Where to start

[Thombalabomba]

You might be interested in @Dr Simon Mitchell 's paper here: https://gga.kr/wp-content/uploads/2...-Scientific-Diving-Proceedings-2016-simon.pdf

This DAN article Performance Under Pressure - Divers Alert Network is based largely upon it.

I would encourage factoring gas density when choosing gasses, but I do accept the reality that this is a controversial subject. It all depends on the level of risk one accepts and also perceives.

I will say, I think CMAS is insane for doing 60 meter dives on air. I've been to 55 meters on air once (never again) and my buddies and I were narced out of our minds. I signaled "are you okay?" to one buddy. He reacted like a cat watching a laser pointer on the wall. There's no way I would have been able to deal with an emergency. Someone would have died if we had a serious problem at that depth. One of my friends in Europe has a group of friends that dive air until 100 meters. The thing is, the group is getting smaller and smaller over time as people keep dying. Last one was a group of 3 diving to 70 meters on air, one guy, the one who died, got separated from the other two. No one knows what happened to him.

Of course, there will be some who will say that they've done many dives to even deeper on air and nothing happened to them.

I'd recommend GUE fundies as a starting point to ensure that your skills are solid before taking a tech course. Then choose the agency/instructor that works for you. If you go the TDI route, that's advanced nitrox and I'd recommend taking deco procedures separately, though they can be combined. When it comes to tech training, in hindsight, I'm against combining courses. After that, there's trimix.

Thank you very much!! That is some very sound advice!

On the air subject i don't go below 40 on air. I've done some 25 to around 42 but i do feel start feeling narced below 35 so i am comfortable/confident above that level.

I rarely go below 30 anyway as i mostly dive on nitrox. I plan to work up to trimix if i ever want to go deeper, which is also why i am headed down this road since there are places that i want to visit in an explicitely safe manner and i have no rush to get there.
I've seen some offering for GUE fundamentals close to where i live, might indeed start there.

Again thanks for the pointers!

 

[Josh the diver]

you are going to need trimix for anything deeper then 45m. with the current state of helium, I think people are better off going rebreather if they plan on needing trimix.

 

[KevinNM]

I, Like @Marie13, am all about some thick undies. Not only is it the temp but the duration of the dive.

And properly fitted drysuit. A tech instructor local to you will be likely the best guide, But failing that, find someone that sells a lot of drysuits every year from the drysuit maker you want to use. Go there and have the guy that measures all those people measure you. And find one that every other review doesn’t complain about fit or service. Drysuits are expensive, and poorly fitting one is terrible.

 

[Doc Harry]

Dive a lot.

Tech diving requires a lot of proficiency with new gear and more tanks. It takes a lot of diving to get proficient. Take your new gear to a nearby lake or ocean and practice, practice, practice at a depth of 5-15 meters. Three to four dives per week.

You may need to get comfortable solo diving if you can't find dive partners 3 to 4 days per week.

 

[Alaskan Scuba Dude]

I’m an experienced cold water diver.

What defines experience in cold water as opposed to warm water?

 

[Alaskan Scuba Dude]

Any advice? I am not against doing more dives locally (Netherlands) for training as i understand this path is more intensive.

Thanks in advance!

Find a technical course that allows you to use a single tank configuration while using either a AL80 stage or two AL40 stages for your target depth.

 

[stuartv]

So my goals are indeed some wrecks between 40 and 65 meters that i've never been able to reach and i'm at a point in my life where i can afford to put more time and resources into diving which is why i was indeed looking for the next step. Cave diving or ultradeep is not of interest to me, seeing some wrecks or structures that are perhaps more pristine is.

it sounds like i should indeed get to grips with a drysout and then doubles through intro to tech. Indeed i understand that i need to dive more which is the plan, and i am definitely going to the mentioned scuba academie. It is a multi year plan, i dont expect trimix/rebreather for some years but a starting advice on what course to take first etc is what i was looking for

If you see yourself going rebreather eventually, then the sooner the better. You do not have to be an open circuit technical diver before you can start rebreather training. There is a a lot of debate in the community on whether it should be required, but the fact is, it is not required. However, individual instructors may require it as a prerequisite to training you on rebreather.

Find an instructor you can work with that is doing the dives you want to do - not just teaching all the time. Someone that you find you get along with on a personal level. Ask them to guide you. That will likely serve you better than following the recommendations of random strangers on the Internet.

And yes, get a drysuit and learn to dive it.

 

[Lorenzoid]

For the past 25 years i've been a recreational diver. I got certified as a PADI dive master and worked for one season in 2007. After that and before that my diving is usually limited to one holiday a year, averaging about 10 dives a year, mostly in the caribean.

You remind me of myself. After many years of that kind of casual vacation diving I got the idea that I wanted to improve my diving skills. So I took GUE's Fundamentals course. That changed my whole outlook on diving. Almost everyone you meet in the GUE community is a tech diver. The first step is to talk with an instructor about your goals and how to get there. JP Bresser would be a great choice of instructor.

 

[ginti]

Thank you very much!! That is some very sound advice!

On the air subject i don't go below 40 on air. I've done some 25 to around 42 but i do feel start feeling narced below 35 so i am comfortable/confident above that level.

I rarely go below 30 anyway as i mostly dive on nitrox. I plan to work up to trimix if i ever want to go deeper, which is also why i am headed down this road since there are places that i want to visit in an explicitely safe manner and i have no rush to get there.
I've seen some offering for GUE fundamentals close to where i live, might indeed start there.

Again thanks for the pointers!

It is a good starting point. A couple of things:
- If you start feeling narced at 35m (like me), it is wise to dive air/nitrox up to 30m (why? because narcosis may b enhanced by external factors like temperature, visibility, and, more than everything else, workload; you never know when you can have an issue, and when it arrives, you will be more narced because of some of these factors - so, better staying conservative)
- There are alternatives to GUE that you may want to consider; however, keep in mind that you don't have to check for the instructors' skills with GUE, while with other agencies, you should, and it can be a headache.
- I STRONGLY recommend you to speak with your instructor before taking any course to be sure that your personalities are compatible. No agency can ensure this, so you need to take care.
- Strictly speaking, you do not need any overhead training (except if you plan to do penetrations); however, I found the cave1/intro to cave course beneficial before the trimix course I did. It is very personal and might be very different from you.

I would suggest you do an intro to tec/fundamental course as the first step in a wetsuit (except if the instructor tells you otherwise), then I would move to the drysuit and, lastly, doubles/side-mount/rebreathers. Some notes about doubles/side-mount/rebreathers:
- the standard configuration for tech diving was doubles; I still believe it is the most common, but things are changing fast. It is probably the most straightforward configuration, so I like it.
- You may want to go for a side-mount configuration if you have problems with your back/knee or if you like it. Keep in mind that with GUE, the side-mount option is not available until you become a very experienced cave diver (the philosophy of GUE is the right tool for the job, and since side-mount is slightly more complicated than back-mount, they use it only for restrictions, which are typical of overhead environments). I think @Marie13 is a good reference for side-mount; you probably should ask her for some info if you are interested.
- you may want to consider a rebreather if you will dive a lot, but I am of the school that "first a lot of open water experience, then rebreather". It is definitely not the most common point of view in the diving world, so you also may want to check what you want to do; more precisely, if you decide that you don't need open circuit experience before the rebreather, do a fundamental course, then learn the drysuit, then move directly to rebreather.

Now, what I said makes sense if you only dive in warm water; in the Netherlands, most likely, you need a drysuit, so you should start here (in this case, speak with an instructor as soon as possible to understand what to do).

The GUE community in the Netherlands has quite developed thanks to JP and other instructors, but if you want to consider other agencies, you should probably check TDI, IANTD, UTD, and PSAI.

Lastly, yes, you need to dive more if you want to do tech dives - because you need to keep your skills up to the right level.

I hope this helps. If you want to know a bit more about GUE, feel free to send me a message, but keep in mind that I am not an instructor or a representative - I just know a (very) little bit of it.

Dive safe

 

[Thyraon]

@Thombalabomba hey, fellow Dutchie here! I'm in a similar spot as you: been diving on and off for years, now looking to get into tech diving with GUE – mostly to get a more solid foundation to continue building skills on. My "soft goal" is to dive wrecks in the Mediterranean (e.g. southern France) that are beyond PADI's recreational limits (e.g. 40-60 meters).

I've found out my local dive shop (4Divers in Veenendaal) is actually quite well known for their technical diving equipment and experience, which has helped a lot. What I've done so far, and am planning to do:

1. Move to a GUE compatible gear configuration (backplate, wing, primary light with goodman handle);
2. Ordered a dry suit – hoping to receive it in the coming 3-4 weeks;
3. Currently planning to do GUE Fundamentals later this year (September-ish) with Erik Wurz, a GUE instructor local to my area.

Let me know if you want to know more, or if there's anything I can help with. Sounds like we're on a similar trajectory