What does "Tech" mean to you?

[DCBC]

Technical Diving seems to mean different things to different people. To me it refers to more specialized equipment and/or techniques applied to a particular recreational dive to insure and maximize diving safety.

It is a term only used by recreational divers and recreational organizations. The military and commercial fields do not acknowledge such a term.

I find this somewhat confusing in-that some recreational certification agencies list "technical diving" as diving beyond recreational depth limits (which totally baffles me). Am I do believe that technical divers no longer dive for recreational? :shocked2:

I would classify a cave dive, or a deep dive using a number of gases for decompression as "technical." However I don't solely consider the primary gas used as the criteria to make the dive a technical one, in and of itself (a 150' dive on Air or Trimix isn't "technical" in my view).

What do you consider "technical" and how would you define it? Do you feel your understanding is swayed by any particular certification agency?

 

[kjvander]

Well at first I considered Tech diving to be anything that would involve overhead ceiling limits...whether physical or virtual. By this meaning physical ceilings ie caves, caverns without airspace at the top, wreck penetration etc. and virtual ceilings meaning deco stops. The only caveat to that as I have read and learned more is that of the fact that technically a "safety stop" is a deco stop.

As far as gasses go the type of gas that you use is just simply a tool to the job. I dive nitrox now for almost all of my dives where MOD wouldn't be an issue with the gas....where as before Nitrox was considered a technical gas.

The boundry between recreational and technical diving is more grey than black/white because you can do a deco dive on mixed gasses and still be within depth limits....just longer periods of time.

Despite the two different names and certification levels unless doing it professionally, for the military, or science....all dives to me are recreational. You still go out and do it for fun. (not saying that any of the diving for a profession can't be fun at times either.)

just my thoughts.

 

[*dave*]

Tech diving is any dive that requires procedures which, if not followed, would result in a unacceptably high risk of injury. I think that's about as close as I can come to a definition.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I find this somewhat confusing in-that some recreational certification agencies list "technical diving" as diving beyond recreational depth limits (which totally baffles me). Am I do believe that technical divers no longer dive for recreational? :shocked2:

Wayne, that sounds like a contrived question to me. Of course, I think you believe that people who are trained to dive beyond recreational limits also enjoy diving within them.

Personally, I think the term "tech" diving is a term that was coined to make a distinction for the uneducated to help them understand that they shouldn't be attempting 200-foot bounce dives on AL80's (some do it anyway) ... and to make a distinction on the type of training that would enable people to properly prepare themselves for more aggressive diving environments.

I don't particularly like labels ... because people always seem to want to turn them into issues, start arguments over what they mean, or use them as somehow a justification for disliking a group of people they know nothing about.

Can't we all just go diving?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[kjvander]

Can't we all just go diving?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Nope.....we must argue about it on the internet though....

 

[dbulmer]

My definition of a technical diving is as follows:-

A technical dive is any dive where a direct ascent to the surface is not possible

because a) the dive is conducted in an environment where there is a physical ceiling above the diver's head b) where failure to recognise and/or resolve one or more underwater problems could overwhelm the ability of the diver and buddy and result in injury which might require professional medical advice and/or be life threatening.

This definition is far from perfect and could easily apply to recreational dives (a recreational dive for me is assumed to be on air with an EAD of 30m or less).

I'm a recreational diver who uses a twinset to a depth of 30m and uses EAN30. I'm swayed less by certification agency and more by exposure to divers who are routinely exposed to gases other than air or EAN30/32.

 

[dbulmer]

Having just seen NWG post - what he said

 

[TGreene]

What does "Tech" mean to you?

That's an interesting question that I would guess would likely hold a different meaning to many people...

In the more traditional sense (ie: public perception), you guys have probably pretty well covered the bases already.

Personally, I started rec diving and first became certified because I was already diving commercially via a modified Hookah system and figured that "just in case" something were to somehow go wrong, it would be better in regards to insurance if I was certified.

During my PADI classes I was obviously taught incorrectly in regards to No Decompression blah blah blah. Umm, all diving beyond 33 feet is deco diving in one way or another!

This past fall I had the the opportunity to do some very laborous commercial diving with 'Deep South Divers' (SeaJay's company) where the jacket style BC that I had been using simply wasn't adequate due to bouyancy issues as well as primarily being in the way and creating mobility restrictions. To alleviate these issues I was loaned a Halcyon rig, and to be honest my bouyancy, trim and mobility were immediately improved 10-fold. We were strenuously working under 20' of saltwater for very long hours, day in and day out, from anywhere between 6-11 hours a day. For lack of a better description, we were doing underwater reconstruction and restoration...

The skills I learned over those several days while diving "specialized equipment" will be with me forever and utilized in all of my traditional rec dives, because it simply made me a better diver.

Most would state that the difference is in the diver and not the equipment. That's obviously true in regards to skills, but without the proper tools you simply can't get the job done adequately.

FWIW: Upon return home after working w/ SeaJay, I sold all of my traditional rec gear and replaced it with a Halcyon rig and HOG regs. I also plan to train w/ GUE when I can do so.

-Tim

 

[DCBC]

Wayne, that sounds like a contrived question to me. Of course, I think you believe that people who are trained to dive beyond recreational limits also enjoy diving within them.

Hey Bob, I didn't have anything contrived in-mind. Regarding the "recreational limits," I would suggest that there are none. I believe that that the only thing limiting recreational diving depths is training and experience. I can't see how any diving certification agency can limit the "maximum recreational depth" to 130 feet? Obviously other recreational certification bodies certify divers deeper than this. It was somewhat confusing and made me wonder what technical diving is, if it isn't recreational...

 

[Scott]

I find this somewhat confusing in-that some recreational certification agencies list "technical diving" as diving beyond recreational [-]depth[/-] limits (which totally baffles me). Am I do believe that technical divers no longer dive for recreational? :shocked2:

That's what it means to me.