Technical diving courses

[AquaTec]

I am offering TDI Courses in the following areas

British Columbia, Alberta, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, possibly California and other areas if there is a demand

July and August courses filling up, email me for details

The course I am offering;
TDI
Nitrox
Advanced Nitrox
Decompression Procedures
Entry Trimix - Normoxic
Advanced Trimix - Hypoxic

Instructor level TDI courses
Nitrox
Advanced Nitrox
Deco Procedures

I can also offer IANTD and PADI courses

If you are interested pm me or email me at scubaschools@hotmail.com


TDI NITROX DIVER
On this course you will learn how to dive safely using various Nitrox mixtures and how to analyse the oxygen percentage in the mixture, from 21% to 40% Oxygen. You will be restricted to a maximum depth of 130 ft. Upon successful completion of this course you will be issued with TDI Nitrox Diver certification. Included within the cost of the course is a manual and certification card as well as use of an Oxygen analyser and Oxygen.

TDI ADVANCED NITROX DIVER
This course is designed to train you to safely use EAN 21 through to 100% Oxygen for optimal mixes to a depth of 150 ft. where you are not required to carry out staged decompression. You will be required to carry out four certification dives using Nitrox on all.

TDI DECOMPRESSION PROCEDURES
This course examines the theory, methods and procedures of planned stage decompression diving. You will learn how to plan and conduct a standard staged decompression dive to a maximum depth of 150 ft.The most common equipment requirements, gear setups, decompression techniques and decompression mixtures (including oxygen and Nitrox) are presented. The course involves 4 dives where you will properly execute the planed dives within all pre-determined limits. On completion of the course you will be able to engage in decompression diving activities utilising air, Nitrox or oxygen.

TDI ENTRY LEVEL TRIMIX DIVER
The Entry Level Trimix course provides the training required to competently and safely utilise breathing gases containing helium for dives that require staged decompression, utilising Nitrox and / or oxygen mixtures during decompression to a maximum depth of 200ft. There will be four dives with two of the dives over 40 meters. The minimum pre-requisite for the Entry Level Trimix course is certification as an Advanced nitrox diver and Decompression Precedures.

TDI ADVANCED TRIMIX DIVER
The Advanced Trimix course provides the training required to competently and safely utilise breathing gases containing helium for dives that require staged decompression, utilising Nitrox and / or oxygen mixtures during decompression to a maximum depth of 300 ft.There will be four dives with two of the dives over 55 meters. The minimum pre-requisite for the Advanced Trimix course is certification as an Entry Level Trimix diver

 

[Braunbehrens]

AquaTec once bubbled...
I am offering TDI Courses in the following areas

TDI DECOMPRESSION PROCEDURES
This course examines the theory, methods and procedures of planned stage decompression diving. You will learn how to plan and conduct a standard staged decompression dive to a maximum depth of 150 ft.The most common equipment requirements, gear setups, decompression techniques and decompression mixtures (including oxygen and Nitrox) are presented. The course involves 4 dives where you will properly execute the planed dives within all pre-determined limits. On completion of the course you will be able to engage in decompression diving activities utilising air, Nitrox or oxygen.

So you are going to teach people to dive air (or worse nitrox) to 150 fsw? Do you feel that this is a safe depth for this gas? I would be extremely concerned about narcosis, and oxygen toxicity at this depth and with these gasses.

IMO this is unsafe. Diving below about 100 fsw (maybe 120 if you are pushing it) requires trimix.

 

[Pez de Diablo]

Braunbehrens once bubbled...


So you are going to teach people to dive air (or worse nitrox) to 150 fsw? Do you feel that this is a safe depth for this gas? I would be extremely concerned about narcosis, and oxygen toxicity at this depth and with these gasses.

IMO this is unsafe. Diving below about 100 fsw (maybe 120 if you are pushing it) requires trimix.

Great then don't do it!

Edit [removed rant about someone who never has anything nice to say]

I am sure that he will be teaching the effects of nitrogen at depth and try to lead the well informed student to further training.

Aqua Tec, I hope your courses fill up. Maybe one day I will beable to do some training with you.

 

[Phoenix]

150fsw is fine for air, infact on extended range you will push down to 180-190fsw, nitrox should be fine at 150 providing its not too O2 rich, im not sure the exact limits yet for the various mixes, but I know air gets toxic at about 68 meters (apprx 210fsw)

 

[cornfed]

Phoenix once bubbled...
150fsw is fine for air, infact on extended range you will push down to 180-190fsw, nitrox should be fine at 150 providing its not too O2 rich, im not sure the exact limits yet for the various mixes, but I know air gets toxic at about 68 meters (apprx 210fsw)

At that depth your pp02 is around 1.6. This isn't a good working level and I assume you're sightseeing not resting at deco.

Cornfed

 

[MarcHall]

Personally, any time I dive deeper then 100 feet I am on some form of trimix. Depending on the dive its either 21/35 or 30/30.

I regularly dive a local site (1-3 times per week) to 120-130 feet (it's a recreational dive run by a local club). The difference between diving it on mix versus diving it on air is remarkable.

Marc Hall
www.enjoythedive.com

 

[Diversauras]

Looks like you can't please everyone, huh Aqua Tec?

 

[AquaTec]

Braubehrens. there are many different belief on the subject with regards to diving deeper than 100 feet using something other than trimix, you have the right to beleive what ever you want.

As for oxygen toxicity i beleive that the working part of the dive should not use a Po2 hight than 1.4 and the deco part of the dive should not go higher than 1.6 Po2. since I am not bound to "standard" mixes it is possible to use nitrox to dive to 150 feet safely.

the advantage of taking a course from me is that I will teach you all about this which will include the effects of nitrogen and oxygen on our body as we dive to depths.

I do advocate the use of Trimix and I advocate using an END of 100 feet.

however i do not demand it I beleive in the free spirit and free will of indaviduals. I will provide them the most current information available combine with my own personal experiences which will give each student the information necessary to make their own descision on the type of diving they would like to do.

also keep in mind that the depth is stated as a maximum depth allowed durring the course, and the training provided is designed to teach you to dive safely to those depth and no deeper. the course is also not designed to force students to go to those depths.

if you have further questions feel free to ask again, or sign up for one of my courses and i can go into any of these subjects in great detail which will make it much clearer for you

Braunbehrens once bubbled...


So you are going to teach people to dive air (or worse nitrox) to 150 fsw? Do you feel that this is a safe depth for this gas? I would be extremely concerned about narcosis, and oxygen toxicity at this depth and with these gasses.

IMO this is unsafe. Diving below about 100 fsw (maybe 120 if you are pushing it) requires trimix.

 

[roakey]

AquaTec once bubbled...
...I beleive in the free spirit and free will of indaviduals. I will provide them the most current information available combine with my own personal experiences which will give each student the information necessary to make their own descision on the type of diving they would like to do.

So can I safely assume that you feel that deep air is an OK thing to do, since you're teaching it? I would hope you're principled enough that if you truly thought it was a bad thing to do, no matter how "free spirited" the student was, you wouldn't go against your own principles just to make a buck. But what do I know, maybe you would.

But, for the moment, assuming that you feel deep air is OK, please defend the practice without resorting to the same flawed reasoning the drunk driver trots out after having an accident, such as:

"You build up a tolerance to it"
"You can manage it"
"It doesn't affect me"

Point being, you can make many, many dives narked out of your gourd, and as long as nothing goes wrong, you'll be just fine. That doesn't make it safe. It's when the SHtF that you (pardon me, your "free spirited" student) will find out just how incapacitated they are. Fortunately for you, the causality chain will probably be tenuous enough that the next of kin will leave you alone...

Roak

Ps. Sorry, but I feel there's more than enough data on the table showing that deep air is dangerous AND tools are available to mitigate the risk. Given these two points, I would have hoped that all responsible instructors would have led by example and stopped teaching. and diving deep air by now.

 

[AquaTec]

I am happy to discuss deep air with you in a civil manner.

first lets establish whats deep you stated [or someone did] that 100 feet is deep on air and that lower than that there should be helium in the mix.

I think 100 feet is not deep on air, if 100 feet is your depth. 130 is not deep but may be the limit for some, 150 is generaly the threshold for most divers, if that is your depth.
as for equivalent air depths i think 100 - 130 feet should be the standard, however with every standard there are exceptions.

I never teach outside my principles, yet i do reconize that there are different personalities out there, and i adapt to them to a limit. for instance one of my principles is that i do not believe in single bladder diving on dives that there is not a bottom, say a deep wall dive, but there are those that i teach who believe that a single bladder [with dry suit] is just fine, I educate them the best i can as to why i feel that a dual bladder is better, but i let them make their own final decision as long as i feel they have all the fact.

If a guy comes to me and says he wants to learn to dive to 200 300 or what ever feet and he is willing to pay me a whole bunch of money to show him the way, i have principles against that. if teaching was about the money i would be doing something that actualy paid good money.

I do believe that when you are narced you are narced, I know a very active scuba instructor that gets narced at 80 feet, narced out of her gord. would you find it acceptable for her to dive up to 100 feet because it is considered NOT deep air. f**k no, she should dive to her comfort zone, where ever that is.

you would have us believe that she should be capable of diving to 100 feet because it is not deep, the same could be said for those who are not narced at 100 feet maybe they could dive a little bit deeper.