I may be a bit hard on myself with skills, but I can't imagine haven gone strait in the AN/DP without an ITT course beforehand. All the internet diving in the world did not show me how to practice the skills required. Then after ITT I had well over 100 dives practice before I started AN/DP.
Also, I'm not sure how it works in other locations, but I would expect any instructor to add hourly rates to any instruction above their standard class. i.e. time taken it include ITT skills into AN/DP. So it's not a free add on.
It seems to me that that totally depends on the instructor and, in part, WHY that instructor is even teaching in the first place.
I consider myself very fortunate to have found an AN/DP instructor that I took the class from that charged a fixed price (the same price he charges anyone for AN/DP) and had no issues with the fact that I started with no experience in doubles (and only a bit over 50 total dives) and also had no issues with working with me over many weekends during a 9 month period to get me where I needed to be in order to deem me qualified for an AN/DP cert.
No, I meant exactly what I wrote -- what is your experience as a technical diver that gives you the authority to tell someone they should just skip intro to tech and jump straight into an AN/DP program.
And once again, I will re-state it for the third or fourth time -- I don't have an issue with ITT and AN/DP being conducted jointly, and I don't have an issue with someone being mentored in the ITT skills without getting an ITT certification as part of a lengthy AN/DP "mentorship" program.
HOWEVER, I have a huge issue with someone that openly admits he lacks the skills and experience in technical diving gear and techniques being put into an AN/DP program that only hits the bare minimums in number of dives, especially when that student explained to his potential instructor that he lacks the skills and familiarity and would prefer to start out with the baby step. It's a recipe for disaster. And when a student asks about doing the beginning skill program and any technical instructor responds with "don't worry about the basic skills, we can work on those while we're doing the whole AN/DP program thing" that sets off my bullspit meter.
I have no authority whatsoever to tell someone they SHOULD skip Intro to Tech. Nor did I do so.
I have even less authority to make a judgment that a TDI AN/DP instructor is somehow wrong if he tells a potential student, who meets all the prerequisites for AN and DP, that he will teach them AN/DP without requiring them to do Intro first.
What is your basis for implying that the OP was offered an AN/DP program that would only hit the bare minimum number of dives? It seems to me that you may have made an unfounded assumption about what the OP was offered and then counseled against accepting that offer (based on said unfounded assumption).
I need to add this too.
TDI's AN/DP or AN/Helitrox is actually a very high level certification. I think a large number of people tend to ignore that fact and think it's simply an easy peasy course. The person who completes AN/DP (or Helitrox) is qualified to engage in decompression dives to 150', use hyperoxic gas mixes, and can quickly get themselves into a heap of trouble outside of training if they're not well prepared for it.
It's really a big leap from Advanced Openwater diver to AN/DP.
I totally agree with that. I have told many potential divers that I think AN/DP is a BIG step up from being an OW recreational diver. The biggest single step in the (TDI) tech training track (barring discussions of cave training). Thus, I have encouraged every one of those people to use the utmost care in selecting who they do their AN/DP training with. And, I have encouraged them towards finding someone who will work with them over a period of time, rather than taking a 4 or 5 day AN/DP course. I feel like, even if you start with all the mad doubles skillz, it's still such a big step that it merits taking your time and spending more time at it than just what you would get in 4 or 5 consecutive days. There is a lot of tech knowledge to absorb, a lot of watermanship skills to learn or develop (including situational awareness in that category). And, to ME, at LEAST as important, there is a mindset to be developed that, I think, is very hard to come by quickly (i.e. in just 4 or 5 days of training), if you don't happen to naturally be of that mindset anyway.
Once you have the base skills, knowledge, AND the right mindset, it seems to me that the next steps, for Trimix and Adv Trimix, are much smaller, incremental steps up (as compared to the step up to AN/DP). But, that is just my opinion, being only a TDI Trimix diver and not a tech instructor at all.
