Technical diving and the new diver

[pocky21]

Hello everyone!

I recently heard of a student at our LDS who went through an open water class and the instructor had brought up technical diving. Since then, for reasons unknown to me, the student is said to have developed a minor obsession with it.

As a soon to be technical diver, this excites me. People strapping on a set of doubles (or sidemounting) are like white buffalo around here. However, as a soon to be instructor, this worries me. The sticky in the advanced diving forum talks at great length about a diver ultimately preparing themselves for undertaking such an endeavor. After reading that thread, and being injured in an incident where a student obviously wasn't ready for the tasks asked of him, I have held off my own training for some time whilst adjusting equipment and practicing skills. All of this assumes that the diver, however, has advanced beyond the "don't know what you don't know" stage and has started independently thinking about the direction of his/her diving career and equipment.

A new diver at or prior to the open water level will rely mostly on his/her instructor and LDS for information and advice. The student has no conceptual grasp of what being in open water is like at this stage - let alone the deep, dark, and usually cold environments that many desirable tec dives take place in. For this reason, I have to ask, is it ever too soon to talk about technical diving and "plant the seed", so to speak?

Let's take this one step further - following the first OW dive, the OW student takes it upon themselves to dive the Andrea Doria, just as a hiker who climbs a grassy knoll then decides to pursue Everest. Should the open water instructor (not necessarily a tec instructor) encourage such an ambitious undertaking at such an early level, discourage the prospective diver for the time being, attempt to educate the prospective diver about the dangers involved in such an activity, or some/all of the above? Should the LDS see to it that such a diver is outfitted from the start in tec flavored equipment such as a BP/W? What if the shop staff have very little understanding of technical diving?

The student then pursues AOW and beyond - should any instructor(s) aware of the student's end goal adjust training methods to focus on the student's intent? Should these instructor(s) challenge the student (or any student, for that matter) during his/her continuing education, or should vanilla classes be taught to avoid "too much, too fast"? If an instructor is willfully ignorant to tec diving, should the student be referred to a tec instructor, regardless of the class?

I know that was a lot of questions, so to summarize - it seems to me that many introductory classes tend to focus on the rainbows and butterflies of diving, and while mention of the big bad wolf is made, we don't want to scare anybody. I'd like some opinions from both new divers, experienced divers, and instructors alike. At what point is it appropriate to introduce otherwise unknowing divers to the concepts, philosophy, and mechanisms of technical diving - and is it appropriate to continually focus on these points across a diver's education?

 

[BluewaterSail]

The owner of a particular local dive shop tried to sell me on technical diving courses well before I was ready. When I pointed out that I was a bit weak in certain skills (like trim and bouyancy) he said that the PADI program was structured to deal with these things along the way in their technical courses.

My reaction to that was to not consider him and his shop as I progressed, and not trust his advice. But I am sure that he has been successful selling his product prematurely to others, and has made money and issued cards. Scary.

 

[ScoobaChef]

Hmmm... Methinks a can of worms might have been opened here, so I'll just share my own story because I am also that new diver who has a minor "obsession" with tech diving. I originally did my OW back in 89 with NAUI, but my dive buddy(mum) quickly dropped out and not having anyone to dive with, let it go for over 20 years before going back into it. I did a lot of research on dive shops to train with and was lucky enough to find the only GUE shop in the state and signed up with them to do rec courses thru padi and move on to tech thru gue. Since I knew the direction I wanted to go from the beginning, I started out in long hose, bp/w, jetfins, etc... Which has already saved me a ton of money on gear rentals and of course I won't have to replace anything to advance further.

Also, because the padi instructors are also all GUE trained, i was able to get some good proper mentoring on trim, bouyancy, dive planning and everything else that helps to get me in the mindset of a tech diver, which even if I changed my mind and didn't go that route, I still feel I am a far better diver than I would have been had I not had a tech focus from the beginning.

 

[Dam0]

I think the LDS the right to advertise to students additional courses available, not the hard sell at all, but how else are these shops to ensure they continue to get repeat business beyond AOW or MSD. Also, how are students to know what the different paths are. Some will want to progress, others won't.

My LDS didn't do the sell, they have posters of people in twins and side mount etc and when I was a OW student I started getting inquisitive.
Following asking, I was told about other areas of diving available. I now own side mount gear and just finishing off the course. I'll probably go tech 40 next year... When I'm ready.

The LDS has to be responsible about all this, it's a balance between operating a successful shop with repeat business and ensuring your students are ready.

 

[JamesK]

I don't think it's ever too soon talk about technical diving. If a student knows they want to tech dive, all training can be tailored that way. I took up diving only to cave dive. My instructor knew this. I was held to a higher standard them the one other student in the class. I was given extra pool time, a lot of extra pool time, to ensure buoyancy and trim were dialed in. I was put in a hog gear setup. I was taught frog, modified frog, modified flutter, back, and helicopter turn kicks. The DM was a cave diver as well. We drilled drilled drilled.

The other student was given the same opportunity I was but declined. They still met the standard, but did not care about the extra work.

Right out of OW the instructor, DM, and other mentors started working with me on line and touch contact drills. I knew what I wanted and we aimed my training in that direction.

Is there such a thing as too far too fast? Hell yes! Can that be different for others and lessened with a good foundation and training from the beginning? Of course!

 

[616fun]

I find the zero to hero mentality hard to cope with. While understand the end goal, there needs to be serious consideration into the progression, not only from a safety factor, but a retention factor as well. I can't count the number of people I've witness storm the scene only to be gone 12-18 months later. The good news I get relatively new gear at greatly reduced prices

Also - I find it scary that technical diving is being pushed and promoted. 'Talking' someone into this type of diving is not what diving is about. It's a great way to get someone over their head before they are ready.

 

[JamesK]

While I agree with you on points, there is a big difference between talking someone in to tech diving and talking to someone about what they want from diving and tailoring their training to meet that.

 

[Bobby]

Many of the "OW" improvements came from "tech" configurations. Unfortunately as equipment improved and it became easier the training has been reduced. "OW" gear has also been stagnant for far too long. The octo was a good solution at the time but a 5 foot hose is a far better solution, donating the reg being breathed is better then leaving one sitting off to the side without knowing how or if it breathes, and a bp/wing properly set up works better than a stab jacket.
Another issue is that "technical" training is sliding down the slope towards "OW" training. Today we have plenty of card machines that are punching out newly minted "tech" divers without the "tech instructor" having a solid foundation or experience.
As far as addressing technical diving it should be addressed from day one of OW class but not as a sales point. New dive students need to know that there is a range of diving and some of it will easily get people killed without the training, skills, and experience. They need to be taught that just because they are on the same boat or location does not mean that they are all doing the same dives. In a perfect world all divers would be taught like James was making the transition to tech a natural progression with a solid "OW" foundation to move on from. The reality is that most OW divers are taught less than minimum and a very small percentage gather the knowledge and experience in the first year that keeps them in the sport. We also transition these poorly trained divers into technical diving as quickly as possible to keep the dollars rolling. Most scare themselves out before they are seriously injured or die, some keep going and either learn along the way or become a statistic.
In the last 10 years it has been shocking to me how much training has changed. Keep in mind that good technical training came into play in the 90's. By the early 2000's it became watered down with explosive growth. Good cave instruction came together in the 80's and has followed the same path as other technical instruction.
Hopefully technology will help pick up the slack and new divers can wade through forums to gather enough information to realize how much they don't know. I just don't see the training bar being raised any time soon for any type of diving. There are newer divers that are good but very few of them got there with all around good instruction. Virtually every one of them that I come into contact have had to re-educate themselves after receiving sub standard, with some if not most, of their training.

Bobby

 

[BluewaterSail]

There's a big difference between going from OW to the Andrea Doria on one hand, and learning appropriate skills and diving a BP/W from the beginning on the other hand. Education is never bad, doing dives the individual isn't ready for is. Like learning bouyancy skills on a deco dive to me is a non-starter. Or only being able manipulate my valves effectively if I am on my knees. Learning correctly from day one has alot of advantages.

You can't keep technical or cave or the Andrea Doria secret from a new diver in these days of the internet. But you can help the new diver understand the skills that he needs to master before it is safe to do any of the above, and help him to map out the steps towards that goal. It seems that both ScoobaChef and JamesK have done just that with their diving. And thats what I have tried to do.

 

[Slamfire]

I don't like labels, particularly when they are used by commercial entities to try to encase people into their own little subgroups designed to extract an increased profitability, and NOT for the sake of educational improvement. If you take away the labels and all the commercialized scheming, all that is left is people with more knowledge, skills and experience and those that lack it. I really dislike it when merchants use these labels as an excuse to prevent access to knowledge, skills and experience. And more than often, it just so happens that this prevention will usually benefit them monetarily (eg it's only a recreational shop with no "tech" options so they can't sell you those courses, but they can certainly train you to become a master scuba diver). It's all just commercial labels that don't necessarily make a difference in the real world.

There is a better way of diving. If you want to call it technical diving, fine, go crazy. Don't just go around using the term to block access of others to more knowledge, skills and experience.