Tech Questions

[diverdownAg]

Howdy All,

I have been doing a lot of back ground reading on diving and different diving locations and opportunities lately and I have come across a lot of references to technical or decompression diving. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of something that could explain technical, mixed gas or decompression (are they all the same?) diving. I am just looking for something that could answer basic questions so I can learn a little more about it. Thanks for your help.

 

[Meister481]

Welcome to the board!

This will get you started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_diving

 

[Michael Schlink]

How many aggies does it take............ Sorry I just had to, but really you should know that aggies aren't able to learn how to tech dive. Just kidding........again.
Technical diving is a relativly new name for a more advanced style of diving. It got it's roots from cave diving, and extends into wreck diving and just plain OW dives that are either too deep or too long or both, for regular dive gear and planning. Tech diving often involves "overhead" diving such as wreck penetration and cave diving, but could also include ice diving and OW deco dives.
The "Technical Diving" forum has plenty of info and discussion to keep you busy reading for some time.

 

[Meister481]

If you want a good general resource about tech diving you might want to pick up Gary Gentile's Technical Diving Handbook. Lots of info, it was my first tech book.

 

[rongoodman]

One way to think of it as diving where you don't have immediate access to the surface in case of a problem, as you do in recreational diving. That has lots of implications for gear, redundancy, and problem solving.

 

[TripletDad]

There are many good resources on the net to help gain a more thorough understanding but in essence, technical diving could be very basically defined as diving beyond the recreational limits i.e. below 130' or, as already mentioned, into overhead environments. Since air is technically a mixed gas, what you are already doing could be considered mixed gas diving but it is usually looked at, at it most basic, as using a breathing gas other than air, i.e. nitrox above 21% O2 or one of the various mixes that incorporate Helium or other inert gases. Decompression diving would very simply be defined as what you do when you extend your time beyond the no decompression limit established by your computer or tables. All of these things are interrelated but are different and obviously none of it should be attempted without proper training and equipment.