Trends in the Evolution of Tech Diving

[211ratsbud]

I haven't been tech trained for pleasure diving, but I've been helping on charters since 2004.

I notice techies are getting younger.

That's about it lol

 

[DevonDiver]

I started out with deco software that ran on MS-DOS. It was an early 'ProPlanner', I believe. I'm not even sure exactly what algorithm it ran... very haldanian... and around that time it became en-vogue to add unilateral Pyle stops to your formulated plan.

I was taught to use a very hogarthian approach... and was influenced by (early days) GUE. My second wing was an early Halcyon Pioneer. But diving out in Thailand, most people were using OMS double bladder wings.

I never saw a sidemount rig until 2008.

The only tech computers I remember seeing back then were VR2, DiveRite or Cocran. Most people dived cut tables and gauges.

The training back then seemed much more intensive than many of today's courses. I first did TDI... but then crossed to PADI... whose Tech Deep course was still under the DSAT branding. It was 2 weeks of hard diving and you had to prepare diligently in advance.

Tech instructors back then typically had many thousands of dives... and most were qualified with multiple agencies. All had true expertise and the network usually had only 1 degree of separation.

 

[nadwidny]

Started tech diving in 1996. Some IANTD, some GUE, some TDI. I do OW dives almost exclusively and my exposure to caving is minimal. I don't know what is going on in the cave world.

I agree with the observations on more computers and less tables but I dive pretty much exclusively with CCR people now on tech dives, who are all using their computer, so I don't know what the OC crowd is doing.

The biggest change I experienced was between 2007 and 2008. In 2007 I did a trip with a bunch of people from the Boston and NY, areas to Halifax Nova Scotia. On that trip there were as I recall 10 of us and 9 were on OC. In 2008 I did the same trip with basically the same people and there were 5 rebreathers and 2 transitioning to CCR (dove CCR for the shallower dives and OC for the deeper ones) and only one purely OC (me). I bought a rebreather shortly after that.