Difference between Intro to Tec and Fundamentals

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

My TDI - Intro to Tech made me do a lot of work with a AL-40 deco bottle along with doubles. We did gas switch and bottle passing etc. Is this included in GUE Fundies?

 

[Lorenzoid]

Too often the "Tech" course jumps into stages, decompression, or other skills before the basics are instilled. . . .

I can't imagine handling a stage/deco bottle yet. I have spent close to two years honing my diving to Fundies tech pass level from the rec pass I received, and I think I'm finally just about there. A few weeks ago I challenged myself with some cold, deep (100-120') wreck dives in doubles, drysuit, dry gloves, can light--the full tech configuration. I had planned to use a GoPro, but I quickly found that it was too much task loading and left it behind on subsequent dives. Seemingly every time I start thinking I'm doing pretty well and I'll be shooting for the tech pass "any day now," I have one of these minor humbling experiences. It reinforces to me that a slow, steady progression, where I add one new aspect to my diving at a time and master it, is the way to go for me. Could I have handled the GoPro without killing myself?--sure. But "not killing myself" is not the standard I aim for. What if it had been a deco bottle rather than a GoPro? I am clearly not ready for that. I want to be completely comfortable with however I'm diving before adding even the smallest new thing, and cold deep dives in the full gear configuration was new enough to me that I was NOT completely comfortable. Sometimes the GUE route feels maddeningly slow. But I realize I am not ready to learn the mechanics of handling deco bottles and such before I have mastered the basics.

 

[Lorenzoid]

My TDI - Intro to Tech made me do a lot of work with a AL-40 deco bottle along with doubles. We did gas switch and bottle passing etc. Is this included in GUE Fundies?

NO.

 

[decompression]

Also, as a similar option you'll find UTD essentials course which is almost identical to fundies and is taught by Todd Murray in Aurora ON. Either course are highly recommended.

Todd Murray Diving - Aurora, Canada

 

[Dogbowl]

Also, as a similar option you'll find UTD essentials course which is almost identical to fundies and is taught by Todd Murray in Aurora ON. Either course are highly recommended.

Todd Murray Diving - Aurora, Canada

Will consider that too. I'm open to most kinds of higher learning, actually.

 

[KevinNM]

My TDI - Intro to Tech made me do a lot of work with a AL-40 deco bottle along with doubles. We did gas switch and bottle passing etc. Is this included in GUE Fundies?

No, not at all. That is done in Tech 1, by which time trim and buoyancy are nailed down. Since improper gas switches are one of the more common ways tech divers kill themselves you need to be paying full attention to the details when you are learning this.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

No, not at all. That is done in Tech 1, by which time trim and buoyancy are nailed down. Since improper gas switches are one of the more common ways tech divers kill themselves you need to be paying full attention to the details when you are learning this.

If Tech 1 teaches you to manage a single bottle only then what kind of mix up can happen? Either you are switching to it or you are not switching to it.

FWIW ... I learn't doubles and deco bottle in the same class. My Intro to tech was 4-5 pool sessions followed by 6 mock dives in the quarry simulating decompression. When I did my first decompression dive I was fully capable of doing gas switches in raging current of North Carolina. My understanding is that this is not the industry norm for TDI courses. In most cases, Intro to Tech, Advanced Nitrox and Deco is taught in a shorter time and that is why in most cases, Fundies is the more realistic progression.

 

[KevinNM]

If Tech 1 teaches you to manage a single bottle only then what kind of mix up can happen? Either you are switching to it or you are not switching to it.

Sure. And is that relaxed attitude you got in class the training you will default to when under stress when you do in fact have options to choose from?

 

[stuartv]

My TDI - Intro to Tech made me do a lot of work with a AL-40 deco bottle along with doubles. We did gas switch and bottle passing etc. Is this included in GUE Fundies?

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but wasn't your Intro to Tech course really a course that combined ItT, AN, and DP all in one course? If so, can you really delineate and say that gas switching and bottle passing was specifically part of ItT?

I realize I'm sounding nitpicky, but your posts make it sound like you learned to do deco diving in an ItT class, which I'm not sure is really the correct takeaway for anyone that reads your posts. I am skeptical that anyone who takes only an ItT class would be taught gas switches and bottle passing.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Sure. And is that relaxed attitude you got in class the training you will default to when under stress when you do in fact have options to choose from?

You cant have more bottle options to choose from. In order to carry more deco bottles, you would have to be certified for Trimix. This means that you would have logged a fair amount of real decompression dives with a single bottle where bottle confusion is not possible. My instructor recommends 20 dives with a single bottle before going Trimix and adding more bottles. This means that by the time you have two bottle options that may confuse you, single bottle switch should have become habitual.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but wasn't your Intro to Tech course really a course that combined ItT, AN, and DP all in one course? If so, can you really delineate and say that gas switching and bottle passing was specifically part of ItT?.

That is correct. I am not sure if we would have been given deco bottle to play with if we were only doing ItT. Good question.