No Technical Training for Me.

[Soggy]

yes, i have a hard time when people say "i want to be a tech diver"

I concur. I hate being a tech diver. I wish all the wrecks were shallow enough to do on a single tank, and I wish that I lived where the water was warm so I could use a 3mm wetsuit.

Unfortunately, that isn't reality, so if I want to see what I want to see, I have to become a technical diver.

 

[Rick Murchison]

The only people who believe we need more tech divers are those who make money from it.

Help me out here... does this mean you have no friends who want to see some things or that you'd like to show some things (wrecks, caves, etc) that would require they become "tech" (or whatever you want to call it) divers?
You're not wanting to restrict access to those already qualified, are you? Or are you?
Rick

 

[MikeFerrara]

You're not wanting to restrict access to those already qualified, are you? Or are you?
Rick

It's a thought.

 

[timle]

It's a thought.

It is? Why? How did they get qualified in the first place?

Every bit of "rec" (if you want to call it that) diving I do - I keep an eye on where I want to get to. I want to cave and wreck dive. Am I there yet - nope. But its definately part of the reason I dive a bp/w with a hogarthian setup, because when I get to "tech" training - my equipment and procedures won't be brand new to me.

 

[H2Andy]

i don't think there's anything wrong with increasing your dive SKILLS

and if that involves learning to do deco diving, great. or of it involves doing trimix, great.

i think what people ojbect to is divers who think being a "tech" diver is a goal in and of itself. it usually indicates a frame of mind that is more about a label than about skills

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

i think what people ojbect to is divers who think being a "tech" diver is a goal in and of itself. it usually indicates a frame of mind that is more about a label than about skills

Depends on their motivation ... some folks are into learning for learning's sake ... it's more an intellectual exercise or physical challenge than anything else ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Rick Murchison]

It's a thought.

Yeah, I know... but we don't want to be entirely selfish, now, do we???? I guess we do - but it just wouldn't be right, don'tchaknow...
"I'm aboard, Jack... pull up the hook!"
Rick

 

[keylargojimy]

Soggy - just to play the devil gas' advocate, what problems would there be with using 80% O2 and 20% helium? Or 20% argon, if using a trimix bottom gas? There would still be no inerts that you trying to offgas, and breathing helium or argon at 30' isn't going to be much of an issue.

yea i always breath argon @ my 30ft. stop!!! get a clue before you type anything on this site. i guess the argon gets me out of the water faster than breathing 99% o2..

 

[Thalassamania]

"Tech diving" is the bus to work, what's the job?

 

[Kendall Raine]

Help me out here... does this mean you have no friends who want to see some things or that you'd like to show some things (wrecks, caves, etc) that would require they become "tech" (or whatever you want to call it) divers?
You're not wanting to restrict access to those already qualified, are you? Or are you?
Rick

I'm not suggesting restricting anything, Rick. I'm pissing and moaning about the unashamed come on that "tech diving" is the mark of a real diver, real man, real fill-n-the-blank; that being a tech diver, or any other artificial state of being, is the objective.

When I went for training in 1992 my instructor spent an hour on the phone with me before accepting me for basic Nitrox. He did that not because basic Nitrox was such a big deal, but because he knew where I was headed with the training. He knew I wanted to eventually dive the Doria and he relayed to me, amongst other things, that he's lost a good friend doing it. He wanted to understand my most basic motivations and test them against the reality of where I thought I wanted to go.

Sheck wrote how he quit speeding on the freeway when he stopped at a rest stop once and the Highway Patrol had put up big photos of gruesome car crash scenes. He wondered why a similar approach was not taken for the budding cave training business. Blueprint was the result.

It's been years since I took a formal training course, but looking at some of the instructors today, I question the degree to which people really understand what they're taking on when they start down this road and how closely their motivations and apptitudes-physical and emotional-are scrutinized. That's not a statement about all instructors by any means. It's one person's perception of a trend; however. I read a report such as the one at the start of this thread and, well, here's the result.

I'm also not blind to the proliferation of good products that come with a bigger market-lights, bands, wings, etc. I also give credit to some of the positive training evolutions that come when the market, and available wallet, increases. It's not monodimensional.