Posted :
November 24, 2006 How do I get into Technical Diving?
I’ve been diving for three years now and I am a Rescue Diver and have 100 dives under my belt in cold and warm water. I have dived a few times to 35msw and want to do the wrecks my mates talk about at 40+msw.
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Posted :
November 28, 2006 There are many routes into technical diving, but they all start with you having built up a good strong underwater skill base. This is not based soley on depth - but most importantly it is based on the number of dives (& hence Bottom Time), type, skills and depth. Before you go out and buy twinsets and loads of clips, gadgets and lots more cylinders. The first step is find a school (or ask your local school), that has staff who teach technical diving and go out exploring and practice their skills lots. It is gaining this experience that is crucial. You should get Nitrox and Advanced Nitrox (decompression) training first and consolidate these skills with diving and skill practice. Get yourself a good buddy who you can book on day boats etc and dive dive dive. You both can safely practice skills (such as shutdowns & pat-downs drills) each and every dive. Your first training session will help sort out the equipment you need - try not to do this spending spree first - you'll be surprised at the pile of kit you'll end up replacing otherwise, I did! Don't try to fast track technical training it isn't wise nor sensible. Make sure you really are comfortable in water and extremely calm under pressure (no pun). Technical Divers need to be able to think a solution to any risks or problems they face (or the team) face in water and deal with them in water. To do so needs you to be totally confident with your kit, its configuration and know (instinctively) where everything is. I did 250 hrs in water with my twin 18's in reallitively shallow waters bashing loads of skills before using them in earnest to progressively extend my range of diving beyond 75msw, to now past 100msw. I'm sure we'll have a lot more on this subject in the future - as you can write a book on this key topic.
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