Tech Diving Recommendations

[Nosmosis]

Here are my recommendations....

1. Under Pressure: Diving Deeper with Human Factors, Gareth Lock
2. The Fundamentals of Better Diving, Jared Jablonski
3. Technical Diving - An Introduction, Mark Powell
4. Deco for Divers, Mark Powell
5. Technical Diving from the Bottom Up, Kevin Gurr
6. Deep Into Deco, Asser Salama

Also take GUE Fundies.

 

[Mike McG]

Thanks for the advice and recommendations everyone. It can get frustrating with local clubs because the instructors are volunteers and so I have to wait until they have time and students to deliver training to which can sometimes be months.

The tech route is way in the future for me but I want to improve my current fundamentals as much as I can to prepare for that route. I have applied what I know of DIR standards to the rig I currently dive based on info from the GUE website and I practice skills on mosts dives (e.g Long hose PD). Perhaps i'll do the fundamentals training.

 

[Wibble]

PADI Rescue Diver...

I did the Rescue Diver course in the UK and it was far and away the best PADI course I ever did. Also the last PADI course too.

Rescue Diver is very useful if you're diving abroad as few dive outfits will recognise the far more advanced technical diving qualifications. Asked for my highest qualification and said Normoxic Trimix, CCR MOD2+ and CCR Cave and they just looked blankly at me as it was completely meaningless to them. Pull out the Rescue Diver card and they're very happy and will put you into the advanced group on the cattle boat.

Rescue is part of technical training skills as you have to change your "recreational" focus away from yourself and on to other divers around you. Most technical diving courses will have elements of rescue diver built into the syllabus as part of the team diving ethos.

 

[crofrog]

• Close Calls - Stratis Kas
• The Last Dive: a Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths - Bernie Chowdhury

and I strongly second the recommendations above of under pressure, and the fundamentals of better diving. I'd read both of those before reading the other 2 and ask yourself questions about what protocols and philosophies can insulate yourself from the risks documented in those books.