This strikes a chord with me.
'Tech' vs 'rec' diving has always appeared to be a very artificial, and apparently US-centric construct. In many places, mostly under CMAS influence, diving is a continuous progression, with early certifications being on how to avoid deco, but with full training in tables, deco stops (even if they are initially only safety stops) and a good grounding in theory. But full deco follows pretty quickly, often in their second qualification, and is then widely and routinely performed. Similarly, Nx and accelerated deco follow almost routinely.
Many divers that develop through a system like this tend to have periods where they tend to do more simple dives, often <40 m with limited deco, and then other times where they are doing harder 60m dives with stages and accelerated deco. I am a good example of this in that over the last few years I have done many 50-60m dives with accelerated deco (mostly on EANx 80 as that is the French standard - so no flames about that please!), but recently because of limited time, coupled with a lack of interesting sites locally in this depth I have mostly done no deco dives.
Similarly, those that are trimix (and they are as rare as rocking horse droppings here in France - cos they love their deep air) tend to slip up and down the scale as well, with periods of intense diving, and periods of calmer diving.
Diving is just one long continuum and we all tend to move up and down it.
best
Jon
'Tech' vs 'rec' diving has always appeared to be a very artificial, and apparently US-centric construct. In many places, mostly under CMAS influence, diving is a continuous progression, with early certifications being on how to avoid deco, but with full training in tables, deco stops (even if they are initially only safety stops) and a good grounding in theory. But full deco follows pretty quickly, often in their second qualification, and is then widely and routinely performed. Similarly, Nx and accelerated deco follow almost routinely.
Many divers that develop through a system like this tend to have periods where they tend to do more simple dives, often <40 m with limited deco, and then other times where they are doing harder 60m dives with stages and accelerated deco. I am a good example of this in that over the last few years I have done many 50-60m dives with accelerated deco (mostly on EANx 80 as that is the French standard - so no flames about that please!), but recently because of limited time, coupled with a lack of interesting sites locally in this depth I have mostly done no deco dives.
Similarly, those that are trimix (and they are as rare as rocking horse droppings here in France - cos they love their deep air) tend to slip up and down the scale as well, with periods of intense diving, and periods of calmer diving.
Diving is just one long continuum and we all tend to move up and down it.
best
Jon
