My journey into tech

[MaxBottomtime]

I would give serious thought to what was written in this thread. 62 dives is so few to be considering a rescue course, let alone technical courses. I'm glad the OP has goals and wants to reach them, but at this early stage of her diving career I would suggest diving first. Try some different types of environments. Try a set of smaller doubles to see if her knees can handle them. Take a few trips. There is so much to learn as a new diver, and most of that involved things that they don't know about yet. I would enjoy a lot of dives before deciding that I was ready to invest the time and thousands of dollars involved in tech diving.

 

[RainPilot]

need to save up over the winter for reg set.

Marie, I believe you dive single back mount and a pony bottle. If you have 2 first and 2 second stages it sounds like you pretty much have what you need already.

I'm a firm proponent of figuring out what you are going to be doing long term and then getting into that gear etc as soon as possible.

If you know you need SM, then any time you spend in BM between now and then is suboptimal. Not wasted by any means but less efficient from a training perspective.

 

[KevinNM]

If you know you need SM, then any time you spend in BM between now and then is suboptimal. Not wasted by any means but less efficient from a training perspective.

I'd argue that it's a lot more efficient than time spent learning and practicing side mount diving when taught by someone who isn't really good at teaching technical side mount. Unlearning bad habits instilled via training and practice is a lot harder than never acquiring them.

Fixing The Sidemount Training Disappointment

 

[RainPilot]

I'd argue that it's a lot more efficient than time spent learning and practicing side mount diving when taught by someone who isn't really good at teaching technical side mount. Unlearning bad habits instilled via training and practice is a lot harder than never acquiring them.

Fixing The Sidemount Training Disappointment

Good point, I was kind of assuming that the OP would choose a reasonable SM instructor.

I gathered that she was going to do her SM and Tech with the same instructor, hence my thinking that going SM now would allow her to get comfortable with the gear etc between now and whenever she does her tech.

I find that there is a fair bit of an adjustment period after the SM course, during which the diver is making a lot of small adjustments to the rig, bungee lengths, hose config etc etc to really dial it in for their own situation. Doing a tech course in a new SM rig without some consolidation diving is a recipe for unnecessary task loading.

Since the only reason she is not doing SM first is because of reg sets, I would argue that with her existing setup it should be possible to get a SM rig set up with only a few hose purchases and maybe an additional SPG.

 

[RayfromTX]

How come Brendon can see what's right in front of us all along?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I would give serious thought to what was written in this thread. 62 dives is so few to be considering a rescue course, let alone technical courses. I'm glad the OP has goals and wants to reach them, but at this early stage of her diving career I would suggest diving first. Try some different types of environments. Try a set of smaller doubles to see if her knees can handle them. Take a few trips. There is so much to learn as a new diver, and most of that involved things that they don't know about yet. I would enjoy a lot of dives before deciding that I was ready to invest the time and thousands of dollars involved in tech diving.

There's nothing that says a rescue class can't be repeated. SEI, NAUI, BSAC, CMAS, and ACUC include rescue skills in the basic OW class. Others may also. Rescue skills used to be taught in every OW class.
I recommend it as the 1st class after Open Water. A diver does not need perfect buoyancy and trim to tow someone to shore while stripping gear. They don't need to be expert navigators to bring a diver up from the bottom. A new diver can also ask someone who looks nervous or apprehensive if they are ok before getting in the water.
I'd like to see Rescue be one of those certs like CPR that require a refresher every few years.
There are a lot of "rescue divers" walking around that haven't practiced a single skill from the class since they took it 5 or 10 years ago that still say they are "rescue divers." What they are is divers that have a card that says rescue on it. They are not rescue divers.

 

[Marie13]

I also want to work on getting myself more squared away period before I start on SM. And more dives under my belt. I might play with SM in the pool over the winter with friends who dive SM, but I'm not sure. SM rig arrived last night. I only bought it now as I found a good deal used. I don't want to form any bad habits so I'll wait until the SM class to really mess with it.

Got a response last night on my email to the local tech/SM instructor. Finally found out the difference between the SDI/TDI SM classes, too, as I'd wondered.

Instructor suggested I take the SDI SM class first as that teaches SM basics, helps you get everything adjusted properly, etc. Especially since I've not already been diving SM. Then TDI SM later. I was also told that buoyancy and frog kick are important skills for the beginning tech classes, which I already knew to work on.

TDI ITT is for BM doubles. TDI SM teaches the same skills as ITT, but for SM.

As for when to take the classes, he said when I feel comfortable in the water. So I'm going to stick to my plan of SDI SM next summer. How I do with SM will determine when I take the TDI SM class.

Having more dives is never a bad thing.

 

[Neilwood]

I also want to work on getting myself more squared away period before I start on SM. And more dives under my belt. I might play with SM in the pool over the winter with friends who dive SM, but I'm not sure. SM rig arrived last night. I only bought it now as I found a good deal used. I don't want to form any bad habits so I'll wait until the SM class to really mess with it.

Got a response last night on my email to the local tech/SM instructor. Finally found out the difference between the SDI/TDI SM classes, too, as I'd wondered.

Instructor suggested I take the SDI SM class first as that teaches SM basics, helps you get everything adjusted properly, etc. Especially since I've not already been diving SM. Then TDI SM later. I was also told that buoyancy and frog kick are important skills for the beginning tech classes, which I already knew to work on.

TDI ITT is for BM doubles. TDI SM teaches the same skills as ITT, but for SM.

As for when to take the classes, he said when I feel comfortable in the water. So I'm going to stick to my plan of SDI SM next summer. How I do with SM will determine when I take the TDI SM class.

Having more dives is never a bad thing.

Speaking as a mere OW diver (with no plans for tech atm), I think that you get a feeling for buoyancy, trim etc as you dive more so that is a very good point.

Once you have a feel for what is right trim & buoyancy wise, getting it right in new gear becomes a lot easier. A lot of trim can be altered by body position (leg angle and hand position in relation to the body).

 

[kensuf]

I would give serious thought to what was written in this thread. 62 dives is so few to be considering a rescue course, let alone technical courses. I'm glad the OP has goals and wants to reach them, but at this early stage of her diving career I would suggest diving first. Try some different types of environments. Try a set of smaller doubles to see if her knees can handle them. Take a few trips. There is so much to learn as a new diver, and most of that involved things that they don't know about yet. I would enjoy a lot of dives before deciding that I was ready to invest the time and thousands of dollars involved in tech diving.

I disagree on the rescue course. I think anyone that has at least a dozen dives under their belt will benefit from a rescue course -- the value in the course is increasing your situational awareness about the things that can go wrong.

 

[boulderjohn]

If you can't do a back kick in your fins you need to get different fins before you go into overhead. People can supposedly learn to back kick in split fins, though I have never actually seen anyone doing this.

There are a couple distinctly different ways to do the back kick, and the fins make a big difference. The one I usually use requires a large sidewall for its propelling surface, and split fins pretty much all lack that. The other method uses the fins' surface area as the propelling force. I was once teaching a scuba refresher class with a student who came in with the wrong size fins--much too large. (He had evidently walked away from his last dive with someone else's fins.) He was able to use mine, and I used his Atomic Split fins, even though they were so big the spring straps would not stay over my heel. Amazingly enough, I was able to back kick surprising well with them, using the second method. The key was their stiffness. In contrast, I tried to teach someone to back kick using floppy fins, and I could see immediately that it was hopeless.