What is SSI's "Decompression Diver" course?

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Sorry but I am a bit confused and may not be understanding this correctly. If someone, who has taken this specialty or teaching this, could give a little more information and address my curiosity, Id be grateful.

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Going into decompression requires proficiency in backplate and wing with long hose and that is what our TDI's Intro to Tech does, or GUE Fundies or UTD Essentials. I believe SSI has its own variant called XR Foundations. Apparently, these are not required for SSI Decompression Diver. Am I correct to understand that this takes you outside of recreational diving into technical diving parameters WITHOUT the training and the gear configuration of tech? A tech course in a BCD jacket with split fins and snorkel??? A lot of questions come to mind.

Is the single tank required to have an H-valve? How would you shut down the compromised valve if that is the only one you have?

How do you manage air share without long hose? Recreational hose lengths are good if you are taking the fellow straight up to the surface but if you have a deco ceiling above you, then it needs to look something like ...

instead of ....

So can anyone please shed some light on what exactly is SSI's "Decompression Diver" specialty???

 

[Mod63]

Going into decompression requires proficiency in backplate and wing with long hose and that is what our TDI's Intro to Tech does, or GUE Fundies or UTD Essentials.

Nope. Take any of the larger European club centric agencies (e.g. BSAC/VDST/FFESSM) and you will see that decompression diving has been around since the days before BCD and octopus.

 

[MidOH]

Tagged to learn as well.

Im under the impression that you have to have flawless buoyancy in deco, to pass. My LDS lists no specific gear in their online prereq's. But:

Must demo:
Proper trim, bouy, finning techniques.
Loss of gas, blah blah emergency procedures.
Hover.
Air share.

That second one sounded a bit like "doubles rig" to me. All of thats easier in a proper tech rig.

Local tech diver told me to take ''tech fundies'' first (intro to tech?), to make that class easier.

Intro is $425. ANDP is $1000.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Nope. Take any of the larger European club centric agencies (e.g. BSAC/VDST/FFESSM) and you will see that decompression diving has been around since the days before BCD and octopus.

I am not seeing anything in current BSAC curriculum which bears any semblance to this particular course. They have all the courses ssimilar to how we do things here in the US except the breakdown. In fact, they have courses like "Primary Donate Diver" and "Twin Set." They are covering what we do in "Intro to Tec" but in smaller increments as well.

I am not saying that decompression diving started with Backplate and Wing. I am saying that this is where it is now. I can take a diver down to 240 feet on air and say that "Decompression diving has been around since the days before Helium and Trimix and that will not fly. PSAI used to teach Narcosis Management levels in which they were taking divers down to 240 on air. One fellow took that course and it causes a reaction on this forum because no one does it today.

PSAI Narcosis Management course - 73m on air

Tagged to learn as well.

Im under the impression that you have to have flawless buoyancy in deco, to pass. My LDS lists no specific gear in their online prereq's. But:

Must demo:
Proper trim, bouy, finning techniques.
Loss of gas, blah blah emergency procedures.
Hover.
Air share.

That second one sounded a bit like "doubles rig" to me. All of thats easier in a proper tech rig.

Local tech diver told me to take ''tech fundies'' first (intro to tech?), to make that class easier.

Intro is $425. ANDP is $1000.

I could be missing something. TDI Intro to Tech is intended to take a certified diver who has been diving in recreational BCD with short hose and snorkel etc. and introduce them to skills done in backplate and wing, long hose, twin tanks etc. In order to explain to them why we are not attempting these dives in a recreational BCD, the Intro to Tech manual says,

"Appropriate BCD is required for technical diving. The sheet weight of double cylinders can severely tax the strength of the average jacket style, sport diving BCD."

Then in order to explain what we use in place of a recreational BCD, the manual goes on to say. "The component system consists of a heavy duty harness (to which cylinders are secured.) with large inflatable bladder positioned on the divers back, and effectively encircling the outer parameter of the cylinders."

There is nothing in "Intro to Tech," from valve shutdowns to long hose donate, that would be directly transferable to a decompression course being taught in a jacket and split fins. It would defeat the whole purpose of "Intro to Tech."

 

[KenGordon]

Courses such as TDI ANDP are about accelerated deco. That means more than one breathing mix so as to make for sensible deco times for reasonable bottom times.

Regular, especially US centric, diver training “aka” recreational teaches for no deco at all, dives to be planned within the NDL time.

In between those two places there is single gas deco. It is simpler and safer since the whole “whoops is this 80% I am breathing at 30m” thing does not apply. The argument against such a qualification is that you don’t really get much of a deco dive out of a 15l cylinder. Personally, I find that 50-65 minute 20 and bit M dives are possible with just a little bit of deco. With a pony and a reasonably good buddy that seems perfectly reasonable and avoids the anxiety of NDL watching. With a twinset you basically get limited by how long you are prepared to do stops for. It is very educational for people to have experience of those stops before getting involved with the kind of deco commitment that ANDP and so forth might lead to, especially in the case of deco gas failure.

 

[KenGordon]

I am not seeing anything in current BSAC curriculum which bears any semblance to this particular course. They have all the courses ssimilar to how we do things here in the US except the breakdown. In fact, they have courses like "Primary Donate Diver" and "Twin Set." They are covering what we do in "Intro to Tec" but in smaller increments as well.

This because ALL BSAC divers allowed past 20m can do deco.

 

[KenGordon]

I am not saying that decompression diving started with Backplate and Wing. I am saying that this is where it is now

Surely where it is now is CCR? To avoid narcosis you need helium. That is very/impracticably expensive OC.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Courses such as TDI ANDP are about accelerated deco. That means more than one breathing mix so as to make for sensible deco times for reasonable bottom times.

Regular, especially US centric, diver training “aka” recreational teaches for no deco at all, dives to be planned within the NDL time.

In between those two places there is single gas deco. It is simpler and safer since the whole “whoops is this 80% I am breathing at 30m” thing does not apply. The argument against such a qualification is that you don’t really get much of a deco dive out of a 15l cylinder. Personally, I find that 50-65 minute 20 and bit M dives are possible with just a little bit of deco. With a pony and a reasonably good buddy that seems perfectly reasonable and avoids the anxiety of NDL watching. With a twinset you basically get limited by how long you are prepared to do stops for. It is very educational for people to have experience of those stops before getting involved with the kind of deco commitment that ANDP and so forth might lead to, especially in the case of deco gas failure.

So they are not switching gases in SSI Decompression Diver course and the bottle is for redundancy with the same mix as the back gas?

 

[brsnow]

There is a program similar to padi and goes is levels

 

[KenGordon]

So they are not switching gases in SSI Decompression Diver course and the bottle is for redundancy with the same mix as the back gas?

I have not got through to their page yet. I guess the interest from frustrated SB’ers is so much their web site cannot cope.


ok, got there, so this is another ANDP alike…

I don’t think the exact gear config is mandated even in ANDP