Starting Tec 40 in June

[Rhone Man]

I overheard a good tip being given to another person ahead of starting tec classes which I wish someone had given to me: "From now until when you start, spend every safety stop at the end of a dive practicing staying exactly at 15 feet / 5 meters doing repeated mask clearing drills." Mastering being able to hold your depth exactly or near exactly without visual references whilst engaging in skills in the open water column will stand you in very good stead.

 

[boulderjohn]

You should also consider having the ScubaBoard staff change your user name. If you are getting into tech diving in Vancouver, you will be reconsidering your public commitment to a lifetime of wetsuit use.

 

[wmperry]

Perhaps change it to Drysuit4Tec?

 

[SidemountCoolKid]

Start rec diving with the long hose now. It will be one less new thing to master.

 

[DevonDiver]

I, also, only teach Intro/Basics/Tec40 in doubles.

I find little purpose in teaching it on singles - and general un-availability of 'H'/'Y' valves tends to preclude the diver from ever making use of a 'singles-only' Tec40 qualification.

If there's any chance of the student progressing onto Tec45, and above, I feel that 'singles-only' Tec40 would defer too much task-loading into the Tec45 course. That's the time to be developing more refined skills - not learning the basics of doubles.

The best 'pre-tech' training is buoyancy, control, trim and situational awareness (depth, time, NDL, gas and buddy/team). Those can all be refined within the context of recreational diving. The emphasis is on PRECISION. Aim to be more precise in everything you do - dive planning and conduct...and every facet contained within that.

Then begin to add 'task loading'. Increase complexity of dives and/or carry out other skill practices and see how they effect your capacity to maintain precision on the foundational/core skills and requirements.

- Calculate your SAC in advance. Apply proper gas management and planning to your dives.

- Purchase some laptop tech dive planning software and use it for planning your recreational dives.

- Assess your ability to follow a precise dive plan - calculate multi-level rec dives and then follow them - to the nearest ft and nearest second.

- Refine your ability to control buoyancy - hover horizontally on your safety stops - refine control to within a meter, within 50cm... then within 25cm, over the duration (3 min plus). Once that is achieved, add further skills (switch to pony, remove/replace mask etc) and then practice until such task-loading isn't detrimental to your precise buoyancy control.

- Add a slung pony for your dives. Practice removing, replacing (and handing it off and receiving back) on your dives. Learn to cope with buoyancy changes when you hand-it off and receive it back. Learn to deploy it and breath from it. If you have a TecRec manual, read up about the NOTOX gas switch - and start applying that procedure when you practice with the pony.


There's a lot of theory/academic work to master on Tec40. Get the TecRec manual well ahead of time, so that you can complete knowledge reviews and read in-depth into the theory. Also, do a lot of research online, or via other manuals/books.