open water people I've seen may have been novices and learning, and we all have to do that. But not the ones in the caves.

 

[Scott L]

After DAN releases their 2009 injury report which will have included the first two years of rebreather incidences more may be learned of correlations of prior experience and training.

 

[David_57]

I'm not a rebreather diver, but I crew on a dive boat. I see plenty of rebreather divers. I'd tend to agree with TSandM.

I guess I made a mistake as I cannot comment on how things are done in the states but hey if you want to bash your country in regards to rebreather training who am I to stop you, so go ahead and please accept my apology

One thing I have observed up here in Canada the rebreather divers I know have always been very well trained technically and practically, and to be honest have not observed one rebreather diver with inferior waterman ship, in fact to the contrary they have always had superior diving skills.

After DAN releases their 2009 injury report which will have included the first two years of rebreather incidences more may be learned of correlations of prior experience and training.

Agreed should make some interesting reading.

 

[Slamfire]

Originally Posted by lamont
What if you're doing PhD-level research inside cave systems on paleoclimatology? Is that still recreational diving?

I would just add Scientific, to Commercial and Recreational. There are SB members like Thalassamania that live and breath Scientific diving.

I work in marketing and I know the power of hype. Maybe that's why I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to labels. To me that's simply what "technical diver" is, just a label applied to a person. I respect technical divers because I believe every human being deserves respect until they do something to lose that respect. I do not admire technical divers anymore than the admiration I have for the very capable bank tellers at my banking branch.

My approach to diving is mission oriented. There is a rail car that went off the rails, into the water and sits in 150 ft and I want to be able to spend 20 mins looking closely at it. What do I need to make it possible? I'll get the training -- formal or otherwise --, and equipment to make it happen.

I will not get the training to get a plastic card, to be placed in a pedestal among divers, or to be able to legitimately use a label when referring to my diving. I will not get the training to be endowed with the "authority" to tell others they will die for using equipment I don't like or to make a categoric affirmation that a certain group has no place using certain equipment because its too advanced for them and in my high and mighty judgement they don't have the skills that make them worthy of the equipment.

 

[wedivebc]

I just meant that the diving experience required to purchase and train on a unit is pretty minimal.

I have always felt engaging in a path of OC tech diving is a waste of time as a prerequisite for RB training. Should I learn to drive a tractor before I buy a car?
Trim and buoyancy on a RB are different than OC so why unlearn one in order to learn the other?
If you are seeing bad RB divers in caves then blame the cave instructor not the RB instructor.

 

[Slamfire]

I actually learned how to drive a tractor before I learned to drive a car... I digress.

I've seen my share of people with less than stellar skills using equipment they didn't dominate and doing dives that could probably be better executed. However, unless I make a well structured statistical study, I cannot make broad generalizations that can be read as applicable to an entire country or even a continent. Even if I worked on a dive boat with very high traffic of "tech" divers I will not get all the facts that are representative of the entire category of divers in a continent.

So, accepting the limitations of my global observation powers, I have to limit myself to a more "laissez-faire" outlook. I consider myself fortunate to be living in a place where diving is not regulated. If somebody wants to take more risks with their life than what I would, let it be. There's nothing in the law preventing them from doing it. I'll just try to be out of his/her way to avoid being dragged down with them. In other cases it may mean getting into a wreck or cave ahead of them to avoid silting or even avoiding that dive altogether. But hey there always more dives ahead.

 

[Hyper-limits]

I have always felt engaging in a path of OC tech diving is a waste of time as a prerequisite for RB training.

I don't think it's a waste of time myself, is it necessary? Probably not, I find that my OC experience come in play on occasions.

There is a lot of blanket statement going on with this thread, I've also met some CCR divers that I believe should not be diving them, rare but it happen. Then again I have seen a lot of OC diver that shouldn't diving in the first place. We always gonna get the guy with a lot of money who want the latest toys, that's way things are not days nobody wants to put the time and get the required experience before moving in more advance diving.
My CCR training was 7 days of 12-14 hours days and the best course I ever took. After the course I was comfortable but not at the level where I was on OC, so I put 100 hrs on rebreather before I start pushing it.

My 2 cents.

Al

 

[wedivebc]

As you know I spent a few years diving OC beyond what was considered recreational limits and like yourself I entered the CCR realm when that equipment became a limitation to the types of dives I wanted to do.

I don't regret that time or anything I learned or experienced at the time.
OC technical experience was valuable to allow me to do the type of RB diving I was engaging in. What I am saying is I don't think OC technical dive training is a useful prerequisite for CCR training if the diver has no desire to dive OC from that point on. So Al what did you do with your doubles?

I don't think it's a waste of time myself, is it necessary? Probably not, I find that my OC experience come in play on occasions.

There is a lot of blanket statement going on with this thread, I've also met some CCR divers that I believe should not be diving them, rare but it happen. Then again I have seen a lot of OC diver that shouldn't diving in the first place. We always gonna get the guy with a lot of money who want the latest toys, that's way things are not days nobody wants to put the time and get the required experience before moving in more advance diving.
My CCR training was 7 days of 12-14 hours days and the best course I ever took. After the course I was comfortable but not at the level where I was on OC, so I put 100 hrs on rebreather before I start pushing it.

My 2 cents.

Al

 

[Hyper-limits]

Al what did you do with your doubles?

The stone-age called, they wanted their doubles back, so I was kind enough and shipped them back."

There is no diving that I do that required the use of double anymore, I did a few single tank dives this year because there were between 20 to 60 ft of water, if I need a set of double I make sure there are small and there is a scrubber sandwich between them.

 

[Scott L]

The stone-age called, they wanted their doubles back, so I was kind enough to have shipped them back."

wedivebc's signature is my favorite of any forum.