Starting PADI Tec-40 - first Tec course, any advice?

[phoenix31tt]

When did it become that a diver should have skills like s-drills *before* they took a tech class? At some point these skills need to be acquired. Nowhere in the AOW-rescue path the OP took would those skills be taught. So where to acquire them?
Self-taught? Can learn bad habits, says conventional wisdom on SB.
Mentor? Does the mentor perform the skills correctly and can they check that the protege has acquired them correctly.
That leaves yet another course, intro to tech or some such.

isn't s-drill a standard air sharing drill?

 

[shoredivr]

isn't s-drill a standard air sharing drill?

Unless there is some drift of scuba definitions, an S-drill requires a long hose. Most OW/AOW/Rescue courses as far as they are being reported on Scubaboard don't use long hoses. There are threads for example on "how can I be part of a rescue class if I am wearing a BP/wing and long hose, the teacher doesn't understand how to work with this gear configuration". Although it is not rocket science, how to deploy, air share and stow a long hose is not seen in 99% of OW/AOW/rescue classes taught around the world.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/dir/190637-what-s-drill.html

But an S-drill is only one of the (originally DIR/GUE if I recall correctly) coined phrase "Basic 5".

The majority of OW classes - despite PADI's latest edict to make these midwater skills- are still taught with divers kneeling on the bottom to do a mask flood and clear, or mask remove and replace, or regulator remove and replace. Most advertising for learning to scuba dive shows folks kneeling on the bottom. The many threads decrying this on Scubaboard tell me it's a widespread practice.

Hovering in flat trim and motionless is also rarely taught at OW/AOW, let alone keeping this posture while removing and replacing a mask. If it was, there would not be so many threads here complaining of how hard it was in the first tech course where it was a requirement.

There would also not be classes like Intro to Tech or Fundies I and II if all OW/AWO or equivalent course name divers had been taught these skills from the get-go.

There is usually a huge gap in skill sets when going into a tech course. So my point remains that most divers need something to bridge that gap, because they won't reliably arrive in their first tech class knowing and performing "Basic 5" in flat trim in midwater.

 

[TSandM]

When I recommended doing the "Basic 5", that include the MODIFIED S-drill, which is simply deploying the long hose.

I don't think you need an instructor to learn how to flood and clear your mask in midwater. Our OW students can do it by the second or third pool session. To do it while hovering in place takes a little practice, and some work on balancing your weights properly, but you don't need an instructor to do that -- you just need a buddy who can tell you whether you are horizontal or not.

If someone is planning on learning and doing technical diving, I would assume that person dives regularly (or they should) and therefore has the opportunity to solidify very basic diving skills prior to embarking on a technical class. When I signed up for Fundies, this is what I did; I practiced the Basic 5 on just about every dive, and although my task-loading tolerance was woeful when it came to the more complicated stuff, I did get through that part of the class quite well.

 

[victorzamora]

Semantics/specifics of "Basic 5" vs "Modified S-drill" vs "S-drill" aside....I think that some task loading while flat&neutral is crucial. For example, playing rock-paper-scissors would be a great task-loading thing. You have to focus on timing it, and what you're going to play. Get some wet notes and play tic-tac-toe....eventually you can play hangman underwater, neutral and flat. Mask flood and clear, mask remove and replace, and other "blind" drills help you build natural buoyancy control. I hesitate to use the word "instinctual" but it's not too far off. Hangman/RPS/etc lets you keep an open-ish eye on what's going on. I'll tell you, a buddy and I played games on my wet notes on deco while we had to pee. I wouldn't have survived it without something to distract me....so it IS a useful skill

Back on topic: If you want to practice to prepare, get neutral and flat....and work on staying that way without moving. Make sure your posture is right. A GoPro or buddy can help there (GoPro much better than buddy if you have time and know what to look for). Then, once you get good....start adding task loading. In the real world, you'll have to donate gas while flat and neutral....or shoot a surface marker....or clear your mask....or replace your mask with your backup. Either way, in tech diving sinking/flaoting isn't an option and kneeling CERTAINLY isn't an option. Midwater skills became an immediate necessity for my wife when on her first outing she found herself needing to clear her mask while diving on a wall. Only way to kneel would've been in the ~250ft range. I ended up holding her neutral(ish) while she did her skills the rest of that trip.....but we worked on them nonstop after that.

But again, back to the beginning, remember that you're going to take those courses for TRAINING.....not certification. There is a difference, and in the Tech world there should be. Before you get one of those pretty black cards from PADI, you need to know you've earned it. Paying the fee does NOT mean you've earned it. The money you pay is well worth the training....the certs are perks of the training, should they come. Relax, enjoy the experience, and realize that any cards out the other end are nothing but cherries on your awesome ice-cream-sundae of a trip!

 

[Nasser]

More than anything what differentiates tech for me is the mindset and task loading. In NDL diving for the most part you splash in and pretty much ride the computer and when it's time to ascend you surface. In tech there's a much greater emphasis on dive planning and following a pre-determined schedule of run times and gas switches. Yes new gear configurations, drills, and techniques come into play but IMHO it's the mental aspect of tech diving that really sets it apart.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Ask your instructor if he/she has had any experience diving Deep Air Bottom mix with mandatory decompression on consecutive days of a week or more, and does he have a contingency In-Water-Recompression (IWR) table should you be in a remote dive site with inaccessibility to an emergency Recompression Chamber.

This is another issue -PADI Tec 40, 45 & 50 certifications only allow air/nitrox bottom mixes: two or more elective deep deco dives per day on Tech trip expeditions over a week or more, especially on deep air -you will start to N2 load your slow tissues over the course of several days such that they will not clear or perhaps even accumulate unless you elect to take a day-off or two.

Even if you use a bottom timer & Tables exclusively, an auxiliary Shearwater Petrel computer helps by keeping a continuous record of your tissues' loading/saturation/off-gassing/residual tensions and provides info data you might have to use to start padding your shallow O2 deco stop times after Day 4 or 5 of consecutive dive days (i.e. Petrel computer's real-time/during dive GF adjustments & tissue loading graph features etc, and CNS Ox-tox tracking are very important in this instance as well!) in order to keep slow tissue tensions reasonably below surfacing M-value levels on ascent.

Just a general Rule-of-Thumb recommendation: doing these elective types of deco dives (should be no more than two deep deco dives a day with minimum SIT 3hrs between them) over several consecutive diving days --especially if using bottom mixes with high FN2 percentages like air or nitrox-- by Day 4 start adding more O2 profile time at 20feet/6meters with a very slow ascent (0.5 m/min or a foot per minute) to the surface, monitoring for signs & symptoms of slow tissue type one DCS ("niggles" to obvious acute joint & limb pain and have an IWR contingency profile ready in your Wetnotes, just in case).

Better yet, take a day off to further Off-gas those slow tissues after three consecutive days of Deep Air diving using mandatory decompression gases of nitrox50 & Oxygen. . .

 

[nimoh]

Ask your instructor if he/she has had any experience diving Deep Air Bottom mix with mandatory decompression on consecutive days of a week or more, and does he have a contingency In-Water-Recompression (IWR) table should you be in a remote dive site with inaccessibility to an emergency Recompression Chamber.

This is another issue -PADI Tec 40, 45 & 50 certifications only allow air/nitrox bottom mixes: two or more elective deep deco dives per day on Tech trip expeditions over a week or more, especially on deep air -you will start to N2 load your slow tissues over the course of several days such that they will not clear or perhaps even accumulate unless you elect to take a day-off or two.

Even if you use a bottom timer & Tables exclusively, an auxiliary Shearwater Petrel computer helps by keeping a continuous record of your tissues' loading/saturation/off-gassing/residual tensions and provides info data you might have to use to start padding your shallow O2 deco stop times after Day 4 or 5 of consecutive dive days (i.e. Petrel computer's real-time/during dive GF adjustments & tissue loading graph features etc, and CNS Ox-tox tracking are very important in this instance as well!) in order to keep slow tissue tensions reasonably below surfacing M-value levels on ascent.

Just a general Rule-of-Thumb recommendation: doing these elective types of deco dives (should be no more than two deep deco dives a day with minimum SIT 3hrs between them) over several consecutive diving days --especially if using bottom mixes with high FN2 percentages like air or nitrox-- by Day 4 start adding more O2 profile time at 20feet/6meters with a very slow ascent (0.5 m/min or a foot per minute) to the surface, monitoring for signs & symptoms of slow tissue type one DCS ("niggles" to obvious acute joint & limb pain and have an IWR contingency profile ready in your Wetnotes, just in case).

Better yet, take a day off to further Off-gas those slow tissues after three consecutive days of Deep Air diving using mandatory decompression gases of nitrox50 & Oxygen. . .

So the OP is about to take tec40 and asks for general advice and you recommend having an IWR contingency profile ready to go?

Also, what is "Deep Air Bottom mix with mandatory decompression"? Isn't that just a tec dive on air? Given that the instructor must have taken tec40 to become a tec40 instructor, my guess is that they have done consecutive days of tec diving on air, although I guess it is possible that they took a day off in between.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I'm going to take it soon (delayed until after I finish my dive master certification). Tec 40 has the most reading/homework, so start early on it.

 

[boulderjohn]

When I started my Tech training, I had had no previous experience with tech gear of the associated propulsion skills whatsoever. I had never even seen them. Now that I am an instructor, I have no expectations that a new student will have any of these skills down already.It's nice if they do, but I assume I will be starting from scratch.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Ask your instructor if he/she has had any experience diving Deep Air Bottom mix with mandatory decompression on consecutive days of a week or more, and does he have a contingency In-Water-Recompression (IWR) table should you be in a remote dive site with inaccessibility to an emergency Recompression Chamber.

This is another issue -PADI Tec 40, 45 & 50 certifications only allow air/nitrox bottom mixes: two or more elective deep deco dives per day on Tech trip expeditions over a week or more, especially on deep air -you will start to N2 load your slow tissues over the course of several days such that they will not clear or perhaps even accumulate unless you elect to take a day-off or two.

Even if you use a bottom timer & Tables exclusively, an auxiliary Shearwater Petrel computer helps by keeping a continuous record of your tissues' loading/saturation/off-gassing/residual tensions and provides info data you might have to use to start padding your shallow O2 deco stop times after Day 4 or 5 of consecutive dive days (i.e. Petrel computer's real-time/during dive GF adjustments & tissue loading graph features etc, and CNS Ox-tox tracking are very important in this instance as well!) in order to keep slow tissue tensions reasonably below surfacing M-value levels on ascent.

Just a general Rule-of-Thumb recommendation: doing these elective types of deco dives (should be no more than two deep deco dives a day with minimum SIT 3hrs between them) over several consecutive diving days --especially if using bottom mixes with high FN2 percentages like air or nitrox-- by Day 4 start adding more O2 profile time at 20feet/6meters with a very slow ascent (0.5 m/min or a foot per minute) to the surface, monitoring for signs & symptoms of slow tissue type one DCS ("niggles" to obvious acute joint & limb pain and have an IWR contingency profile ready in your Wetnotes, just in case).

Better yet, take a day off to further Off-gas those slow tissues after three consecutive days of Deep Air diving using mandatory decompression gases of nitrox50 & Oxygen. . .

So the OP is about to take tec40 and asks for general advice and you recommend having an IWR contingency profile ready to go?

Also, what is "Deep Air Bottom mix with mandatory decompression"? Isn't that just a tec dive on air? Given that the instructor must have taken tec40 to become a tec40 instructor, my guess is that they have done consecutive days of tec diving on air, although I guess it is possible that they took a day off in between.

Yes of course . . . In my experience, these are obviously vital objective interview questions to ask of the instructor before taking the course, and given the high FN2 of the allowed bottom mixes for Tec40, 45 & 50 (i.e. Air/Nitrox): Have you performed multiple deep air dives with deco per day consecutively over a week or more? What decompression algorithm do you use and why? Did you have any mild to acute DCS symptoms during this week or more interval despite completing nominal deco profiles per software tables or technical dive computer? Do you have an IWR protocol if a Recompression Chamber is not readily available?