ScoobieDooo once bubbled...
What would you say should be the order of progression for anyone wanting to get into deco diving - in order of additional training/courses...and what agency?
Basic Open Water?
?
?
?
?
?
Thanks...
Hi Scoobie:
You have a habit of asking the interesting ones!
Acency and courses are secondary -- usual disclaimer. More important is to ask yourself what benefits are you looking for from the training and who can deliver those to you in the most interesting way. (The old instructor is key adage.)
Also ask yourself, am I ready for this. Deco diving and by extention technical diving, does require some additional committment from its participants.
All that aside, and regardless of who and what you pick to deliver the training, work on being prepared... chances are you are going to have some additional kit for the course and you are certainly going to be doing things in the water that may be "out of the ordinary."
1/ Know your gear -- log lots of dives with any new stuff you will be using. This includes reels, liftbags, deco bottles, and of course doubles, backplate and wings.
2/ Master buoyancy. I have students "play" various games that pretty clearly point out where work is needed.
3/ Swimming. Add frog kick, modified flutter, helicopter turns and reverse kicks to your arsenal of skills.
4/ Try to understand what a dive algorithm is and what it actually tells us.
5/ Think about what a good dive plan should include... you probably already have all the answers.
When you have all that in a line, look around for a deco class. Look for an instuctor who is teaching more than the course minimum... because none of the agencies (GUE comes close but still misses IMHO) really has a program to help divers make the tranition from recreational sport to deco and tech.
Hope this helps
DD