I'm looking to get into tech diving. I am an experienced dive master looking to go deeper and expand my dive knowledge. I have done all my training through PADI but TDI seems to be a popular choice for Tech courses. So I'm just curious as to what experienced tech divers consider to be a better option. TDI or PADI? I am not interested in doing trimix.
Following on from Steve's comments.... well, I'm not biased! I can teach both PADI Tec courses and TDI.
I prefer to teach the latter.
The PADI curriculum has some fairly fundamental flaws in it, IMHO. For example, in my instructor exam one of the questions asked about procedures for what to do in the case you spotted a diver breathing from the wrong mix. I picked the answer "signal to the diver and tell them to swap regulators".
Apparently, this is wrong - according to PADI you should swim over to the diver and rip their regulator out of their mouth and donate your long hose. This is wrong on so many levels, for example:
1. The argument that "seconds count" that was given to me shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the physiology of oxygen toxicity. If the diver is that close to toxing, then they problably still will even if you rip the reg out of their mouth. All you've done is make the situation worse be guarenteeing that the diver will ingest water (as opposed to probably will).
2. The only time that someone may be breathing the wrong gas is after a gas switch. In which case your long hose will be clipped off and likely to have the hose lying under the hose of your deco reg. You've just created a problem yourself by forcing the donor to give the long hose. And that's ignoring what I think is one of the golden rules of technical diving - you *ALWAYS* donate from the mouth, as you know that gas is safe to breathe at the depth you are at.
Trying to discuss this with the examiner was futile...... so whilst I can teach PADI Tec courses, I just won't.
The TDI curriculum is a lot less structured, which means that as an instructor I can swap things around and add things in to suit each student I get. PADI is very prescriptive. PADI materials are more glossy and appealing, TDI materials are getting better - but at present the Deco Procedures is a bit out of date, though I understand a new one is coming out this year. Generally, TDI materials let themselves down a bit with silly things like spellng mistkes.
One other drawback is that you will get a greater deal of inconsistency with TDI instructors - some seem to only teach the bare minimums rather than going the extra mile to give a good course to their students. When two TDI instructors do add in extra skills and knowledge, they will do so differently. So you definitely want to look around and find an instructor that suits you.
My suggestion would also be to do an Intro to Tech class before doing anything else. TDI Intro to Tech, when taught properly, is very much akin to classes like the GUE Fundamentals class and will really help you get the skills you need to do the dives safely and comfortably.
