Minimum requirements for tech courses

[The Laconic]

I saw a diver on another thread talking about taking PADI Tec 40, noticed he only had 25-50 dives, and then went to check the course requirements. I was surprised to find that PADI only requires 30 logged dives, together with AOW, Deep Diver, 10 dives to 30m, and 10 dives on EAN.

Then I thought, "well TDI is probably more strict", only to discover that TDI's requirements for Deco Procedures are actually less strict-- something like AOW + 25 dives.

This seems like madness. I barely feel comfortable diving with a buddy with only 25 dives, and can't imagine diving to 40m with a buddy with only 25 dives (plus the course). Am I in the minority here? If not, what would you consider to be the minimum realistic requirements for an entry-level technical diving course? I'm not necessarily talking about cave or wreck here, although that would be a fine question too, just deco diving. (If you feel the urge to respond "but all diving is deco diving", OK, but you know what I mean.)

 

[Tracy]

I waited til around 200, I felt comfortable taking the classes at that point.

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[Seya]

What's the difference? Number of dives don't mean ****

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[Trace Malinowski]

A realistic requirement for tech training is solid buoyancy control, good propulsion skills, the ability to be a stable gas delivery/rescue platform for a team member in need, and most importantly the maturity and intelligence to apply the knowledge and additional skills of entry-level technical diving to environments which you are familiar and can safely handle.

For example, a diver who had the right instructor for OW, AOW, Nitrox, Intro to Tech, Cavern, Intro to Cave, Apprentice and Full Cave all done in FL springs would easily be able to take an Advanced Nitrox or Triox class and apply the info and skills safely to that environment.

Someone who had typical recreational instruction and who may have a few dives in many different environments may not have the control needed when transitioning to tech and may also not have enough experience in any one environment to have seen some of the more challenging conditions he or she can face.

All things being equal, a diver who only dives Bonaire might be able to engage in technical diving sooner there than a diver who dives in New Jersey. Standards are minimum and it's the responsibility of both the prospective student and instructor to determine if it might be time to engage in technical diving. A quality intro to tech course aimed at creating solid trim, buoyancy, propulsion, double tank, tech rescue, reel and DSMB skills may be taken at any time in a diver's career. Once dialed-in most students of such programs are ready for deeper, longer diving.

 

[phoenix31tt]

If signing up for a tech course the instructor should be able to tell from a preliminary session if you need some sort of "intro to tech" course before proceeding to correct basic practices that are required. I believe a diver can be ready to start training with 25+ logged dives if they had proper instruction and practice...

number of dives really don't mean anything.

 

[Beyond_Diving]

That is why any technical instructor worth anything should conduct a thorough evaluation of every potential student before accepting them as a student. Be it open water technical diving, cave diving or what-have-you. People can cook their logbooks, and even someone with a couple hundred dives might not be where they need to be prior to going into technical diving (bad habits that where never corrected for example), or just might not have the proper attitude for it. So agency standards just say what the minimum requirements are. Nothing less than that gets in. It doesn't mean that just because you have x ammount of dives to satisfy agency minimum prerequisites, you are ready.

 

[Adobo]

If signing up for a tech course the instructor should be able to tell from a preliminary session if you need some sort of "intro to tech" course before proceeding to correct basic practices that are required. I believe a diver can be ready to start training with 25+ logged dives if they had proper instruction and practice...

number of dives really don't mean anything.

Start their tech training after 25 dives? Wow.

 

[phoenix31tt]

Start their tech training after 25 dives? Wow.

yea... with the right instruction for ow/aow (proper buoyancy, propulsion, trim etc) and the right attitude, i really don't see why someone wouldn't be able to do deco diving...

but i'm not a tech diver, yet, so I wouldn't know. Maybe I'm missing something that makes it impossible to do deco procedures after ow/aow and 25 dives

 

[KenGordon]

This seems like madness. I barely feel comfortable diving with a buddy with only 25 dives, and can't imagine diving to 40m with a buddy with only 25 dives (plus the course). Am I in the minority here? .)

They passed the course. Are you comfortable diving to 15m with a diver who just passed OW?

Hopefully you (as a buddy pair/team) take it easy and don't immediately do hard dives but work up to it. But that ought to be true even with more experienced divers.

Also people vary a lot. Some are practically fish, some are totally enthusiastic but not very good. Training needs to be adaptable so setting lots of dives as a prerequisite would be unnecessarily restricting.

Another factor is relearning and habits. A diver with lots of dives has more ingrained behaviours. These are not all good. Also they tend to be more gung-ho, maybe they already do the dives and are just along for the ticket.

 

[boulderjohn]

The prerequisites for the course are what you need to start a course. What you need to finish a course is demonstrate that you have mastered the required skills. If have mastered the required skills at the end of the course, who cares what you were like at the beginning of the course? It is the same for really any course you take in school. The prerequisites of a course are designed to make it less likely that you will be unsuccessful in the class. If you take calculus without the normally required math background, you are likely to have trouble in the class, but if you pass the exams, they still give you credit for the course.

The PADI course requirements, BTW, increase as you go through the program. Tec 40 prepares you for very minimal deco diving. The prerequisites for Tec 45 are more than Tec 40, and Tec 50 requires still more. If you entered Tec 40 or Tec 45 with the minimum requirements and only did what is required for that class, you would not meet the prerequisites for the next class.