Technical Diving
- Thread starter Jason Ooi
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1) Safety
2) Cool black gear
3) Learn to dive recreationally first
4) GUE
2) Cool black gear
3) Learn to dive recreationally first
4) GUE
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Jason Ooi:
1) I wanted to get away from the heavily populated dive sites and go where not many divers can go.
2) It's fun and there is a sense of exploration, which is why I got into diving to begin with.
3) Be very comfortable in the water and know your own personal limits and risks you are willing to take. Be honest with yourself in your own personal reflection.
4) Doesn't matter what agency. It's the instructor that you will learn from. Find an instructor that you are comfortable with and turn your brain into a sponge. Absorb as much info as you can.
Good luck.
DJ
MSilvia
Contributor
The more I understand about advanced diving, the safer my recreational diving will be.Jason Ooi:
Also, it gives me the opportunity to stay longer at recreational depths, so instead of a bounce dive to a wreck at 130', I can stay and enjoy it for a while. I can go deeper with it, but don't often find a reason to that seems worth the trouble.
I'm not crazy about it, I'm crazy about diving. Technical training is just a tool that lets me get more out of the diving I enjoy.Jason Ooi:
Find a good instructor/mentor. Get used to diving with a backplate, doubles, and a drysuit. Get yourself an AL40 and learn to stage rig it. Read everything you can about it.Jason Ooi:
I've taken courses from IANTD and GUE, but I'd also consider NAUI, TDI, or others deending on the instructor. I think the instructor is more important, and if/when I get additional training, it will be from one of several specific individuals regardless of what agency they teach through.Jason Ooi:
double80s
Contributor
Jason Ooi:
To be a safer diver and to have the option of doing dives that are beyond the limits of recreational diving
Provides more options to extend my diving experience. If there is a wreck/cave I want to see, I can dive it with the confidence that I have the proper training. The only thing that makes me crazy is adding up the money invested.
Find an instructor through referals you trust. Just because someone is an instructor, it doesn't make them a good instructor for you. Personality and experience are important elements to consider. Take your time and start out with basic classes to ensure you want to make the time & $$ commitment. Cavern and Intro to Tech classes are a great place to start. Don't try and sign up to do something like Full Cave in a week, it can be done, but it's not worth it. After your training is complete, remember you are still learning.
I've done my cave training with NSS-CDS and I presently finishing my deco/tech with NAUI. I went with NAUI because I know the instructor and have had the opportunity to dive with him for over a year.
Remeber, purchasing a backplate and wing is the cheap part of tech diving. Stage bottles, stage regs, hoses, canister lights, training, and the most expensive part...TRAVEL & BOATS will be the real money drain. I went to a tech discussion the other evening and the speaker spent $9000 to dive the Andrea Doria. This was for 2 dives, of which, he and is buddy only did one dive. Something to think about.
Anytime you expand your skills, tech or otherwise, it will increase the enjoyment you get from the sport. Good luck & have fun.
matt_unique
Guest
Jason Ooi:
1.) My diving interests were leading me down that path. I began doing 120/130' dives and I wanted to be able to stay longer than the NDL's allowed. I also wanted to learn the skills to explore deeper wrecks.
2.) I really enjoy the planning, preparation, and execution required for a deco dive. I find the diving experience more rewarding when I have to put all these pieces together.
3.) If your skills and equipment support it, start diving deeper recreational dives. Start exploring and researching backup systems such as pony bottles and other critical gear.
4.) I would go with whatever agency my top choice instructor happened to represent. I could care less which agency. Your first step should be in selecting an instructor who dives deep, dark, and cold for fun. I sought out the instructor I thought was the best technical diver in my area. My particular instructor has over 8000 dives, 34 years diving experience, Course Director for several agencies, and is a regular technical decompression diver. His Divemasters (at least in my courses) had over 2000 dives and were also regular technical decompression divers. These courses should not be about hand holding and feeling good in my opinion - they are about learning from the best - those who have been there/done that. Doria, U869, etc., and other cold water wrecks deeper than these.
--Matt
WarmWaterDiver
Contributor
Jason Ooi:
1. To be able to dive less frequently visited stuff with education and training on risks and risk mitigation.
2. We're not crazy about it, we do plenty of 'recreational' profile diving - but with a higher awareness level of risk mitigation and self-rescue.
3. Understand why you want to pursue this; be honest with yourself on your limitations. Also, don't get in a hurry.
4. We took our classes through ANDI. We interviewed three different instructors from three different agencies, and this was the best fit for us. We do not plan to dive 'cold', whether on recreational or technical profiles - the 'cold' is not a requirement from our perspective. Bikini Atoll is our motivation, got info just today on perhaps joining a trip forming for 2007. Truk Lagoon is another. We did our tech certification dives at Grand Cayman. Since you're in Hong Kong you have some latitude as well it appears in terms of temperature.
Good luck on finding your best fit.
To get longer bottom times.
I'm crazy about diving. To me technical diving isn't a goal in itself. It's just a means to an end.
Get a heat resistant Visa card.
And find a good mentor.The one your carefully chosen instructor belongs to.
R..
Soggy
Contributor
Jason Ooi:
...because the good wrecks around here are deeper than safe recreational limits and the ones that aren't deeper are deep enough that you can't spend much time there within NDLs.
I'm not particularly crazy about technical diving, per se. I mean, sure it's all uber-cool carrying lots of crap around underwater and doing gas switches and all that, but the point for me is to see the stuff I want to see, not the technical diving itself.
Don't dive deep because you want to dive deep. Learn to dive the stuff you want to dive...if it happens to be deep, so be it.
I did my adv nitrox/deco/helitrox with NAUI Tech and I'm doing Cavern/Intro to Cave next week with...actually, I don't know what the card will say. I chose an instructor, not an organization.
Jason Ooi:
1) After 20 years of recreational diving, I was pushing the limits of my equipment and breathing gas. Better be safe and use the right technique.
2) I enjoy the planning and the execution of the dive itself.
3) Go slow, take your time mastering all the skills before moving to the next step. Also save your money you will need it.
4) I took courses from ANDI,IANTD and TDI. As long as the instructor good, I don't care what associations he's teaching for.
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