When were you ready?

[Wibble]

It's a journey.

Technical Diving isn't something you suddenly do, it's something that slowly creeps up on you. Whilst one might be doing 75m/250ft dives at the moment, it doesn't therefore mean that 150m/500ft is next.

It is very much a progression to get used to each component part of technical diving, be that core skills to sort out buoyancy, finning and trim, through to cylinder handling, dive planning, and just plain experience to be able to cope with the tremendous pressure of diving well within the "death zone" -- there's no bolting to the surface from there Tonto.

Start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start... Sort out those core skills. Like really sort them out so they're utterly second nature. You will need those skills for the hours spent at decompression stops and sorting crap out. Make sure you're really comfortable in a twinset/sidemount configuration with all the shutdown + donation skills.

Then do an ANDP -- Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures -- course. This will enable you to extend your recreational dives, defined as max 40m/130ft, with some decompression. Then do a load of dives so you're comfortable with them.

Then the choice beckons. Traditionally you'd have done a Normoxic Trimix course to get down to 60m/200ft with trimix, but with the shortage and expense of trimix, this is not really practical nowadays.

Thus the rebreather would be next. They're fantastic bits of kit but need a lot of time, effort and preparation to get the most from them. Oh, and a decent chunk of money too -- think $20k with training and the inevitable accessories. They need a lot of time dedicated to them. You've barely scratched the surface at 100 hours. Be prepared for it to try to kill you if you get complacent. Rebreathers need a lot of ascent practice and you'll eventually get your buoyancy skills back.


But take it slowly, there's no rush. Technical diving can easily be done in recreational depths. I really like diving to 30m/100ft for 75mins on the bottom and circa 45mins of deco. If you're ANDP trained, there's no reason why you couldn't do 50mins on the bottom with 30mins of deco. If you're normoxic trimix trained, then you've more resilience with two decompression gasses, i.e. backup gas should one fail.

 

[Celt]

You're ready when you first think about it.

 

[Lorenzoid]

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.

This is a simple question for those of us who embarked on GUE's training path. GUE's tech-level courses have a prerequisite of achieving a passing grade with Tech endorsement in their Fundamentals course. TLDR: It took me over 3 years of practicing tech-level skills in a tech gear setup before I was sure I was ready. But this is sort of GUE-specific.

I had been a typical "vacation diver" for over 10 years when I decided to take GUE's Fundamentals course to help improve my diving. I took the course in typical rec-diver gear: wetsuit, single Al 80 tank, etc., but BP/W instead of traditional jacket BC. For the next year or so I just enjoyed diving, but also sometimes practiced the skills--the kicks, the controlled descents, SMB deployment, etc.--that SHOULD be common to all diving, not just tech diving. Then I got the crazy idea to aim for tech/cave diving, preferably staying on the GUE path. So I acquired a set of double tanks and regulators, a drysuit, and a primary light--basically, the "tech gear configuration." A drysuit is not required for tech diving, but GUE's position is that if you're going to dive heavy steel doubles, a drysuit is standard equipment because it can serve as your backup buoyancy in case of wing failure. I took GUE's Doubles and Drysuit mini-courses, which helped me re-learn to do the skills while in the tech gear configuration.

Then I practiced and practiced the skills in the tech gear configuration until I could meet GUE's criteria to upgrade my Fundies Rec Pass to a Tech Pass. I interspersed the practice with some "coaching" sessions from various GUE instructors. I kept a separate logbook specifically for these practice and coaching sessions. I also did some training (a Cavern and a Cave class) through two other agencies during this time, and according to my logbook I had put in over 80 hours of practicing skills in the tech gear configuration before signing up for formal tech-level training. Eventually, a GUE instructor gave me a Tech Pass. By that point, according to my log, I had put in just under 100 hours of bottom time doing this sort of skills practice over the course of around 3 years. It was more like doing a number of weekend trips during those years, where I spent a full day or two in the water each trip, but there were some longer trips where I also did some ordinary "just for fun" rec diving but in the full tech gear configuration.

Do not let my story discourage you. My story is not typical. I am not only not naturally talented--not particularly athletic or agile--but also chose a somewhat demanding route by sticking with GUE, which has clearly defined criteria that form a prerequsite to being allowed to register for their Tech 1 or Cave 1 courses. There seem to be two schools of thought in this regard. There is the GUE school of thought that says a diver needs to already behave in the water and think like a tech diver before taking a tech course, and then they can focus on learning the mechanics or brass tacks of tech diving. Then there is the school of thought most other agencies seem to take that the bar to starting one's first tech-level course need only be high enough that the diver has the right mindset and does not seem to be a danger to himself or others, the thinking apparently being that after the course the fledgling tech diver has the tools to evolve into whatever the immediate goal may be. There is no right answer, just two schools of thought. The idea of clearly defined criteria that set a bar for beginning tech diving training appealed to me. It doesn't appeal to everyone.

 

[PfcAJ]

I guess I was ready cuz I but I took a cavern class because I asked my shop “what’s next?” I had a good amount of dives and was comfortable in the water.

Caverns were super cool and I just wanted to see more. And more. And along the way I figured out that wrecks were also super cool.

Financially ready? Heh. Still not.

 

[elgoog]

Once you've decided you want to do technical dives (cave, deco, some combo of depth and time that requires mandatory deco) an intro to tech type class is a good way to check where you are in terms of the skills needed to conduct those dives safely. It doesn't matter which agency - TDI Intro to Tech, GUE Fundies, etc are all good baselines. This will give you a pretty good understanding of where you are, what you need to work on, etc.
Like @Lorenzoid said, the amount of work that you might have to put in varies wildly from person to person. I'm like him - took me a lot of time and effort to get the tech rating in GUE to then be able to do Cave 1 and Tech 1, which were in turn pretty demanding as well. T1 was probably the hardest pass I had to work for in diving but super satisfying in the end.

Financially ready? Heh. Still not.

Yeah, this is a big part of the equation too. Whether it's initial investment in equipment, training, gas fills, boat charter fees, travel to caves, etc tech diving is expensive af.
I just had to do a visual on my 18/45 doubles and fill them up from empty.

 

[MrBlenny]

Like many folks here, it was a gradual progression for me that began with wanting to feel safe and competent in the water. I loved everything about diving from the beginning, but still had a nagging sensation that I wasn't quite prepared, so I took Rescue Dive, then Self-reliant with PADI, at which point things really started to click into place during dives. It was also then that I began to see those out-of-reach places and wonder "What's there?" A hundred or so dives later I decided to find out and signed up for Sidemount and Intro to Cave and had my world changed forever. I also saw a vast improvement in my skill-set and mental outlook that makes me cringe at what most recreational agencies as acceptable (my AOW self really had no business diving cold water despite what the card said.)

Beside not rushing and taking your time, if I can give one piece of advice, it would be to use a 1st rate instructor somewhere that does tech dives daily, those folks are a breed apart. In my case that was Tulum, but I wanted caves and maybe wrecks would be your interest. Either way, good luck and enjoy the trip, it's awesome albeit expensive!

 

[Manatee Diver]

Final dive of Full Cave, it all came together for a brief moment and I felt, now I am ready for tech diving.

 

[PfcAJ]

Once you've decided you want to do technical dives (cave, deco, some combo of depth and time that requires mandatory deco) an intro to tech type class is a good way to check where you are in terms of the skills needed to conduct those dives safely. It doesn't matter which agency - TDI Intro to Tech, GUE Fundies, etc are all good baselines. This will give you a pretty good understanding of where you are, what you need to work on, etc.
Like @Lorenzoid said, the amount of work that you might have to put in varies wildly from person to person. I'm like him - took me a lot of time and effort to get the tech rating in GUE to then be able to do Cave 1 and Tech 1, which were in turn pretty demanding as well. T1 was probably the hardest pass I had to work for in diving but super satisfying in the end.


Yeah, this is a big part of the equation too. Whether it's initial investment in equipment, training, gas fills, boat charter fees, travel to caves, etc tech diving is expensive af.
I just had to do a visual on my 18/45 doubles and fill them up from empty.

I GOOFED hard one day and left my lp120 rack turned in the back of my truck post-dive. The backup reg bounced juuuuust right and proceeded to drain 324 cubic feed of 10/85 over the course of a 2hr drive from Tallahassee to Gainesville.

If you’re gunna be dumb, you’ve gotta be tough.

 

[elgoog]

I GOOFED hard one day and left my lp120 rack turned in the back of my truck post-dive. The backup reg bounced juuuuust right and proceeded to drain 324 cubic feed of 10/85 over the course of a 2hr drive from Tallahassee to Gainesville.

If you’re gunna be dumb, you’ve gotta be tough.

 

[Centrals]

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.

I did not have a clue but was willing to give it a try. It is a long and never-ending learning process ie. no difference from real life.