Getting into Tech Diving

[EnriqueL6]

I will be taking my first tech diving courses in about another year, but would like to get the gear I will need together so I don’t' have to purchase it all at once. I am just looking to get into wreck diving no deeper than 160 fsw, so don’t need side mounts or anything crazy gear I might need for deeper diving. I don't see myself doing cave diving either.

What BCD recommendations? I have been told Halcyon is the best, but pricey. I'm not looking to slay the dragon in the wreck, just want to be able to dive safely. If Halcyon is the safest, then I'll pay the money...but like everything else sometimes money doesn't count for everything.

What regulator recommendations? I rarely do cold water, mostly I dive in NC and FL.

What type of tanks are recommend? LP or HP? I am only 5'9" and about 180. I can carry a lot of weight on my back since I am military and well apparently we do that for fun around here, so weight isn't an issue but length sure is. I was thinking either double HP100s or double HP117, but would like to consider the LP option if it is better.

 

[fdog]

Spend money on an Essentials/Fundies class first. Then, get the rest of the gear. You'll spend less in the long run because you'll know more about the gear and what it's for.


All the best, James

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

Talk to a few shops that actually do technical diving, don't buy anything, just gather info for now and make notes. You'll see some common themes that come up again and again. There are no "safest" brands, and there are always choices.

If you talk to any one instructor or shop you are always at risk to hear the mantra that they believe in, or that they sell, or that provides the highest profit margin for them. Again, there are no "safest" or "best" brands, and an open-minded professional will agree with that. Ultimately, in the end, the choice should be yours, and it should be an educated choice, not driven because someone "said so".

This knowledge base will serve you well in the long run as you decide your path of training and start setting (and furthering) your personal goals.

I wish you the best and will be glad to share thoughts and concerns with you via PM or email.

 

[peterbj7]

Agreed. If you buy gear before you know what you'll need and how you'll use it you'll probably end up wasting a lot of money, AND end up with a sub-optimal gear-setup.

 

[TSandM]

I think there are a few equipment choices you can make now that will work for you later. Getting a set of simple paddle fins is a good move -- something like ScubaPro Jets (if your setup works with a heavy fin) or OMS Slipstreams, or Hollis F1s, or Dive Rite paddles, will continue to serve you well. Get spring straps on them. (Heavy fins tend to work very well for dives in doubles, because you often need a counterbalance to the weight of the tanks.)

Getting a backplate and wing setup is a reasonable move, I think. If you are currently diving single tanks, you can get a single tank setup. You'll learn how to manage and adjust a harness, and start building the facility with clipping things to d-rings and using your rear dump. There are a lot of good brands of backplate and wing setups on the market, and you can read more than you ever wanted to know if you go to the BC forum and search on "backplate". You do need to be able to decide whether you want an aluminum or steel plate, and how much lift you need in a wing. There is plenty of information here to help you with all those decisions, or you can call Tobin George at Deep Sea Supply -- Tobin makes excellent gear, but what really sets his company apart is the personal customer service, the time he spends making sure that each buyer gets the DSS gear that will really work for their particular diving application.

Setting your single tank regulator up as a long hose configuration will help you gain facility in managing a long hose, and you can, after training, practice things like air-sharing drills until you are smooth with them, even before you acquire or begin to dive doubles.

As far as getting double tanks goes, I'd defer that until you are in contact with your potential instructor. Different diving environments lead to different tank choices. In Puget Sound, it's common to see folks using doubled HP100s, as they are enough gas for 150 foot dives, and still manageable in size and weight on land (or boat) and have good buoyancy characteristics for our water. If you are diving in a thin wetsuit, you might do much better with a set of Al80s. An instructor familiar with your local tech dives and the conditions that prevail on them will be much better guidance on tank choice than we who don't do those dives could be.

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

Good advice TSandM

 

[DevonDiver]

Save your money, whilst you spend the year doing lots of research.

From your original post, it seems clear that your understanding of the requirements of technical and/or wreck diving are still at a very novice level. There is a lot of information that you need to absorb before you will understand the equipment requirements for diving at this level.

You intend to dive in an overhead/ceiling environment. Wreck, cave and decompression/deep are all overhead environments, whether that ceiling is physical (wreck/cave) or non-physical (mandatory decompression stops).

As such, the requirements are very simular. The core factors in your gear selection are:

1) Gas redundancy. If the surface isn't an option - you need to have an alternative available at all times on the dive. This means a double air supply of some type.

2) Simplicity. Technical diving places great demands on a diver through task loading. You should aim to reduce any unnecessary complexity in your equipment. This also has benefits with regards to minimizing the risk of entanglement when diving with lines and in confined spaces.

It would be easy to advise you on an effective rig, but - for your own benefit - I do recommend some research so that you can understand why those recommendations are made.

A BP&W configuration is the obvious solution to your future requirements. This consists of a harness, a backplate and a wing. I always recommend a basic (Hogarthian) harness as the initial investment. The backplate will be either stainless steel or aluminium - depending on your buoyancy requirements. The main choice with the wing itself is size/volume. This is also dictated by your buoyancy requirements (search the forum for the 'wing lift calculator'). The wing volume should be tailored for your requirements - do not get tempted into the mindset of "more is better"... it isn't.

You need to get a good set of regulators. For technical diving, this means 2x first stages and 2x second stages. The second stages should be identical in quality. If you buy a regulator for single tank diving now - make sure you can afford a second one later on for tech diving.

Here's a basic list of what you will need for tech/wreck diving:

1x harness
1x backplate
1x wing
2x regulator first stages
2x regulator second stages
1x spg and hose
1x LPI hose
1x long reg hose
1x short reg hose
1x primary light (umbilical)
2x secondary light (led)
1x primary reel
2x secondary/safety reel
2x DSMB (or 1x DSMB & 1x lift bag)
1x pair of appropriate fins (i.e. OMS Slipstream, Scubapro Jets or Forcefin Pro)

 

[waterpirate]

Go take an intro to tech class or seminar,
then....

I would tell you that you need to select an instructor now. Making agency choices and choosing an instructor is step one. Your instructor will guide your purchases, mentor your reading and research, evaluate your skills now, and send you to remedial for skills that are lacking. All this in preperation for an entry tech class one year from now.
Eric

 

[Colliam7]

I will be taking my first tech diving courses in about another year, but would like to get the gear I will need together so I don’t' have to purchase it all at once.

Makes sense. As several posters have mentioned, there is a certain logic to pursuing some initial training - either a GUE fundies course, or just speaking with 1-2 tech instructors - before you start buying much gear, to get some informational background as you pursue purchases. Maybe what we can help most with is some general reassurance as you start down the path to ever more exciting, or financially ruinous, diving. My two general recommendations:

1) Don't spend too much time trying to buy the one and only one 'perfect' or 'exactly right' rig. And, don't let a lot of people (like me, and others) second guess your choices after you make them. You can narrow things down to a certain degree - you want a BP/W rather than a soft back BC, or you want larger steel tanks for backgas rather than AL80s. But, sooner or later, you just have to take the plunge - bad pun, I know, but applicable - and get in the water with a rig, and start tweaking it.
2) What you buy first may be ideal at the time you buy it, but your interests and 'tastes' and preferences will evolve. Few people buy and use forever one and only one set of 'tech' gear. What I was sure I liked 6 years ago, and what fitted my needs as I started technical training, is not necessarily what I prefer now in all cases. But, I made the right choices then.

Your post doesn't identify what your current rig is, so some suggestions may miss the mark. But, as TS&M and DevonDiver point out, you will definitely need a backplate, harness, and wing. (Of course, the wing you use for single tank diving will NOT be the wing you will use for doubles diving.) You will want some good, reasonably stiff, paddle fins. For that matter, you will want a good exposure suit that fits you well. I suggest in particular that you configure your single tank reg with a long (7') primary hose, and a short hose, bungeed necklace alternate, and get used to diving that. It is an inexpensive equipment modification, but you will need to be proficient with it as you pursue technical training. DevonDiver provided the longer term 'wish kist' of gear that most tech divers find is necessary. As he and others said, you can start with some relatively inexpensive basics first.

What BCD recommendations? I have been told Halcyon is the best, but pricey. ... If Halcyon is the safest, then I'll pay the money.

Halcyon supplies great gear, and I dive several Halycon wings (and some other Halcyon accessories). But, I also dive Dive Rite and Oxycheq wings, and OMS backplates, etc - i.e. I do not personally see advantage (or disadvantage, either) to having a 'single brand' rig (I also happen to buy a lot of used gear). Nor would I say that Halcyon, or Dive Rite / OMS / Oxycheq / Zeagle / whatever is 'safest'. Don't focus on the brand as much as the performance specifications for what you will be using in your initial training / diving (which is why the recommendation to talk first to a potential instructor is useful).

What regulator recommendations? I rarely do cold water, mostly I dive in NC and FL.

Cold water isn't quite as much an issue as breathability at depth. Most regulators you might select for deeper diving will also handle colder water. And, there are a substantial number of excellent regulator brands, with the choice an individual makes being influenced by factors such as 1) what is locally serviceable, 2) what other divers that you may end up in the water with during training are using, or 3) what an instructor may use and recommend, etc. Within most regulator brands there are models providing different levels of performance, and it is hard to say that a top line Apeks is 'better' than a top line Scubapro, or a top line Zeagle, etc. I happen to dive Apeks (and Zeagle) regs, but my dive buddy uses ScubaPro, another tech diving buddy uses Posiedon, I have rented a couple of Dive Rites for some deep deco dives (after gear was stolen on a trip to FL), and we are all happy with what we dive.

What type of tanks are recommend? LP or HP? ... I was thinking either double HP100s or double HP117, but would like to consider the LP option if it is better.

You will get diverse recommendations on tanks, which also reflect what individuals happen to be using. For example, I dive HP steels, and therefore recommend HP tanks, while others who routinely use LP tanks might give a different perspective. There are quite a few SB threads on that subject and I encourage you to review as many as possible. In NC you might find HP tanks a little more available in local shops but that is a relatively trivial matter. Double HP100s are really nice tanks - I have a set myself. But, there are many who suggest if you are going to get HP100s. go ahead and get HP119s, or even HP130s, to provide more gas. I have a set of each as well (and my favorite set of doubles for recreational diving happens to be double AL80s). I presume that you are a young, and very physically fit, Marine and the weight of a set of 119s or 130s wouldn't be an issue. But, my primary point is that there are quite a few options, and not only one correct option. At your height, the only option I would probably stay away from would be double HP120s. But, beyond that ...

 

[gconner]

Based on your location I would strongly recommend you head over to Morehead City and talk to Jon Bellisario at Olympus Dive Center. Jon is their training director and teaches all the technical classes they offer. He can help you get off to a good start and help to make sure you are going in the right direction from an equipment and training standpoint based on what you want to accomplish.