Planning my Tech Learning adventure
- Thread starter Ally_Cat
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The SSI extended range does have some good videos on basic tech skills. They have catchy music too.
Hi everyone!hope you're all doing well
I'm planning to get into tech diving in the near future. So far, I've have been PADI trained - almost MSD certified - however since I'm planning to switch from recreational diving to technical diving, I was thinking to also switch agency... I know "it's the instructor not the agency" (which I completely agree with btw) but surely there must be differences in material taught and skills focused on? Especially with technical diving as I'm guessing its a lot more well, technical, than recreational diving??? -please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm here to learn
Any advice, tips, points in the right direction is appreciated.
I'm based in the Netherlands, but travel whenever I can, with scuba gear in tow of course
As @Preach mentioned, GUE is popular in the Netherlands (and Belgium). More generally, though, there is a big tech diver community, as I suspect you know, and so lots of people to help you. Also, as drysuits and double tanks (backmount or sidemount) are core elements of tech gear, you are fortunate that in northern Europe it is completely ordinary for even non-tech divers to use drysuits and double tanks. You can easily switch to that gear configuration and start practicing. Get some mentoring from local tech divers, or better yet, take an introductory course. I'm biased toward GUE Fundamentals, but that is only because I have no familiarity with the alternatives, such as TDI's Intro To Tech course. Good advice given by others here.
barth
Contributor
The instructor is important. I agree with that. There are very good instructors who are working for gue and also for other agencies. If you just want a card and good training the agency doesn’t matter.
I did my fundamentals ten years ago. In 2012 I did cave 1. I had a provisional. The instructor was a great diver. But I was loosing fun during the course. Weather sucks, I was really tired. I knew what I was doing wrong but it feels like I had to dive. There was no fun anymore.
I drove back to France to pass cave 1. I didn’t pass cave 1.
My buddy did ask me to try again. That was the only reason I went back to France for the third time. We finally passed cave 1. I decided to do never a dive course again.
Later I joined the Morpheus cave diving project. After that I decided to do cave 2 and tech 1.
I did choose another instructor. I did tech 1 in Croatia and it felt like Holliday and it was a lot of fun. After that I did cave 2 in Mexico and it felt also like Holliday. We were only diving during tech 1 and cave 2. But the weather was much better. The water was warm. Logistics were good, we need less hours each day for the course. There was enough time to sleep during the course.
This year I did join a project at the Northsea (just one day) and also a wreck diving project at Croatia. Mine diving in Belgium and Germany and I will do cave diving in Mexico in oktober.
I did my training because I like diving. I like projects also. I did tech and cave dives with divers who I had never met before. Because they are using same procedures, equipment and had good training that is possible.
It is possible to find buddies and join projects with other agencies. But I’m sure my next training will be gue. Agency does matter for me.
I live in the south part of the Netherlands if want want to dive and/or talk your welcome.
I did my fundamentals ten years ago. In 2012 I did cave 1. I had a provisional. The instructor was a great diver. But I was loosing fun during the course. Weather sucks, I was really tired. I knew what I was doing wrong but it feels like I had to dive. There was no fun anymore.
I drove back to France to pass cave 1. I didn’t pass cave 1.
My buddy did ask me to try again. That was the only reason I went back to France for the third time. We finally passed cave 1. I decided to do never a dive course again.
Later I joined the Morpheus cave diving project. After that I decided to do cave 2 and tech 1.
I did choose another instructor. I did tech 1 in Croatia and it felt like Holliday and it was a lot of fun. After that I did cave 2 in Mexico and it felt also like Holliday. We were only diving during tech 1 and cave 2. But the weather was much better. The water was warm. Logistics were good, we need less hours each day for the course. There was enough time to sleep during the course.This year I did join a project at the Northsea (just one day) and also a wreck diving project at Croatia. Mine diving in Belgium and Germany and I will do cave diving in Mexico in oktober.
I did my training because I like diving. I like projects also. I did tech and cave dives with divers who I had never met before. Because they are using same procedures, equipment and had good training that is possible.
It is possible to find buddies and join projects with other agencies. But I’m sure my next training will be gue. Agency does matter for me.
I live in the south part of the Netherlands if want want to dive and/or talk your welcome.
LiteHedded
Contributor
agency matters. if you rule out GUE, it matters less.
Instructor also matters. ¿porque no los dos?
Instructor also matters. ¿porque no los dos?
Aj and Lite:
I'd love for you guys to audit my next class. Interested at all?
I'd love for you guys to audit my next class. Interested at all?
LiteHedded
Contributor
YUP
PfcAJ
Contributor
Sure. Always up for something like that.
I'll reach out when I have something in the works. I had surgery a few weeks ago and I'm out of the water for at least another month.
PfcAJ
Contributor
No rush.
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