Your own definition

[NAM001]

So the same can be said for driving a car.

Unless a diver is being paid all diving is recreational. Diving itself is technical with or without deco or overhead, those magnify the technical nature of diving, and these days require additional training. Hence the modern day definition. Deco and cave diving wasn't called technical diving 30+ years ago. Those divers back then were pioneers the lessons cavers learn today is written with their "blood".

 

[DevonDiver]

.... as I said before, "there is cavern training, and there is cavern training"

Quality of training is irrelevant in defining the activity/limits. Some training is over, some under, some is just simply appropriate... relative to the activity in consideration.

 

[AfterDark]

So the same can be said for driving a car.

I guess if you want to stretch a point. F either one up, diving or driving and you could be dead.

 

[Aotus]

Quality of training is irrelevant in defining the activity/limits. Some training is over, some under, some is just simply appropriate... relative to the activity in consideration.

I think you missed my point. "Cavern diving" is a popular pursuit by rec divers now. So, there are two versions of the training required to do this (and then there are the cenote tours, where OW divers enter caverns on paid trust-me dives). So, you end up with two different sets of cavern divers, one set that is highly technical in their planning, emergency procedures, gear and mentality, and one set of "cavern divers" who are rec divers.

 

[Bob DBF]

"recreational" is not in opposition to "commercial" in this context. Within non-commercial diving, there is scientific diving, exploration, and sport diving to name a few. While the dictionary definition of commercial would rule out those dives that are not paid, from this category, that does not mean that all other categories should fall into "recreational" by default. It isn't as cut a dry. Colloquially, "recreational diving" and "sport diving" are synonymous, and exclusive of other types of diving including "technical" diving specialties.

this is my opinion, of course.

Back in the day, I was taught there was four types of diving, listed below:

Commercial - diving for money - any underwater job
Military - diving for uncle Sam - salvage and combat
Scientific - diving for knowledge - controlled by Universities to sidestep OSHA control
Recreational - diving for fun - divided into many areas of interest, including tech

I see no reason that there should be any change, since there is no diving that cannot be put under those categories. Advanced divers were doing "tech" dives before I started diving in "63. I went along on some of them later, when I had the experience to be allowed to tag along.



Bob
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Originally Posted by AfterDark
I'm in a very elite class of divers. OBDs - Old Bold Divers.

There aren't many of us which is why we're elite. We started diving when it was in some parts of the country a self taught sport. We used double hose regs no BCDs, SPGs, or PDCs. Our wet suits had no lining, we used talc to get into them. We checked our tank with a pressure gauge before we mounted our reg and made sure our J valves were in the up position. We weighted ourselves to our target depths and sometimes had a hell'va time swimming to the bottom. We used Navy dive tables for air because nothing else was available, and we used air because that's all there was to breath no matter what depth the dive. We saw our friends die from mistakes we didn't know could be made until their deaths showed us what not to do. We are in a class by ourselves. No cert or plastic card, only time, diving and luck gets you there.

 

[BohicaJones]

Technical dives exceed normal recreational dive limits either via No Stop Time, distance to the surface, gas supply, or overall difficulty. What technical divers do to mitigate the increased risk includes increased planning, redundancy, training, ect.