Tec Instructor Recommendation - Ontario Canada

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Steve Lewis - known as @Doppler here on Scuba Board, and while I haven't had the privilege of studying directly with him (and boy would that be great), I have read his excellent books The Six Skills and Staying Alive and of course he also authored the TDI Advanced Trimix textbook. If he's still in Ontario, I wouldn't think twice about contacting him.
 
I agree with jstrang, consider Florida (or possibly mexico) Your post says 'Long term: I want to establish a solid foundation that will allow me to get into multi tank cave diving'. If you want to cave dive, starting your tech training with an instructor versed in cave and tech instruction will gve you that solid foundation, you'll find some world class instruction in those locations.
 
Steve Lewis - known as @Doppler here on Scuba Board, and while I haven't had the privilege of studying directly with him (and boy would that be great), I have read his excellent books The Six Skills and Staying Alive and of course he also authored the TDI Advanced Trimix textbook. If he's still in Ontario, I wouldn't think twice about contacting him.


Thanks. I still keep a home in Muskoka, Ontario. However, I find myself on the road for much of the year... not that I am complaining.

I much prefer to focus my teaching time on instructors and instructor-trainers... or cave divers. But thank you again for your thoughts.
 
Not to take anything away from Canadian technical instructors, but a large part of effective training is going with an instructor that is doing the dives you want to do, regularly, and outside of a teaching role. Since multi-stage cave diving is the goal, go where the instructors are doing multi-stage cave dives just for fun. That really means Florida or Mexico.

The doesn't mean you can't learn from an instructor close by, but doing AN/DP in open water doesn't prepare you for doing deco in a cave. There's an important distinction that has real world consequences if done incorrectly. That type of experience is something you want to tap into. That's just one example, but there are plenty of others. In the same vein, going to a cave instructor isn't going to prepare you the same way for doing a deep wreck in the Atlantic. While I'm a firm believer that cave-trained divers make better wreck divers, there are unique challenges in wreck diving that cave training do not prepare you for.

It's important that your training goals mirror your non-training goals. I find having an instructor who is doing the dives you want to do is highly beneficial in helping achieve your goals.
 
johny c , first let me say there are big differences doing a tri mix course(or adv / dec) in fla vrs Canada cold water ,....not that im saying fla is bad but ask anyone that's done a course down south vrs Ontario its harder on the instructor and the student to complete (more gear /logistically/environment ) but I do agree that you should learn in the environment you plan to dive...........it seems more and more instructors up here are not teaching cold water anymore ....
 
just found out that some tdi instructors here in Ontario are not instructors any more check the tdi site to see if they are still instructors
 
Good to know. Plan right now is to get more deep water experience with a side mount config over the next year and then look to do the course then. Not to mention we just got drysuits so I need to master that well.
 
Not that I am a "tech" diver ,but have done things "tech-ie" , but, up here in the cold north we dive year round. Through the ice, under the ice and immersed for 80-90 min in 33F water! Iffin we be lucky the water may get into the low 70's * F in summer. Sorry to say the dives in sunny Florida shut down when the temps get in the 60's , at least my last three trips down, no one and I mean I looked hard, I could not get a boat out, gulf or Atlantic. Want to do tech in. cold waters, get a cold water Instructor. Just my $.05. Adjusted for inflation.​
 
johny c , first let me say there are big differences doing a tri mix course(or adv / dec) in fla vrs Canada cold water ,....not that im saying fla is bad but ask anyone that's done a course down south vrs Ontario its harder on the instructor and the student to complete (more gear /logistically/environment ) but I do agree that you should learn in the environment you plan to dive...........it seems more and more instructors up here are not teaching cold water anymore ....

Absolutely. If someone is planning on doing lots of cold water technical diving, I can't think of a better place to learn than the frozen lands of moose poutine. Maybe Scandinavia, but those guys are weirder than you canucks are.
 
hey back off ! moose is ok but poutine sucks
 
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