Solo = Technical Diving Specialty

[Walter]

I make deep, solo, deco dives with wreck penetration and don't consider myself a tec diver. Face it, "technical" is a meaningless term invented to boost egos.

 

[-hh]

DIR and solo diving is just like a hard shell baptist and sex, you know they do it you just can't catch them doing it.

From GUE's own website, I'd call this "close enough" to being caught "in the act"...afterall, its definitely a bit too far for the photographer to be able to reliably reach him in time to conduct a rescue if he went OOA (or vice versa)...

 

[Diving Lore]

I make deep, solo, deco dives with wreck penetration and don't consider myself a tec diver. Face it, "technical" is a meaningless term invented to boost egos.

Deep solo, deco dives with wreck penetration certainly do not maketh a technical diver.
'Technical' diving is far from being a meaningless term, though from what I can see from yourself as an experienced divers point of view who has undoutably touched on the fringes of what could be considered tech diving, I can see why you perhaps consider (to a certain extent) it to be so. You know and have obviously evolved your own techniques and skills to deal with solo divings situations as they arise.
However read on and I shall 'enlighten' you into what 'Technical' diving is, why it is reffered to as Technical Diving' and what it is about.
'Tech diving' encompasses divers who who carry out deep/cave/wreck/exploratory/mixed gas/construct and follow complex dive plans,run times and decompression schedules, back-up schedules, emergency schedules,calculate gas consumption rates/ Surface Air Consumption rates put all together with equations and formulaes to finalise a dive plan. All this plus the complex equipment configurations (hogarthian) and usage of a 'wing' bcd, manifolded twin set cylinders, plus side cylinders containing stage and deco gases above and under water. Now introduce increased narcosis loadings due to the deep depths pushing up to and including 6+ atmospheres which must be managed and dealt with, unforseen hazards, staging and removing deco cylinders on-the-fly, NOTOX gas switching, precision boyancy control which should not alter above or below 1-2' on deco due to the risk of a CNS hit do not make it a straight foward non-technical dive.
Little, some, or even all of the above paragraph may seem a little strange and OTT but it is'nt, its necessary and its what tech divers do. Its all very very technical in theory and in implementing the 'mechanics' of it.
Now I'm not bragging or saying how super duper all that is to you Walther or anyone else reading this post. Far from it, I'm saying it thats what it is and what its all about.
The term Technical diving came around because of all the above mentioned methods & techniques and many more were pioneered by cave divers/wreck divers/deep divers in the early 80s through to the eary 90s. Tech divings like solo diving it is not mainstream nor is it meant to be for everyone.
Any true Technical Dive school will not give an easy ride, failures and referrals are commonplace trainings is tough. Tech diving isn't for boosting egos thats not what its about nor has it ever been. It was and is about pushing the boundaries, exploring limits and dealing with them.
Almost any tech diver you meet will not be the one shooting his mouth off about how great a diver he/she is(as many other divers lets face it do.) he/she will be one of the crowd doing there own thing and if you asked them what they do (divingwise) they'll just say 'I'm a technical diver' Not so much to impress but because it differs crucially from mainstream diving (and he'd be on non-stop talk mode explaining the inns and outs of what I've just said!).
I don't know how many IANTD/DSAT/NAUI/PSA/BSAC techies are out there but I believe I more or less speak for them on this one.