Max101
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This answer will change from person to person, but when were you ready to advance to technical diving? Any recommendations for somebody curious about this route in diving.
When were you ready?
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Robert H. Diver
Contributor
Dark Wolf
Contributor
Well, I began pursuing "technical diving" before it was called "technical diving." A group of fellow students from my univ scuba course drove from central MO to the Florida Keys to do our first (for most of us) ocean dives. On the drive back we stopped by Ginnie Springs FL, and I was introduced to cavern and cave diving. The next year I drove down and took a four-day cavern and basic cave course (two two-day courses). This was ~1988, a couple of years after I had completed my open water training (at my univ). Cavern and cave diving wasn't called "Technical Diving" at that time.
I completed my formal education and moved to SE Michigan a couple of years later (in 1991). Almost at once I "discovered" Great Lakes shipwreck diving. Drysuit diving wasn't called technical diving at that time. Neither was decompression diving. Neither was diving in doubles. However, by the time I started doing accelerated deco diving (in 1994 or so) using EAN and oxygen, people were calling what we were doing, "Technical Diving"--driven, I think, by M2's articles and the "new" agency IANTD which Tom Mount had morphed from Dick Rutkowski's IAND.
Honestly, I just regarded all of this as "special 'advanced-er' diving" that allows one to relatively safely pursue diving in special environments (caverns/caves, and deep, cold-water wrecks).
I haven't done this type of diving in quite a long time.
rx7diver
I completed my formal education and moved to SE Michigan a couple of years later (in 1991). Almost at once I "discovered" Great Lakes shipwreck diving. Drysuit diving wasn't called technical diving at that time. Neither was decompression diving. Neither was diving in doubles. However, by the time I started doing accelerated deco diving (in 1994 or so) using EAN and oxygen, people were calling what we were doing, "Technical Diving"--driven, I think, by M2's articles and the "new" agency IANTD which Tom Mount had morphed from Dick Rutkowski's IAND.
Honestly, I just regarded all of this as "special 'advanced-er' diving" that allows one to relatively safely pursue diving in special environments (caverns/caves, and deep, cold-water wrecks).
I haven't done this type of diving in quite a long time.
rx7diver
kaylee_ann
crazy diver
dunno about him, but I do
(following this thread as I'm curious about the same thing)
I went into doubles around dive 35. I knew what I wanted to dive and started venturing that direction. The rest of the story is just burning piles of money.
Ditto to most of that.
Even now in the UK (Possibly Europe generally), there is more blurring of the line.
My third dive after qualifying, I had a pony. Within a season or two I was on twins... other people cast offs, some one upgraded, I snapped up their old twins.
Probably the first time there was any conscious differentiation, was when I finally took an Advanced Nitrox course. Which meant a different gas than air, and a specific qualification for it that wasn't my normal diving qualification.
The only reason I did a ADv Nx course was I felt a very fatigued after a week in the channel doing two dives a day, most of which requiring long stops. I think the final day was the trigger after over 30 minutes decompressing, and I was given the opportunity.
That lead to ERD, richer mixes. Not deeper diving, or longer stops, we had been doing that well before my Adv Nx. But suddenly we could hard table plan and accelerate the stops.
Then mixed gas, then CCR.
I never got the bug for cave diving, but UK caves are a different thing to the Florida caves. UK caves are like the Thai football rescue, mostly zero vis swimming in mud.
Ditto the burning money.
Pat85
Contributor
Same!
I'll will have a intro dive with tec-config soon, to see if we want to go the technical route and 'feel' the difference with a recreational set-up (we already dive drysuit and BP/W most of the time). Looking forward to upgrading skills, more dive time (double vs. single) and then slowly sliding down the pathways to more advance dives, burning the aformentioned piles of money.
I think it is a good idea to sort out basics (buoyancy, trim and different fin kicks) with a friend who knows about technical diving (probably he/she will have enough gear laying around to outfit additional diver) or with an instructor like daily mentoring class (I believe most cost effective way) without involvement of agency and certification. Therefore one can get the taste of “technical” diving without big commitments.
After that one will be able to see challenges and will make educated decisions about pursue or not technical diving. And if decision not to pursue, those knowledge and skills are still usable while recreational diving.
After that one will be able to see challenges and will make educated decisions about pursue or not technical diving. And if decision not to pursue, those knowledge and skills are still usable while recreational diving.
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