beester
Contributor
Hi all,
I have the opportunity to take a T2 class spring 2016, but for the first time in my tech diving / GUE career I’m having 2nd thoughts. To be totally honest the fact that my wife will take fundies in the next months is boosting my enthusiasm much more than the opportunity to take another class myself.
I understand that you won’t be able to give personal advice, because you don’t know me… however I do hope that some of you who have taken T2 can chime in and let me know how they experienced the course, what they liked about it and how they are using the things learned in practice. I’ve searched the internet but you won’t find many class reports or opinions on T2, strangely enough you find many more on C2.
A bit of background and why I’m feeling this. I’ve done fundies in 2010 after an incident diving North Sea wrecks (basically got stuck and only barely managed to get lose), fundies was me coping with this incident, basically improve my game and get into team diving or just quit diving. I didn’t want to start technical diving. Then on holiday in the Yucatan I did a cenote dive with my wife and knew I needed to do that. So C1 in beginning of 2013, T1 in May 2014 and C2 in Jan 2015.
All of these courses came at the right time. C1 because I wanted to start putting my head in caves. T1 because I wanted to get a GUE TX ticket, I already had a TX ticket from another agency, and a good many NS wreck dives under my belt, C2 because I started to push the limits of C1 (diving stages, going quite far in which is possible in France which is mostly mainline), so C2 after about 50 cave dives post C1.
With T2 I’m not sure. First of all I wasn’t planning it, but 5 divers in my community will take the course next year and there is a spot free for me. They really want me to join, and a part of me wants that too… I’m already diving in caves using multiple stages (3-4) and doing deco/runtimes which are definitely outside the T1 limits. So from that point of view it’s good experience. Next it’s a good opportunity to finally take a class with friends. All my other classes were with people I didn’t know before, they were incredible experiences, and I made good friends but still local community is local community. If I don’t take this ticket it will be another 3-4 years before I see anybody else take T2.
On the other side, where I dive are no caves or deep wrecks. North Sea is not that far (1,5 hour drive) and I know a lot of charter captains, but max depth is 50m and most dives are 30-45m. I visit caves quite regularly and all in all about 30-40 dives a year I do are tech dives (or overhead, or deco with stages or both).
SO… I’m hitting a bit of a philosophical wall… What’s the use… If I want to keep very current on T2 level I need to move to a place where I can jump out of bed and do deep TX dives, or live next to a cave. C1 makes sense, T1 as well, C2 even too… because the limits in C1 are quite high, and you need the experience and course of C2 to do proper overhead dives. But T2… Not sure.
Thanks for your opinion.
Sincerely!
I have the opportunity to take a T2 class spring 2016, but for the first time in my tech diving / GUE career I’m having 2nd thoughts. To be totally honest the fact that my wife will take fundies in the next months is boosting my enthusiasm much more than the opportunity to take another class myself.
I understand that you won’t be able to give personal advice, because you don’t know me… however I do hope that some of you who have taken T2 can chime in and let me know how they experienced the course, what they liked about it and how they are using the things learned in practice. I’ve searched the internet but you won’t find many class reports or opinions on T2, strangely enough you find many more on C2.
A bit of background and why I’m feeling this. I’ve done fundies in 2010 after an incident diving North Sea wrecks (basically got stuck and only barely managed to get lose), fundies was me coping with this incident, basically improve my game and get into team diving or just quit diving. I didn’t want to start technical diving. Then on holiday in the Yucatan I did a cenote dive with my wife and knew I needed to do that. So C1 in beginning of 2013, T1 in May 2014 and C2 in Jan 2015.
All of these courses came at the right time. C1 because I wanted to start putting my head in caves. T1 because I wanted to get a GUE TX ticket, I already had a TX ticket from another agency, and a good many NS wreck dives under my belt, C2 because I started to push the limits of C1 (diving stages, going quite far in which is possible in France which is mostly mainline), so C2 after about 50 cave dives post C1.
With T2 I’m not sure. First of all I wasn’t planning it, but 5 divers in my community will take the course next year and there is a spot free for me. They really want me to join, and a part of me wants that too… I’m already diving in caves using multiple stages (3-4) and doing deco/runtimes which are definitely outside the T1 limits. So from that point of view it’s good experience. Next it’s a good opportunity to finally take a class with friends. All my other classes were with people I didn’t know before, they were incredible experiences, and I made good friends but still local community is local community. If I don’t take this ticket it will be another 3-4 years before I see anybody else take T2.
On the other side, where I dive are no caves or deep wrecks. North Sea is not that far (1,5 hour drive) and I know a lot of charter captains, but max depth is 50m and most dives are 30-45m. I visit caves quite regularly and all in all about 30-40 dives a year I do are tech dives (or overhead, or deco with stages or both).
SO… I’m hitting a bit of a philosophical wall… What’s the use… If I want to keep very current on T2 level I need to move to a place where I can jump out of bed and do deep TX dives, or live next to a cave. C1 makes sense, T1 as well, C2 even too… because the limits in C1 are quite high, and you need the experience and course of C2 to do proper overhead dives. But T2… Not sure.
Thanks for your opinion.
Sincerely!
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