questions and differenced on the ANDI curriculum?

[Spoon]

The next class would be extended range.. Its not about going deeper but learning how to do mission oriented dives, with unlimited deco and gear configurations..

In the phillippines you have a few experienced ITs at your disposal.. I can highly recommend George May and Matt Caldwell.. I don't have experience with the other Its and instructors in the Phillippines..

Thanks for the very informative reply. i in fact am taking these courses with the end goal of taking the level 4 cave diver program. caving is my passion. also i always got the impression that extended range was becoming slowly obsolete as doing excessively deeper dives on air was no longer advisable. Others have also commented on this course and that it should be replaced with something more appropriate for the times. Why not replace this course with trimix or something while doing mission oriented goals?

yes i plan on looking up George and Matt for trimix. Bobby Manas is also a very good instructor.

Why not replace the Extended Range course with an Normoxic Trimix course or make the TTD as a normal progression by introducing unlimited deco and maximum depth to 200ft, IMO the ERD course is a thing of the past.

i totally agree. narcosis at those depths would limit the divers effectiveness at those depths. although the possible exposure would be good for experience i think it is no longer appropriate and is very outdated considering the availability of other gasses aside from o2.

 

[padiscubapro]

Thanks for the very informative reply. i in fact am taking these courses with the end goal of taking the level 4 cave diver program. caving is my passion. also i always got the impression that extended range was becoming slowly obsolete as doing excessively deeper dives on air was no longer advisable. Others have also commented on this course and that it should be replaced with something more appropriate for the times. Why not replace this course with trimix or something while doing mission oriented goals?

yes i plan on looking up George and Matt for trimix. Bobby Manas is also a very good instructor.



i totally agree. narcosis at those depths would limit the divers effectiveness at those depths. although the possible exposure would be good for experience i think it is no longer appropriate and is very outdated considering the availability of other gasses aside from o2.

Most people miss the goal of the ANDI ERD class its not about increasing depth, its about handling more extensive gear and run times.. Then the trimix class increases depth..

IMHO its far safer to increase the level of difficulty of runtimes and gear at a shallower depth than try and increase depth and task loading.. You can get some seriously long runtimes and not break 40m..

ANDI has a normoxic program, but its not part of the normal flow, its there for when the depths required for trimix cant be attained (but erd must be completed first)..

ANDI completed another CLAIMS FREE year with our insurance carrier.. ANDI has NEVER had a claim against us.. No other agency can claim that and this includes everything up to our unlimited depth CCR classes that we started teaching in 1992.. That means we are doing something right....

 

[Spoon]

ANDI completed another CLAIMS FREE year with our insurance carrier.. ANDI has NEVER had a claim against us.. No other agency can claim that and this includes everything up to our unlimited depth CCR classes that we started teaching in 1992.. That means we are doing something right....

i totally agree. Andi's track record is very impressive.

 

[Hoosier]

i totally agree. Andi's track record is very impressive.

Spoon, if you can find any qualified ANDI instructors in your area, you are very lucky guy. I agree that ANDI is offering more profound and comprehensive nitrox and trimix courses....

 

[Spoon]

Spoon, if you can find any qualified ANDI instructors in your area, you are very lucky guy. I agree that ANDI is offering more profound and comprehensive nitrox and trimix courses....

there are actually 3 extremely qualified andi instructors one of them is a good friend of mine who i plan to take it with. am quite excited to begin my tech tutelege and am happy that we share a master-apprentice like relationship.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Spoon,

We very much enjoyed our ANDI TSD class - we recently got our certs finalized! If you already have a Nitrox certification for use of more than just 32% and 36%, I don't think you would be required to take the CSU class to enroll in the TSD class.

We don't plan to get into cave stuff but do plan on visiting sites like Truk and Bikini with the right training first - this is why we went to TSD class. But our ANDI TSD instructor was quite experienced with cave diving - just not our thing.

We did already have CSU certs before enrolling in TSD class but that's just because we happened to use an ANDI shop for our Nitrox training back in year 2000.

Like yourself, we interviewed 3 different instructors from 3 different training agencies in the area we lived at the time, and chose the ANDI TSD class for both the instructor and the agency / curricula.

If we go another step further in training it would most likely be to rebreather training for us. Just different tastes and objectives.

Take a look at the "Course Standards" link, the bottom sub-link under "ANDI Courses" on their web suite for a better side-by-side tabulation that includes prerequisites. You'll have to scroll down the page a bit past the Sport Diver programs to the SafeAir Training Programs section for CSU, then even further down to the Technical programs to get a better overview of TSD and higher course requirements and certifications.

I think the web site at www.andihq.com could use a bit more work to make it more easily followed.