Word.
From rec to tec - a noob's reflections
- Thread starter Rhone Man
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Word.
Twistedarts
Contributor
- Messages
- 2,983
- Reaction score
- 15
- # of dives
- I just don't log dives
Outstanding! Congrats. Great write up. i may actually consider it!
I'm enormously impressed that you could change to doubles and get comfortable handling deco bottles in such a short time. You're WAY better at this than I am!
Good write up.
I found the classroom lectures in my class repetitive as well, and I wasn't overly impressed with the textbooks. But then again, I had studied two diving physiology texts and two of Bruce Wienke's books on decompression theory before I took the class, so I was accustomed to some fairly heavy reading. I also supplemented TDI's materials with GUE's DIR-F manual and "Getting Clear on the Basics" text.
It's interesting your instructor did a 180 foot air dive. My instructor indicated that TDI was backing off the depth and was wanting to keep EADs for "extended range" at 132 feet or less with a PPO2 of 1.4 or lower, so 150 feet on 27% was the suggested limit.
And now that you've had a taste of the dark narc at 180 on air, I'm willing to bet that you'll be enrolling in trimix next.
TDI teaches the use of 80% from 30 feet up rather than 100% at 20 feet, so that's the reason for the "nitrox" banner. My instructor also suggested colored regs, duct tape "flags" on the hoses with MODs on them, and "right-rich." Fortunately, he had no issues when I promptly adopted minimalist markings and stuck with 100%.
I found the classroom lectures in my class repetitive as well, and I wasn't overly impressed with the textbooks. But then again, I had studied two diving physiology texts and two of Bruce Wienke's books on decompression theory before I took the class, so I was accustomed to some fairly heavy reading. I also supplemented TDI's materials with GUE's DIR-F manual and "Getting Clear on the Basics" text.
It's interesting your instructor did a 180 foot air dive. My instructor indicated that TDI was backing off the depth and was wanting to keep EADs for "extended range" at 132 feet or less with a PPO2 of 1.4 or lower, so 150 feet on 27% was the suggested limit.
And now that you've had a taste of the dark narc at 180 on air, I'm willing to bet that you'll be enrolling in trimix next.
TDI teaches the use of 80% from 30 feet up rather than 100% at 20 feet, so that's the reason for the "nitrox" banner. My instructor also suggested colored regs, duct tape "flags" on the hoses with MODs on them, and "right-rich." Fortunately, he had no issues when I promptly adopted minimalist markings and stuck with 100%.
ianr33
Contributor
Yep, have to confess to that I'm heading down that road. I used to despised DIR, backplate, drysuit, twin tanks. And then uh oh, I started diving with that gear configuration, started having friends who have GUE certification, and have dived with them as well. Oh great, I'm becoming like one of them. :blinking:
OP
I'm jealous that you can even get in the water with a wetsuit!
Hunter
...and it was a shorty.
I suspect it is all a lot easier when you don't have to fiddle with drysuits - fewer valves and hoses to have to mess with. I don't think I have ever seen a drysuit, much less dived with one.
OK, now you crossed the line, and are rubbing it in!
Great write-up, the kind of candid, first-person, testimonial, that others can learn from. Thanks for sharing the experience with us.It's not really that difficult. Don't know about what "your" agency teaches about redundant boyancy device, but with drysuit you have no use for dual bladder wings or a lift bag as a backup BC.
Diving dry takes a few dives to get familiar, much like diving doubles in that sense. May look like a hasle, but once in the water it's not a big deal. And it's just one hose and a inlet-valve on the suit if your not using argon.
I have some plans myself to take my diving to the next level, maybe by taking a helitrox class or at least an advanced nitrox to make better use of the bottom mix on the wrecks in the baltic sea... That reminds me that I really should find some time to get in the water and get used to the deco bottle... However, when the mercury is hiding at 15F (-10 Celsius) and the water is starting to get hard to swim in, you have a tendency to hesitate...
Similar threads
