When Hardcore Tech Divers Are Dry Docked

[Trace Malinowski]

Opinions, please.

We probably all know divers who were once hardcore, but then changes in work, family life, or moving to an area with less diving opportunities have left them dry more than wet.

What would be the minimal amount of annual experience that a diver should have to engage in technical diving activities? At what point should a once hardcore technical diver just focus on recreational diving? Choose any experience level(s) you wish to address from tech, cave, rebreathers, etc.

TIA.

 

[tbone1004]

General tech- depends on how often they are in the water. If they are able to get in a pool regularly and their skills were solid to begin with, moving into light decompression and wreck penetration should be a nonissue after say 2-3 years. Any more than that, and schedule a day with an instructor or a good mentor type buddy to get caught up on the theory. Most of the divers I know that do tech are engineer types, so the theory is pretty ingrained in their heads, so it is just practical skills and what not.

cave-should take a day of refresher with a cave instructor or good mentor for basic reel technique assuming you've been in the water and keeping good trim/propulsion etc

CCR, see above, but preferably with an instructor specific to your unit, though I suspect most CCR divers stay in the water at least every other month or so even if it is just piddling in the quarry. The important one here is actually to keep your OC skills in check as well as the CCR skills for bailout.


All of this depends on their training. I was out of technical diving for 2 years due to location and job, but I was trained GUE style from day 1 so I didn't have any bad habits to "fall back on". Monkeyed around in the pool for a few hours for fun, then went straight into Cow for a shakedown dive. No issues. I have seen divers that have gone through cave training but had years of recreational diving out of the water for less than a year and could barely pass a cavern/intro class. All depends on your skills to begin with and your specific circumstances.

 

[PfcAJ]

I took a year off from technical diving when I lived in China. During that time, I managed a small handful of recreational dives but that's it. Once I got back to Fl, it didn't take long to get back into the game. A few single stage/ single scooter ginnie dives and I was back to 90% of where I was before I left.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I went a couple years of making a few recreational dives each week. The first time I put on doubles and deco bottle I had forgotten how heavy they were. I flopped around on the surface, but once I descended it was like riding a bike.

 

[decompression]

Good question.....

Since relocating from the west coast to the Canadian prairies where there is a very limited amount of open water options, my deepest lake (600') is 3 hrs away. The closest lakes are 1.5 to 3 hrs and glacier fed (read COLD), my actual tech dives are much fewer (maybe 6 a year) but I make 2-3 trips a year to the coast and dive travel. I keep skills sharpish by weekly pool time and dives every weekend during dive season (may-October). I also expand my skills with courses and peer dives when I can (Deep deco and caves). Also less advanced and well within the envelope due to age, children and geography. Also, fewer peers to engage in deco dives with. But with less frequency I'm less likely to push any limits anymore.

I think the more risk (CCR, Overhead, Extended range....) the more current the diver should be. Baby steps until you are safe enough to jump back in.


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[tomfcrist]

I think it would be foolish for someone who has taken a significant break from tech diving to think they can jump right back in and do a pinnacle dive. That being said it wouldn't be that hard to regain proficiency with some work up dives.

I think any more than 6 months without diving at that level warrants some work up dives and shakedown dives.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I'm dry docked for three months, status post Left Eye Cornea Transplant two weeks ago. Not even any swimming pool workouts for at least two months. And no heavy lifting at all, although Doc has cleared me to start running again if I want to.

It will take me at least another additional month or two after this next three to get back in weight lifting shape to carry & load burden all my deco tanks & doubles for recreational Tech Diving once again, both here in SoCal and overseas on holiday.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

I would say that if you're a tech diver who has had a significant amount of time out of the water then a "rebuild" period is in order. Example, when I start a trip to cave country I spend the first day doing some progressive, simple mainline dives with some preplanned failure drills on the exit. If it's been a really long time period and I feel especially rusty I may add a second day. Same with wreck diving...the first couple of charters of the season are within recreational limits and I may simply extend my bottom time and get 7-10 minutes of deco so that I can work through the kinks before I go deeper.

 

[kensuf]

Interesting question..

Between 1994 and 2000 I averaged 150 cave dives per year. During that period I was in the water every weekend and just about every Wednesday, and managed to do some "big" dives -- 10k in Manatee, 7500' in Cheryl (avg depth of 210-220' after the black abyss), etc.

In 2000 I went back to school, and between taking 3 classes a semester and working full time, I was only able/willing to commit to one weekend a month. My skills got a little rusty and I wouldn't have felt comfortable going 10k out in Manatee, but at one weekend a month I still felt comfortable enough that doing swim exploration/surveying in sidemount caves (yes, I'll admit it, I dove widemount for a year or two) and doing some deeper scooter dives (Indian), and the like were still within range.

Spring 2001 saw the death of friend #7, and the wife put her foot down and said I had to stop cave diving. She still let me continue to do warm water tropical diving every summer, but she grounded me from cave diving for ten years. In 2011, she let me start again, but only one weekend a month and nothing major.

With one weekend a month, by the fall of 2012, I felt comfortable enough with doing stage dives and 80-90 minute bottom times/swims out to 2k-3k. In 2013 she let me dive more frequently, and within six months I felt comfortable enough to do pretty much most of what I would have done back in the 90s. Remember, i had the muscle memory of probably 700 cave dives buried in my body when I started back up, and I still felt that it took a year and a half to get back to where I was before.

So, based on my personal experience, I'd say one weekend a month minimum to maintain a decent level of "cave trained" baseline, and more frequently to jump into a next level. Coming back is going to take awhile, depending on the frequency/level before the lay-off and the downtime.

 

[kwinter]

It's s great question, Trace. But I think I would turn it around unless we want to examine the entire industry not requiring "license renewal" periodically.
Tech diving is not just about physical skills and technique. It is as much a mental exercise as it is physical. The person who has been away from diving for a long time who thinks he can jump right back into cave diving probably did not have the correct cave diving mentality to begin with. Every person is different in both their physical and mental approaches to tech diving. I wouldn't want to put a time or number of dives requirement on someone's return. But it should be "appropriate" to regain both the physical skills necessary and the mental state required to know that you're not quite ready yet.


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