At first I was not interested in technical diving. I vividly remember chuckling at the Tec divers who I saw and wondering what made them want to take more equipment. I love the sense that you can be close to nature while feeling free and connected. Tom was a well-respected teacher. I felt it only right to give him a try as I was working in a dive shop offering Tec courses.
It was difficult to get into the pool for my first session. I felt like an open water diver, securing myself in twin tanks and conducting valve drills. As we went through the Tec 40, 45, and 50 courses, I found new skills and was enjoying the course. The best part about Tec diving is the ability to improve your buoyancy, awareness and dive skills. It's quite an experience to know that you can manage life-threatening emergencies at depth without having to go to the surface due to decompression requirements. It's also satisfying to execute your dive plan with military precision.
The Sidemount setup for diving is slightly different to the backmount setup, and the equipment is also slightly different.
Sidemount diving requires only an Open Water Diver to begin. Although it's important to have excellent buoyancy and trim, you should also be able handle your equipment independently. Sidemount diving offers a whole new level of skill and equipment setup.
On top of this specialized Sidemount equipment, you will also need your usual wetsuit, fins, mask, computer, compass, and DSMB.
Continue on to the Tec Sidemount Diver program. Here you'll learn additional skills, such switching deco cylinders, and stage and switch deco cylinders.
It takes passion, experience, and training to become a technical dive instructor. Technical diving comes with additional risks, so it's not worth taking on if you don't have the right combination.
1. Your personal informations (name, email, etc). 2. Select the date you prefer. 3. Just click on Submit to ask a question or inquire.
Computer-aided instruction is an integral part of nearly every course we teach. The Why? is simple: eLearning helps get our students in the water sooner and spend more time there. Its why we include the cost of any applicable eLearning programs usually a $140 value in our courses at no extra charge. This translates directly into an extra day of in-water training. The value of that? Priceless.
Rebreathers offer an extension of diving abilities by forgoing large cylinders in favor of recycling the gas exhaled by the diver, scrubbing the CO2 exhaled, and injecting prescriptive amounts of gas from smaller cylinders. This can drastically increase the dive time compared to carrying double cylinders of the same generate size/weight, especially for deeper dives. Rebreathers can be back or sidemounted, and the profile they create is dependent on the configuration.
TDI is an American tech diving organization that was found in 1994 and has instructors all around the world. The prerequisite to start technical diving with a TDI instructor are the Advanced Open Water certification of any organization, Nitrox certified and a minimum of 25 dives. The first technical diving courses are TDI Sidemount (within No deco limits) and Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures allowing to dive to 45m, using oxygen mixes up to 100% of oxygen and doing staged decompression stops. The course contents include theory, pool work, and a minimum of 6 dives depending on your level of comfort in the water in order to be able to complete all open water requirements safely and efficiently and to understand planning and preparation of a technical dive.
Gear - While the gear remains the same, divers taking an introductory tech class, such as Sidemount, Intro to Tech or CCR air diluent, will notice some configuration differences. Instead of two second stages on one cylindrical, they're divided between two with a separate initial stage for each. The gas planning becomes a more in-depth process, and the harnesses appear to have more chrome.
Our SSI technical diving sidemount diver course will allow you to use up to four tanks (cylinders), and make extended dives. The technical sidemount dive course is a great way of getting into technical diving. This will allow you to safely handle multiple cylinders in a single dive. Additionally, you will learn how to configure your sidemount gear as well as how to set up a tec sidemount harness.
SDI/TDIIncludes two open water divesMinimum of 18 years, or 15 with parental consent
According to experts, approximately 40% of technical divers enroll in additional education and training programs. This yields a reasonable estimate of approximately 160,000 active technical divers worldwide.
from 170 to 350 feet
While conventional scuba diving has a recommended maximum depth of 130 feet, technical divers may work at depths ranging from 170 feet to 350 feet, and sometimes even deeper.
The depth range of oxygen rebreathers (simple closed circuit) is limited to approximately 6 m, beyond which the risk of acute oxygen toxicity rises to unacceptable levels very quickly.