Tri-Mix Agencies?

[David_57]

Cave diver you hit the nail on the head 100% agree! Just one additional note think maybe they should consider hours under water rather than number of dives.

 

[SeaCobra]

Does ANY agency give you a card that gets you to 150 without training in decompression?
[/QUOTE]

Yes, NAUI does. NAUI Helitrox, while rarely taught alone is a prerequisite for Deco Procedures and is often taught in combination. The training gas used is 26/17 which gives the diver a narcosis benefit while not overly impacting the deco obligation. Also, studies have shown that 26/17 behaves much like EAN32 in terms of the divers ascent rates, so it gives the diver a safety margin should ascent rate not be perfect as they continue their training.

To the OP - the recommendation to get in touch with Bert Wilcher is an excellent one. I know he is a NAUI Tec instructor and know a couple of folks that have trained with him and highly recommend him.

If going deeper than the rec limits or using trimix is the course you have set sail for, then do your homework (as you have started) and you will probably find some side paths to take. I typically start students off with the NAUI Intro to Tec course which is full of skills, emergency procedures, working as a team, gear config and more.

Next step I do as a combined course of Tech EANx, Helitrox and Deco Procedures which results in 14 dives to successfully complete. In my area of joisey wreck divin' we have a lot of wrecks in the 130fsw to 140fsw range and this works out quite well.

The other suggestion is to keep diving in the meantime, time in the water is a good thing. Take time to practice your emergency skills and achieve your Zen attitude in the water.

Good luck,
Jeff

 

[TSandM]

Well, I'm confused. I went to the NAUI site, and their description of the Helitrox class is:

The Helitrox Diver course teaches you how to plan and execute Helitrox-based dives that may require stage decompression and utilize EANx and/or oxygen for stage decompression. This course is designed to teach you the hazards of utilizing Helium for dives to a maximum depth of 150 fsw / 46 msw that may require stage decompression, utilizing EANx mixtures and/or oxygen during decompression.

That sounds as though they incorporate training in staged/accelerated decompression into the course. The post I quoted seemed to suggest that some agency simply taught you to dive a helium mix to 150 WITHOUT any staged decompression or accelerated decompression.

That said, my NAUI Helitrox class did not involve any accelerated deco, and little staged deco -- but I took a very strange class under really unique circumstances, and I have never felt it represented NAUI's vision of the class.

 

[Rainer]

"May" is the key word. This class is usually combined with NAUI's decompression class, but they are not the same.

Well, I'm confused. I went to the NAUI site, and their description of the Helitrox class is:



That sounds as though they incorporate training in staged/accelerated decompression into the course. The post I quoted seemed to suggest that some agency simply taught you to dive a helium mix to 150 WITHOUT any staged decompression or accelerated decompression.

That said, my NAUI Helitrox class did not involve any accelerated deco, and little staged deco -- but I took a very strange class under really unique circumstances, and I have never felt it represented NAUI's vision of the class.

 

[Blackwood]

Well, I'm confused. I went to the NAUI site, and their description of the Helitrox class is:
-snip-

But these are the prerequisites for Decompression Techniques:

If you are 18 years of age, posses at least NAUI Master Scuba Diver, Deep Diver Specialty, Technical EANx Diver and Helitrox Diver certifications (or their equivalents), and have 75 logged dives, you may enroll in the Decompression Techniques course. With additional dives and training, your instructor may opt to combine this course with Technical EANx (Nitrox) Diver or Helitrox Diver.

It does seem a little backwards, so I assume they're rarely taught independently.

 

[ucfdiver]

Ok, so if diving deep and using trimix is so annoying and painful, then you should probably just make your lives easier and move on back to the 90-120ft range, huh? Perhaps, instead, we could just move this to the whine and cheese forum so you can all vent about how terribly burdensome it is to have so many qualifications.

I see no reason to go deep at his experience level. He hasn't seen what he can see, which means the goal to go deeper isn't related to exploration or sight seeing (he'll see less in deep water limited by gas/deco, especially deep open ocean where there's less life).

FWIW I had a scooter issue and was talking to GI3 on the phone troubleshooting it a few weeks back. During the conversation he made a comment to me "I've yet to know of a diver who died that enjoyed doing shallow reef dives". The OP here clearly hasn't gotten burned out on those, maybe he's thinking there's some great excitement around the next turn that simply isn't there?

 

[lamont]

Does ANY agency give you a card that gets you to 150 without training in decompression?

The Basic Bounce Diver training program from my International Divers Intentionally Opposed to Trimix agency will get you to 150 feet on a single Al80. The Advanced Bounce Diver program gets you down to 240. No decompression required.

 

[ScubaSam]

The Basic Bounce Diver training program from my International Divers Intentionally Opposed to Trimix agency will get you to 150 feet on a single Al80. The Advanced Bounce Diver program gets you down to 240. No decompression required.

Sign me up, ASAP.

 

[Blackwood]

The Basic Bounce Diver training program from my International Divers Intentionally Opposed to Trimix agency will get you to 150 feet on a single Al80. The Advanced Bounce Diver program gets you down to 240. No decompression required.

Isn't their advanced program actually called Deep Extended Air Diver?

 

[ScubaFeenD]

I don't know what's got you so wound up. Those of us who do this kind of diving have had a chance to experience both its up side and its downsides (which are real, and not insignificant). Yes, it's fun to go someplace not many people can go, and see some things not many see. BUT it IS expensive, it DOES require expensive training, it DOES require hauling a sometimes frightening amount of gear around, it DOES require significant logistics in terms of fills and mixes . . . A lot of the time, faced with the choice of doing a technical dive on a site, or jumping in with a single tank or a set of small doubles and paddling around, I'll opt for the latter. There has to be something quite specific to make putting a tech dive together worthwhile.

I think folks posting here are actually being rather honest about it.

Sorry if my post seems like i have my pantyhose in a wad, but the "woe is me" posts get a little old after awhile, as do the stupid questions from OPs who have clearly done little-to-no research and the snarky comments from people making underhanded jokes (because they are clearly superior divers). It only takes a bit of time reading through the threads to realize many posters here dive helium more often than not, especially divers who have taken GUE tech1 (which, btw, only requires 100 dives and a fundamentals tech pass).

A ton of assumptions have been made, which I think might be based greatly on his dive number. Perhaps if he lied on his SB profile and put 500-1000 the tone of the posts here might be different. Dive number, IMHO, correlates very very poorly with experience, because the measure has so much bias and inherent variation.

OTOH a lot of great advice has been given here, too. I hope the OP takes some of it to heart and really thinks about what he is doing even though I am probably in the worst position to judge any of it from any perspective other than that of a trimix diver wannabe.

I see no reason to go deep at his experience level. He hasn't seen what he can see, which means the goal to go deeper isn't related to exploration or sight seeing (he'll see less in deep water limited by gas/deco, especially deep open ocean where there's less life).

FWIW I had a scooter issue and was talking to GI3 on the phone troubleshooting it a few weeks back. During the conversation he made a comment to me "I've yet to know of a diver who died that enjoyed doing shallow reef dives". The OP here clearly hasn't gotten burned out on those, maybe he's thinking there's some great excitement around the next turn that simply isn't there?

Maybe he shouldn't be going deep, your right. Its difficult to fasten hard rules to what people should and shouldn't aspire to. Different regions demand different training levels, sometimes to get the most experience and dives out of a region you need to have the benefit of a bit more education. Here in the NE for example, easy access to shore dives or shallow reefs just doesn't exist. Sure, there are SOME shallow dives to be had, but most decent dives start at 100ft and keep getting deeper from there. Why not learn to accelerate my deco sooner and start taking advantage of decreased physiologic risks as long as a divers performance is commensurate with the required skills.

Good points tough, thanks for posting that.