Posted by MHK on June 27, 2001 at 17:55:28:
While I realize that this list is predominately recreational based diver's, it seems as though the lines between technical diving and recreational diving are becoming increasingly blurred so I thought I'd share some insights that may prove helpful should someone decide to get into the advanced diving.. This was obviously prompted by the most recent fatality and it got me thinking, because in my view this fatality was so easily preventable that it is a shame that one of the top guys at IANTD is dead because he violated one of the basic principles in tech diving..
First off I would encourage any would be tech diver to forget much of what has been taught in the recreational forum.. My comments about recreational instruction are well known and they don't bear repeating here, but one of the comments I make at the DIR demo's is that most, if not everything that you learn in tech diving can apply to recreational diving, but the opposite is not true. In fact, most of what you learn in recreational diving doesn't apply in the technical environment.. One of the hardest, and most difficult things to get would be tech diver's to understand is that it's a re-learning, or un-learning process... The proliferation of tech diver's are bound to increase, for better or worse, now that PADI and NAUI have thrown their repective hats in the ring.. Which leads to the first critical choice a would be tech diver needs to make.. Who can I get qualified training from?????
Here's your first test to see if you are willing to break the pavlovian dog mentality of shopping around for discounted training or are you going to focus and get real training???? All too often people desiring to get into tech diving have been accustomed to working their way up the PADI food chain, which is satisfied with mediocrity.. That's not meant as my usual slam, inasmuch as it important to point out that you've made the decision to put your life in jeopardy and the positive reinforcement, feel good, in the unlikely event, patch wearing, the whole family can do it mentality simply doesn't cut it when you get into tech diving.. Seek out qualified instructors, see how many tech dives they do, see if they have been exposed to different agencies, diferent diving environments and ask what is the pass fail ratio.. One of the problems you'll find is that by-in-large the people that decide to tech dive generally consider themselves experiences divers and/or A type personalities that thrive on risk.. Tech diving isn't about satifying the adrenaline rush, it's about reducing, not accepting, added risks... By definition the diving is riskier, but you don't need to compound that by poor diving protocol's..
Ask the instructor about support diver's, aks him about timeframe's.. If they are telling you that you have 4 lecture's and 2 pool seesions and then a few ocean divves then your done, that should send off some bells.. You can't really quantify how long it will take, while I recognize that you'll need a schedule I'm talking bigger picture in that *mastering* a skill means something different at 200'.. You don't want to simply complete the skill you'll want to know what the hell you are doing.. As you know, I'd recomend GUE training, because I think they challenge diver's, they don't coddle you.. Tough love is what I call it, and you need to hear that maybe you aren't yet qualified, or you aren't in good enough physical shape, what you don't need is positive reinforcement and promises of future classes...
Gear.. You all know that I subscribe to the DIR philosophy, and we hear often that if you are doing *that* kind of diving than DIR works.. Well guess what, you are doing *that* kind of diving.. You can't jerry rig open water gear and risk your life at 200'+.. You are making a commitement, so make it.. Just like you can't be somewhat pregnant, you can't be somewhat a tech diver.. Start with the notion that it's going to cost money, a lot of money, and if you can't afford it then don't do it.. Do NOT compromise on gear because it only takes 1 time at depth to have an unsolvable problem and your dead...
Understand that quality eductaion is going to require a lot of studying, not these bs knowledge reviews.. It's going to mean reading the Buhlman, Workman and Haldane studies.. It's going to mean that you'll know who Bennet, Elliot and Weinke are.. Meyer Overton isn't going to be referred to as * some old study*..
But is also going to mean swallowing a big bite of humble pie.. Every single one of us that have already done it has gone through the same thing.. We thought we were hotshot, envelope pushing, bad ass recreational divers.. If they said don't go solo, we went solo... If they said stay above 130', we rushed down to 200'.. And what you'll find when you get passed the ego BS, is that you'll meet fast track diver's that skip on the above, and what you'll sooner or later realize is that these fast track guys usually wind up dead..
It takes time, years, not a few classes.. You should NOT go from one class to the next as they promote in the recreational environment.. You should do 30 - 50 dives at the level you just earned at a minimum before you go to the next.. If you think by starting today that in 2 years you'll be on the Andrea Doria, then take up golf... Billy Deans quit teaching because he was sick of 2 years to the Doria route...
Go slow, save your money [ because you'll need it], get good training and don't accept watered down training and demand to be challenged not coddled...
Hope that helps...